# WD Blue SN570 NVMe 1 TB



## W1zzard (Dec 10, 2021)

The WD Blue SN570 is priced extremely competitively at only $90 for the 1 TB version. While pricing suggests "entry-level," the drive is actually the second-fastest PCIe 3.0 SSD we ever tested, faster than the Kingston KC2500, ADATA SX8200 Pro, and HP EX950.

*Show full review*


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## dirtyferret (Dec 10, 2021)

Nice review, I've liked the price performance of WD's drives the last few years.


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## RandallFlagg (Dec 10, 2021)

Really good price/performance.  Unusual controller.  

WD also has Acronis which can be downloaded from their site and works if you have a WD drive attached to your system.  That's a hefty value if you don't already have such software (backup, partition imaging, full drive imaging).  

It's too bad they don't yet have a 2TB version.


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## stinger608 (Dec 10, 2021)

RandallFlagg said:


> It's too bad they don't yet have a 2TB version.



I agree. However, at this price point a person can grab 2 of them and run in a RAID 0.........If the motherboard supports it, of course.


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## dragontamer5788 (Dec 10, 2021)

TLC and beats the HP Ex950 for $90 / TB?

Sounds pretty solid. That's practically SATA-level costs, far lower than I'd expect for a PCIe 3.0 drive.






Oooph, okay there's the Achilles heel. What's going on around here?

--------

EDIT: Okay, so I guess that DRAM-free design certainly has its downsides. But still, at this price point, I think I'd rather take TLC + DRAM-less vs QLC.


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## Solid State Soul ( SSS ) (Dec 11, 2021)

Great drive, just recommended it to users on the forms a while ago, they are pleased with it! 

On the other hand, its weird Sandisk are using Toshiba nand instead of their own, why is that ? 

Another thing is all the marketing materials dont mention TLC nand making potential buyers question the quality of the nand, yet this drive surly does have quality TLC!, so why WD decided not to specify that ?

I have a thoery that WD didnt put TLC in any of its marketing materials for this drive because they plan to silently switch it to QLC some time from now...


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## AlwaysHope (Dec 11, 2021)

Glad you did this review W1zzard, I was thinking only recently about upgrading to PCIe 4.0 drives for my gaming rig, but honestly... when you look at the game level loading charts, it makes bugger all difference compared to the current crop of PCIe 3.0 drives I have now, that is at least with those game engines.


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## Tetras (Dec 11, 2021)

Solid State Soul ( SSS ) said:


> Great drive, just recommended it to users on the forms a while ago, they are pleased with it!
> 
> On the other hand, its weird Sandisk are using Toshiba nand instead of their own, why is that ?
> 
> ...



I wonder if it was changed recently, because the datasheet of the SN570 and SN350 now specify TLC or QLC and when TLC (only for the SN570, the SN350 has the same endurance regardless), the TBW is comparable to other TLC drives.


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## Why_Me (Dec 11, 2021)

stinger608 said:


> I agree. However, at this price point a person can grab 2 of them and run in a RAID 0.........If the motherboard supports it, of course.


What would be the point of that?


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## Selaya (Dec 11, 2021)

Why_Me said:


> What would be the point of that?


higher chance of critical data loss failure? 

anyways. excellent value, _this_ is the price breaker we've all been waiting for.
one small complaint: wd evidently hates ghettomodders who cut sn550s into 2230s so they decided to put the controller at the end of the pcb for the sn570 instead. assholes.


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## Mussels (Dec 11, 2021)

Why_Me said:


> What would be the point of that?


As someone with two SN730's in RAID0:

Because they're silly


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## R0H1T (Dec 11, 2021)

Had this listed for about ~*65 USD for 1TB* on Amazon, likely P/E & went out of stock fast just as I was about to pull two triggers


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## Wirko (Dec 11, 2021)

@W1zzard , in case you kept track of that, how much of the total 600 TBW did the whole series of tests eat away?


