WD SSD Series: Green, Blue, Red, Black, Gold
WD Green
The youngest series of Western Digital solid-state drives is "green". Its latest revision at the moment is called G2, released in 2018 and built on the proprietary WD/SanDisk 20-82-00469-2 controller. There is no detailed technical information (number of cores and memory channels) about this controller. It is only known that a small RAM buffer is integrated into it, which compensates for the absence of a separate buffer chip in the WD Green SSD. And this controller is very poorly heated — up to 45 ° C, which is especially important for laptops.
Green's flash memory is a 15-nanometer 64-layer 3D TLC of its own production by WD/SanDisk. But given the massive transition of low-cost SSDs from other manufacturers to cheaper QLC memory, we can expect an early release of the QLC revision Green. The interface of the WD Green SSD is classic SATA3, the maximum read and write speed is stated at 545 MB/s with the traditional TLC/QLC memory drop when writing very large volumes of data at a time.
But there are two WD Green SSD form factors available to choose from: 2.5-inch (from 120 GB to 2 TB) and M.2 (120 – 480 GB), for desktop PCs and laptops, respectively. The guaranteed rewrite resource (TWB) is a relatively small 160 TB for a half-terabyte model. We can recommend WD Green to all tech who are not picky about SSD speed and endurance and are looking for the most affordable solution.
WD Blue
The most versatile and diverse is the "blue" SSD WD series. At the moment, it includes four models at once: Blue 3D (2.5-inch and M.2), as well as the purely M.2 Blue SN500 and SN550. Let's talk about each of them in more detail.
The basic SATA3 model WD Blue 3D, in fact, is a development of the Green line. The main change affected the controller: now it is a dual—core four-channel Marvell 88SS1074, squeezing all the juices out of the SATA3 interface - 560 MB/s of linear reading and 97 thousand IOPS of random writing. A separate RAM buffer chip has also been added. The most pleasing thing is the sequential write speed after the overflow of the virtual SLC array - it decreases to only 400 MB/s (for most other TLC SSDs — up to 100 – 250 MB/s). The volume of WD Blue 3D varies from 250 GB to 2 TB for M.2 versions and up to 4 TB for 2.5-inch. The rewriting resource has also grown noticeably — 200 TB for the half-terabyte version.
Last year's M.2 TLC middling WD Blue SN500, which is still widely represented on the shelves of domestic stores, operates on a narrowed PCI-E 3.0 x2 bus. However, many laptops only support it, in this case it makes no sense to overpay for x4. The controller is again a proprietary development of WD/SanDisk — a dual-core four-channel 20-82-007010 with an integrated RAM buffer. The speed of linear reading rests on the capabilities of PCI-E 3.0 x2 — 1700 MB/s. But in terms of random write speed, the Blue SN500 is quite comparable to the more expensive x4 SSD (300 thousand IOPS). There are only two volume options — 250 and 500 GB.
The fresh WD Blue SN550, though still devoid of a separate RAM buffer chip, has received an updated x4 controller 20-82-01008-A1 and already 96-layer 3D TLC flash memory. At the same time, the speeds have increased to 2400 MB/s and 405 thousand IOPS, and the maximum volume is now 1 TB. The TWB index for the SN500 and SN550 is the same — 300 TB for a half-terabyte drive. Undoubtedly, if your desktop PC or laptop is equipped with an M.2 PCI-E 3.0 x4 slot, then it is worth taking the latest SN550 model from the entire WD Blue line: the price is low, and the speeds at the same time closely approach the much more expensive flagship PCI-E 3.0 SSD.
WD Red
The newest and most highly specialized consumer line of SSD WD is the "red". De facto, it is intended for use in NAS storage and RAID arrays of several connected disks. But de jure it can also be used as a single second disk in home PCs, if reliability prevails over speed. The interface, form factors and controller of the Red SA500 repeats the Blue 3D model: SATA3, 2.5-inch (500 GB – 4 TB) or M.2 (up to 2 TB), Marvell 88SS1074. But the TWB index is much higher — 350 TB for a half-terabyte (the best indicator among all consumer WD disks). We wrote more about the WD Red SA500 in a separate article.
WD Black
The flagship SSD both in the WD model range and in the market as a whole among M.2 PCI-E 3.0 solutions is the Black SN750. It is represented by four volumes (from 250 GB to 2 TB) and two complete sets (radiatorless and with an aluminium EKWB cooler). Radiatorless is suitable for owners of motherboards with a pre-installed SSD casing. The controller is a three—core eight-channel WD/SanDisk 20-82-007011. The speed of linear reading reaches 3450, and writing — 3000 MB/ s. And even after exceeding the volume of the virtual SLC-masive, the write speed remains very high — 1750 MB/s.
The IOPS index of the WD Black SN750 reaches 560K, not least thanks to a separate DDR4 RAM buffer chip. The guaranteed rewrite resource is 300 TB for a 500-gig model. But the "black" SSD WD is significantly more expensive than the "blue" ones, so we can recommend it for purchase, perhaps, only to avid gamers, professional video editors and computer enthusiasts who want to get maximum performance from their PC.
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WD Gold
If the "green", "blue", "red" and "black" SSD WD series are aimed at ordinary consumers, then the "gold" is intended for corporate servers. It is represented by 2.5-inch disks, but with a U.2 connection interface, which is a server implementation of PCI-E 3.0. The volume of WD Gold NVMe SSD starts at 960 GB and currently ends at 7.68 TB, but in the near future it will probably be replenished with even more capacious models. The speed of linear reading and writing is 3100 and 2000 MB/s, respectively, and the rewriting resource is truly server 1400 TB for a 960-gig model.
Sequential read speed, MB/s:
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Guaranteed rewrite resource, TB/GB:
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Conclusions
As you can see, Western Digital's assortment includes internal solid-state drives for any tasks and for any wallet: Green for thrifty users, Blue for connoisseurs of the golden mean, Red for professionals, Black for gamers and Gold for servers. And this is not counting the external SSD lines WD My Passport and SanDisk Extreme. The best ratio of price, speed and endurance, in our opinion, are "blue" disks, namely the 2.5-inch modification of Blue 3D for PCs and laptops devoid of the M slot.2, and a brand new Blue SN550 for tech who already have M.2.
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