Sandisk has announced the release of the WD Blue SN5100, the successor to the WD Blue SN5000, which was introduced last year. The newest SN5100 is still a PCIe 4.0 drive, but it incorporates updated hardware that Sandisk says provides performance enhancements of up to 30% compared to its predecessor.
The recipe for the SN5100 closely resembles that of the previous SN5000. Sandisk integrates its proprietary PCIe 4.0 SSD controller with Kioxia NAND in a design that is devoid of DRAM. While the SN500 incorporates 112-layer BiCS5 TLC NAND (with a 162-layer BiCS6 QLC variant on the 4TB model), Sandisk adopts a differing strategy with the SN5100, employing QLC across the board. As a result, the SN5100 utilizes Kioxia's BiCS8 QLC NAND.
WD Blue SN5100 Specifications
Capacity | MSRP | Sequential Read (MB/s) | Sequential Write (MB/s) | Random Read (IOPS) | Random Write (IOPS) | Read Power (W) | Endurance (TBW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4TB | $299.99 | 6,900 | 6,700 | 900,000 | 1,100,000 | 4.3 | 1,200 |
2TB | $149.99 | 7,100 | 6,700 | 1,000,000 | 1,300,000 | 4.1 | 900 |
1TB | $79.99 | 7,100 | 6,700 | 1,000,000 | 1,300,000 | 3.9 | 600 |
500GB | $54.99 | 6,600 | 5,600 | 660,000 | 1,100,000 | 3.8 | 300 |
The SN5100 sticks to the popular M.2 2280 form factor and single-sided design. The latter ensures that the SSD fits on both desktop and mobile platforms. Sandisk will continue to offer the SN5100 to consumers in four capacities: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB.
When it comes to performance, on paper, the SN5100 delivers sequential read and write speeds up to 7,100 MB/s and 6,700 MB/s, respectively, on the 1TB and 2TB models. The other capacities feature slightly slower performance. Compared to the SN5000, the SN5100 has up to 29% higher sequential read speeds and 34% higher sequential write speeds.
Logically, the random performance also gets an uplift. Random read and write speeds on the SN5100 go up to 1 million and 1.3 million IOPS, respectively. That's up to 37% higher random reads and up to 44% higher random writes compared to the SN5000.
Endurance on the SN5100 hasn't improved compared to the SN5000. The new model is still rated for 300TBW on the 500GB model, 600TB on the 1TB model, 900TBW on the 2TB model, and 1,200TBW on the 4TB model.
The SN5100 500GB and 1TB will retail for $54.99 and $79.99, respectively, representing increases of 22% and 23% compared to the SN5000 500GB and 1TB. Meanwhile, the SN5100 1TB and 2TB models will cost $149.99 and $299.99, respectively. When compared to the SN5000 counterparts, we're looking at a 27% price increase for the 2TB drive and an eye-watering 36% price increase for the 4TB SKU.
As usual, Sandisk backs the SN5100 with a limited five-year warranty. The company also includes a copy of the Acronis True Image software, allowing you to easily and quickly migrate your current SSD to the SN5100.
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