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## chrcoluk (Dec 11, 2021)

Nice price but wow the SLC is tiny.


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## Chrispy_ (Dec 11, 2021)

I've been buying and recommending the SN550 for years. It wasn't the fastest but decent warranty, fast enough, and always competitive pricing.

This SN570 seems to up the game somewhat. Let's just hope WD don't get tempted to bait-and-switch for QLC again like so many other brands. It's really hard to trust that what we buy is the same product as the one that gets reviewed when it comes to budget SSDs


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## chrcoluk (Dec 11, 2021)

Bait and switch is why we need follow up reviews on retail units, if more public noise was made about it, then the practice would change.


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## Bee9 (Dec 11, 2021)

SK hynix p31 consistently priced at $94 per GB is a better choice


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## Snoop05 (Dec 11, 2021)

Consider fixing your spec sheet since 1024 GB is whats actually accessible (converts to 953 *GiB*)

If it's widely available for that price then its indeed nice improvement in value.
Sadly can't say same for 4TB and bigger SSDs


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## Wooden Law - Black (Dec 11, 2021)

chrcoluk said:


> Nice price but wow the SLC is tiny.


Well, it's static, all static SLC caches are very small, way smaller than dynamic SLC caches. On the other hand, using a static SLC design improve the flash's endurance (30-40K PEC) and guarantee better performance post-SLC than dynamic design.


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## DonKnotts (Dec 11, 2021)

Any chance you will have an Acer FA100 coming across your desk soon? I've been a bit interested in them since they have decent specs on paper and have prices of under $85 for 1TB and around $45 for 512GB.


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## ChaoticAtmosphere (Dec 11, 2021)

RandallFlagg said:


> Really good price/performance.  Unusual controller.
> 
> WD also has Acronis which can be downloaded from their site and works if you have a WD drive attached to your system.  That's a hefty value if you don't already have such software (backup, partition imaging, full drive imaging).
> 
> It's too bad they don't yet have a 2TB versi





stinger608 said:


> I agree. However, at this price point a person can grab 2 of them and run in a RAID 0.........If the motherboard supports it, of course.


I have two of the SN550s set up in RAID 0 with a 4 Tb WD My Book external for back up which comes with a 5 year Acronis True Image license. I'm all set. Not bad for $430 CDN.



Why_Me said:


> What would be the point of that?


2 x 1 Tb in RAID 0 turns into 2 Tb + performance upgrade. 2 SN570s would most likely see 4000+ MB/s Max read in RAID 0 and you get your 2 Tb. Just make sure you have proper backup.


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## defaultluser (Dec 13, 2021)

definitely on my short list of cheap m.2 drives to purchase the next time I upgrade my system


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## R-T-B (Dec 14, 2021)

RandallFlagg said:


> Unusual controller.


I do notice it has it's PSID printed on the drive, which suggests it supports opal encrypted drive standards, something quite rare actually.  May be interesting to my business if so (we have strange at-rest data compliance rules)


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## Palladium (Dec 15, 2021)

The PCB is like 80% too big for this drive, lol.


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## Chrispy_ (Dec 15, 2021)

Palladium said:


> The PCB is like 80% too big for this drive, lol.


Yeah, makes me wonder why they're not making a 2TB and 4TB model, other than the obvious "to force those buyers to purchase our premium drives".

No matter, I'll just buy larger capactities from WD's competitors, thanks.


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## Wirko (Dec 15, 2021)

Chrispy_ said:


> Yeah, makes me wonder why they're not making a 2TB and 4TB model, other than the obvious "to force those buyers to purchase our premium drives".
> 
> No matter, I'll just buy larger capactities from WD's competitors, thanks.


