Angelbird SSD WRK 256 GB SSD review

Memory (DDR4/DDR5) and Storage (SSD/NVMe) 366 Page 1 of 19 Published by

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Overview

Angelbird SSD WRK 256 GB SSD gets tested

We review the Angelbird SSD WRK 256 GB SSDAngelbird (a new solid-state drive manufacturer based in Austria) recently released this new addition to their SSD lineup. The series is to compete with Samsung and Micron mostly, in both price and performance. The end result is a very capable and overall fast SSD that can keep up with that tough competition in the market.

The WRK line of solid-state storage units is actually a bit faster than most high-end drives made of NAND chips (Synchronous MLC) yet, is intended as the more affordable SSD series within their lineup. The SSDs are rated with a whopping 560 MB/s sequential read, running over the all too familiar SATA 6.0 Gbps connection interface. Interestingly however, a relatively unknown controller from Silicon Motion is being used. And as our results will show you, this controller can compete just fine. There is a 'but' though, and that will be write performance. See, Angelbird would like to offer a more competitive product price wise on the market, and as such, less components means reduced costs. Only 4 NAND ICs are needed for this product for the 128GB model (eight on the 256 GB model), so while the read performance is exceptionally good, less memory NAND channels means compromise in write performance. And that will be the achilles heel on the smaller volume WRK SSDs.

Now then, the WRK makes use of the normal 2.5-inch form factor and has a thickness of 7mm. TRIM is supported, of course. I've stated it a couple of times already, it really is surprising to see where we have gotten. The SSD market is fierce and crowded though. While stability and safety of your data have become a number one priority for the manufacturers, the technology keeps advancing in a fast pace as it does, the performance numbers a good SSD offers these days are simply breathtaking. A 450 to 550 MB/sec on SATA3 is the norm for a single controller based SSD. Next to that, the past year NAND flash memory (the storage memory used inside an SSD) has become much cheaper as well. Prices now roughly settle just under 50 cents USD per GB. That was two-to-threefold two years ago. As such SSD technology and NAND storage has gone mainstream. The market is huge, fierce and competitive, but it brought us where we are today... nice volume SSDs at acceptable prices with very fast performance. Not one test system in my lab has an HDD; everything runs on SSD, while I receive and retrieve my bigger chunks of data from a NAS server here in the office. The benefits are performance, speed, low power consumption and no noise. You can say that I evangelize SSDs, yes Sir .. I am a fan, an SSD addict if you will.

So with this new SSD series the SSD drive controller is a new one too, coming from Silicon Motion and paired with 20nm NAND Flash. 

 

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Angelbird SSD WRK 256 GB SSD 20nm Synchronous NAND and a Silicon Motion 2246EN controller

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