Western Digital Blue SATA SSD

[Shrek]

Does anyone know how the Western Digital Blue SATA SSD generations changed?

Amazon.com: Western Digital 500GB WD Blue SA510 SATA Internal Solid State Drive SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, 2.5"/7mm, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS500G3B0A : Electronics

Previous generation
500GB $65
1TB $102

New generation
500GB $40
1TB $65

 

[tabascosauz]

First gen (Blue) was the Sandisk X400's twin.
Second gen (Blue 3D) was the Sandisk Ultra 3D twin.

The SA510 looks to be a downgrade. It's now apparently DRAMless, and maybe sharing parts with the Green SSDs. Endurance rating is the same so I think it's still TLC but being SATA DRAMless it's shockingly slow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/comments/z5kdsc
Disappointing move from WD, my Blue 3D has been a workhorse for many years through countless builds.

 

[Shrek]

I'm on SATA II, so speed isn't really an issue for me.

 

[tabascosauz]

I'm on SATA II, so speed isn't really an issue for me.

It's not the max sequential performance that's the problem, which WD still rates about the same. DRAMless NVMe can be optimized to be competitive with DRAM competitors (ie. SN770), but DRAMless SATA can literally be slower than mechanical hard drives where it matters.

There seems to be a lot of mixed reception on the SA510. Some of the issues/failures seem to be caused by old firmware that should be fixed by now.

Bottom line, there are other DRAM TLC SSDs out there, and even the Blue 3D predecessor seems to still be in stock. Seems like an obvious choice to me, not to buy the SA510.

 

[Shrek]

DRAMless SATA can literally be slower than mechanical hard drives where it matters.

This could be a problem as I presently run hybrid drives (Seagate FireCuda)

I did try a small INLAND Professional SSD and that seemed fast enough.

 

[GabrielLP14]

First gen (Blue) was the Sandisk X400's twin.
Second gen (Blue 3D) was the Sandisk Ultra 3D twin.

The SA510 looks to be a downgrade. It's now apparently DRAMless, and maybe sharing parts with the Green SSDs. Endurance rating is the same so I think it's still TLC but being SATA DRAMless it's shockingly slow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/comments/z5kdsc
Disappointing move from WD, my Blue 3D has been a workhorse for many years through countless builds.

Damn i need to update that to our DB, disappointing indeed

 

[Shrek]

One might argue that RAM-less is good in that if there is a power cut after the file is delivered but not yet out of the drive cache, then corruption results (unless there are big capacitors in the drive).

 

[lawood]

I think I can give some insight.

I own the sn750 (nvme with dram), sn770 (nvme without dram) and sa510 blue.

When it comes the games, there is 0 difference between these drivers (SA510 is like 2 seconds slower), I mostly tested this with warzone br loading times, but id be shocked if the difference is huge on other games. When it comes to in game performance, there are also the exact same.

As OS drive, i couldn't tell any difference between the sn750 and sa510, opening folders, loading stuff, everything was as responsive BUT the sn770 wins here, the snapiness is better opening windows explorer and doing general os stuff and I think this comes down the better latency, it also helps with gen4.


Normal operation here is loading games, latency during gameplay, general OS stuff:

SN750 on normal operation:
peak: 5ms
avg: 2/3 ms

SN 770 on normal operation:
peak:1ms
avg: 0.1ms


SA510 on normal operation
PEAK: 15ms
avg:5/6ms

 

[80251]

It's not the max sequential performance that's the problem, which WD still rates about the same. DRAMless NVMe can be optimized to be competitive with DRAM competitors (ie. SN770), but DRAMless SATA can literally be slower than mechanical hard drives where it matters.

A DRAMless SATA SSD would only be slower than an HDD in sustained xfers right? Not random read/write IOPS?

My 4 TiB 870 QVO even though it's a SATA SSD seems faster at everything than the 2 TiB Toshiba HDD it replaced.

 

[tabascosauz]

A DRAMless SATA SSD would only be slower than an HDD in sustained xfers right? Not random read/write IOPS?

My 4 TiB 870 QVO even though it's a SATA SSD seems faster at everything than the 2 TiB Toshiba HDD it replaced.

870QVO isn't DRAMless...?

For sustained transfers vs. random I'm not sure. DRAMless NVMe is certainly slower at the former, but can also be slower at the latter, though that also begs the question of low end vs high end drives, etc...

Problem here is still that the SA510 is such an obscure drive. Can barely even find any press releases about it. Need an actual storage reviewer to put it through its paces.

The other concern is that in terms of parts used, the SA510 looks more like a Green jammed into the Blue's housing. Not a SSD controller expert, but there are some teardown pictures on reddit I think.

I think I can give some insight.

I own the sn750 (nvme with dram), sn770 (nvme without dram) and sa510 blue.

When it comes the games, there is 0 difference between these drivers (SA510 is like 2 seconds slower), I mostly tested this with warzone br loading times, but id be shocked if the difference is huge on other games. When it comes to in game performance, there are also the exact same.

As OS drive, i couldn't tell any difference between the sn750 and sa510, opening folders, loading stuff, everything was as responsive BUT the sn770 wins here, the snapiness is better opening windows explorer and doing general os stuff and I think this comes down the better latency, it also helps with gen4.

Different capacities perform differently. SN750 is also all-around slow for an NVMe, so I'm not surprised the SN770 (probably the fastest DRAMless ever) comes out on top.

Without Directstorage, game loading time is generally a moot point, but there are still a few exceptions here and there on my end, where SX8200, SN750, SN850X are all noticeably faster than the 3D Blue. I monitor HWInfo on my second monitor, so I can see exactly when and how the games are hitting the drives hard on I/O

 

[mplayerMuPDF]

Buy a used enterprise 2.5" SATA enterprise SSD such as Micron 5100 or 5200 on eBay instead unless this is for a laptop, in which case you would prefer something with better power management. Make sure to buy from a seller with >99.5% positive feedback; used enterprise parts dealers are your best bet.