Several retailers in EU & UK have the WDS200T3B0C or WDBB9E0020BNC out of stock, which indicates that the 2TB version will see the light of day soon.

https://www.proshop.dk/SSD/WD-Blue-SN570-NVMe-SSD-2TB/3008174
https://www.cyberport.de/?DEEP=3318-03A&APID=14
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09JM8QFVN


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## MrMilli (Dec 15, 2021)

> No DRAM cache, but you'd never notice


I thought it's common knowledge that Sandisk integrates (a small but the exact size is unknown) cache into the controller.


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## W1zzard (Dec 15, 2021)

MrMilli said:


> I thought it's common knowledge that Sandisk integrates (a small but the exact size is unknown) cache into the controller.


So do other players, but this drive is totally different. First chart









						WD Blue SN570 NVMe 1 TB Review - A Gem Hidden in Plain Sight
					

The WD Blue SN570 is priced extremely competitively at only $90 for the 1 TB version. While pricing suggests "entry-level," the drive is actually the second-fastest PCIe 3.0 SSD we ever tested, faster than the Kingston KC2500, ADATA SX8200 Pro, and HP EX950.




					www.techpowerup.com
				




Do you have an official/reliable source for this claim btw?


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## Wooden Law - Black (Dec 16, 2021)

MrMilli said:


> I thought it's common knowledge that Sandisk integrates (a small but the exact size is unknown) cache into the controller.


Are you talking about the SRAM or the HMB (things that all DRAM-less controllers NVMe have)?


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## MrMilli (Dec 17, 2021)

W1zzard said:


> So do other players, but this drive is totally different. First chart
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I would have to search but I'm 100% sure that I read it somewhere. I read it years ago when Sandisk was still independent.

Edit: Found at least one reference on Anandtech: 


> Western Digital chose not to use the Host Memory Buffer (HMB) feature for the SN500 and SN520, instead opting to include a few MB of memory in the controller itself, but nowhere near the 256MB or 512MB that would be included on drives with discrete DRAM chips.



That controller didn't use HMB, which in my opinion is a dead giveaway that it integrated some cache (considering it's performance).
The SN570, according to your review, uses 64MB HMB so I don't know what to think.
You could run your "DRAM-Less Testing" with single channel DDR4-2133 memory and see if it has a big impact.
Anyhow, if WD applied an efficient compression algorithm, that 64MB could easily behave like 512MB or more.


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## W1zzard (Dec 17, 2021)

MrMilli said:


> I would have to search but I'm 100% sure that I read it somewhere. I read it years ago when Sandisk was still independent.


I googled around a bit and found "sandisk volatile cache". This whitepaper is what you saw I think https://www.thomas-krenn.com/de/wikiDE/images/4/4d/Aup201411211f5.pdf



> Volatile cache – SRAM/DRAM volatile memory is part of a SanDisk proprietary,
> sophisticated, tiered device cache-management system used mostly to improve endurance
> and increase overall SSD performance. The volatile cache also contains the SSD internal
> device metadata tables. The volatile cache is either a separated component or part of the
> SSD controller. The volatile cache does not retain the data when power is off.





> All SanDisk SSD products include the volatile cache component, in varying sizes, using either
> SRAM (as part of the SSD controller) or DRAM (as a separated component).


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## MrMilli (Dec 17, 2021)

W1zzard said:


> I googled around a bit and found "sandisk volatile cache". This whitepaper is what you saw I think https://www.thomas-krenn.com/de/wikiDE/images/4/4d/Aup201411211f5.pdf


Yes, that's the one I read. Nice find.


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## Wooden Law - Black (Dec 17, 2021)

W1zzard said:


> I googled around a bit and found "sandisk volatile cache". This whitepaper is what you saw I think https://www.thomas-krenn.com/de/wikiDE/images/4/4d/Aup201411211f5.pdf


Yeah but they are different, SRAM and HMB aren't the same thing. SRAM is an integrated cache that all controllers (MCUs) have, both SATA and NVMe, while the HMB is a technology that few _NVMe_ controllers don't have and "takes advantage of the DMA capabilities of PCI Express to allow SSDs to use some of the DRAM attached to the CPU". Also, SRAM (not 32MB) usually is smaller than HMB (64MB).


