WD Blue SN570 NVMe 1 TB

[W1zzard]

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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[dirtyferret]

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

 

[RandallFlagg]

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.

 

[stinger608]

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.

 

[dragontamer5788]

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?

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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.

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

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...

 

[AlwaysHope]

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.

 

[Tetras]

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...

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.

 

[Why_Me]

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?

 

[Selaya]

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.

 

[Mussels]

What would be the point of that?

As someone with two SN730's in RAID0:

Because they're silly

 

[R0H1T]

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

 

[Wirko]

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

 

[chrcoluk]

Nice price but wow the SLC is tiny.

 

[Chrispy_]

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

 

[chrcoluk]

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.

 

[Bee9]

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

 

[Snoop05]

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

 

[Wooden Law - Black]

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.

 

[DonKnotts]

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.

 

[ChaoticAtmosphere]

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

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.

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.

 

[defaultluser]

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

 

[R-T-B]

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)

 

[Palladium]

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

 

[Chrispy_]

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.