Western Digital Introduced WD-Branded Black PCIe MVMe SSDs

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) announced the availability of Black PCIe  SSDs, the first WD-branded client PCIe SSDs.

This SSDs complement the recently announced firm’s Blue and Green SATA SSDs, as well as the company’s industry family of HDDs for PCs and workstations, providing a portfolio of storage devices for virtually any application.

Black PCIe NVMe SSDs
The Black PCIe SSD is a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe-based SSD that delivers more than three times the sequential read speeds of current SATA SSDs. The 256GB and 512GB capacities make it as a boot drive when paired with a high-capacity HDD, or as primary storage when building a future-ready PC. Consumers who are using the Black PCIe SSD to boot up, load read-intensive games or applications, or shut down a system may realize a performance improvement of more than 10s when compared to SATA SSDs. ⁽¹⁾

“NVMe PCIe-based SSD adoption is poised to accelerate in 2017 and the years to follow,” said Jeff Janukowicz, VP, IDC. “Products like the WD Black PCIe SSD, with a broad ecosystem and compatibility testing, should give customers a significant performance increase over SATA SSDs and offer a straightforward solution for customers to update to or build future-ready systems.“

As a compatible and reliable solution to ramp up newer PC configurations with PCIe performance, the Black PCIe SSD is a storage solution for the performance PC enthusiast and for more demanding gaming and VR-focused applications. It delivers more than three times the sequential read performance of SATA SSDs, an 1.75 million hours MTTF, and Functional Integrity Testing (F.I.T.) Lab certification. It has been designed with thermal and power management algorithms beyond the NVMe specification to help with performance and low power consumption.

SSD Dashboard software
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Like all company’s SSDs, Black PCIe SSDs include free, downloadable, SSD Dashboard software, which allows continuous performance, capacity monitoring, and firmware updates.

“We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation interface change,” says Eyal Bek, senior director, client SSD, devices business unit, Western Digital. “The WD Black PCIe SSD ramps up performance while delivering worry-free reliability for our customers worldwide. We believe that this will accelerate the transition that is already occurring from SATA to PCIe. Western Digital is uniquely positioned to offer customers a complete storage portfolio-HDD or SSD, and SATA or PCIe form factors for every segment of the market.“

“Asus is dedicated to advancing technologies and leading innovation. WD and Asus worked closely together to ensure that the WD Black PCIe SSD delivers performance that our customers expect with hassle-free installation and use. With the latest Asus motherboards and WD Black PCIe SSDs, gamers can focus on winning rather than the distraction of waiting for games or levels to load,” said Joe Hsieh, corporate VP and GM, motherboard business unit and new product planning division, ASUSTeK Computer Inc..

Pricing and availability:

• Black PCIe SSDs will be available in 256GB and 512GB capacities in a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor. It boasts up to 2,050MB/s and 800MB/s sequential read and write speeds, a five-year limited warranty and F.I.T. Lab certification for compatibility with many leading platforms.

• MSRP for the Black PCIe SSD start at $109.00 (€119) for the 256GB and $199.99 (€219) for the 512GB.

• The Black PCIe SSD will be available worldwide and on company webstore during the first half of 2017.

⁽¹⁾ Comparison based on 256GB Blue and Black PCIe SSD tested using an Asus Z170A ATX DDR4 motherboard, Intel I76700K 4.00 GHz 8M Processor Cache 4 LGA, 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 DRAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 graphic card. OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit, with Internet connection.