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## W1zzard (Dec 18, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> Yeah but they are different, SRAM and HMB aren't the same thing. SRAM is an integrated cache that all controllers (MCUs) have, both SATA and NVMe, while the HMB is a technology that few _NVMe_ controllers don't have and "takes advantage of the DMA capabilities of PCI Express to allow SSDs to use some of the DRAM attached to the CPU". Also, SRAM (not 32MB) usually is smaller than HMB (64MB).


That whitepaper is not for HMB, Figure 1 and 2 are very clear on that


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## Wooden Law - Black (Dec 18, 2021)

W1zzard said:


> That whitepaper is not for HMB, Figure 1 and 2 are very clear on that


I know, but he was talking about the HMB, not the SRAM.


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## MrMilli (Dec 18, 2021)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> I know, but he was talking about the HMB, not the SRAM.


No I wasn't


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## Wooden Law - Black (Dec 19, 2021)

MrMilli said:


> No I wasn't


Oh, I thought yes, you mentioned it...


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## Coool (Jan 4, 2022)

Couldn’t find any information in specification:

WD Blue SN570 - Datasheet (Eng)
WD Blue SN570 - Datasheet (Rus)
Does WD Blue SN570 SSD NVMe drives support TCG Opal 2.0 and AES 256-bit encryption?

Found on sale 2TB model (WDS200T3B0C), but no any information in datasheet. As Wirko

Reference


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## Coool (Jan 13, 2022)

> Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Constantine B..
> 
> I understand that you want to know about WD Blue SN570 Encryption options.
> 
> ...


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## kapone32 (Jan 13, 2022)

Faster than a EX950 is impressive for that price.


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## Wooden Law - Black (Jan 13, 2022)

kapone32 said:


> Faster than a EX950 is impressive for that price.


Where the EX950 is slower? In what case?


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## kapone32 (Jan 13, 2022)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> Where the EX950 is slower? In what case?




"The WD Blue SN570 is priced extremely competitively at only $90 for the 1 TB version. While pricing suggests "entry-level," the drive is actually the second-fastest PCIe 3.0 SSD we ever tested, faster than the Kingston KC2500, ADATA SX8200 Pro, and HP EX950."


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## Wooden Law - Black (Jan 15, 2022)

kapone32 said:


> "The WD Blue SN570 is priced extremely competitively at only $90 for the 1 TB version. While pricing suggests "entry-level," the drive is actually the second-fastest PCIe 3.0 SSD we ever tested, faster than the Kingston KC2500, ADATA SX8200 Pro, and HP EX950."


In no test proves to be better the SN570 than the EX950.


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## kapone32 (Jan 15, 2022)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> In no test proves to be better the SN570 than the EX950.


Hi I was qouting Wizzard you can ask him I don't have either to justify anything.


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## W1zzard (Jan 15, 2022)

Black [Super Saiyan Rosé] said:


> In no test proves to be better the SN570 than the EX950.


Did you check the review? Ex950 is included


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## Wooden Law - Black (Jan 15, 2022)

W1zzard said:


> Did you check the review? Ex950 is included


Yes, I checked the review and only in the 512KB sequential read test the SN570 was better (but not so much, 2896 MB/s vs 3007 MB/s), in the random tests and SLC cache the EX950 is better. Also, it's better even for the hardware as it has the DRAM cache and a better controller.


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## Selaya (Jan 15, 2022)

you do are aware that synthetics are just a small part of the review yes
and the real-world tests do contribute towards the overall performance scores


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## W1zzard (Jan 16, 2022)

Just to expand on this: _only_ real-world tests contribute to the performance summary scores. 

Synthetics are so easy to be cheated, they are completely meaningless and only for marketing


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## Rumcajs997 (Jun 7, 2022)

Do you guys know if 2tb has got the same, tiny 12gb SLC cache only?


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