Final Words & Conclusion
Final Words & Conclusion
WD outs a crazy fast NVMe SSD with the new Black SN750 series. That said though, it really isn't far away from the 2018 Black series model. I've mentioned this already, manufacturers are running out of bandwidth with TLC/MLC NVMe SSDs on the x4 PCIe 3.0 lane configuration. Western Digital released the product just in time though as Samsung just outed their new Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2. SSD series (review). In certain scenarios that will bring in slightly better perf. In the end, though, this is a TLC NAND written product, and that does show in some areas (long sustained writes) but also the TBW values.
The competition in the M2 NVMe enthusiast calls storage range is cutthroat and pretty much dominated by Samsung and Micron. Hey, credit where credit is due, they've been going strong with their design. So it is really good to see WD in that playfield.
The performance that Western Digital offers with the WD Black SN750 is exceptionally good but marginally faster than last years product and as you have been able to see, it is a bit of a trade-off between performance among these two. Now I know we can all discuss whether you'd ever notice 2 GB/s reads over 3 GB/s reads, but if we all stick to that concept, we'd all still be using a hybrid HDD. So yes, the combination of the Sandisk proprietary controller and NAND offers really good performance. Remember, to fully utilize the performance that is offered for this NVMe SSD you need a supporting infrastructure and this a motherboard with PCI Express Gen3 (x4) interface and NVMe ready BIOS. NVMe based storage is one the most exciting technologies that we have been following developments closely over the past few years was obviously the development curve of NAND flash-based storage technology. We moved from a "blisteringly fast" 100 MB/sec towards numbers that are 20 to 30 fold of that in the 3.470 MB/sec ranges which is crazy to observe.
Performance
Technologies like TLC and QLC face some challenges writing more bits per cell of NAND, we noticed a dropoff in performance with mixed heavy workloads that exceed writing dozens of gigabytes continuously. After you pass many Gigabytes of writes (and I do mean continuous sustained/linear writes minute after minute), then the SLC buffer is full and start to write directly to TLC, and then perf can drop substantially. The irony here is that 1.5 GB/sec I need to label 'slow'. After a few minutes or even seconds the SLC cache will have written out and boom, performance is back full speed. This, in a nutshell, is what you need to be aware of with TLC and QLC SSDs. IOPS performance is good on this unit, not that you'd even need values in the 250~300K range but it does manage that. This SSD writes and reads serious amounts of tiny files in a very fast fashion. We stated it before though, IOPS is not something you as a consumer should worry about too much unless you are doing a lot of database related work or create similar workloads on your PC, but this SSD certainly ranks high within this aspect. The trace tests also show exceptional performance levels, enthusiast class NVMe. Overall the series is impressive. Zoom in at both IOPS and trace performance and you'll notice that the SSD can manage serious workloads without breaking so much as a drop of sweat. So whether you write lots of small files simultaneously, copy big MKV movies or do it all together. We do need to make a remark on measured controller temperature, it runs hot under load and that can cause throttling. So please do cool down the product with a proper M2 heatsink, most motherboards supply one default these days. This is the nature of enthusiast-class M2 SSDs these days.
Concluding
The WD Black SN750 1TB NVMe tested today is not a revolution but rather an evolution of last years Black NVMe. The reality is that the two remain close towards each other in performance. That performance, however, is fairly breathtaking gobsmacked fast. The controller firmware seems to have been further optimized to give it slightly better numbers. I expected 96-layer NAND, but from the looks of it, the same 64-layer TLC written ICs are being used. However, the launch price of the SN750 is better and a 2TB model is to be released soon, so that's all good news. Your read performance sits very comfortably in the 3000~3500 MB/sec range. The storage volume size versus performance is a little more tricky to describe as it varies per size, 1 TB model can deal with 3,0000 MB/sec, but really that number depends highly on your actual workload. I'd tag write performance with green light through the book though, as it is all so darn fast. What about endurance? Well, the TBW values are good but have remained the same as well. Much like the competition (970 EVO) this 1TB unit is rated at 600 TBW. So if you write 50 GB per day x 365 days, that's 18 TB per year. 600:18,25 = 32.8 Years. Write less and this SSD can outlive you when it comes to NAND writes. I would like to see that number increased though as TWB values are a huge thing for the end user, especially in an enthusiast class SSD range. Good to see is that WD issues a charming and handsome warranty of 5-years warranty. The WD Black SN750 1TB NVMe lands in a cutthroat NVMe market where prices and competition are steep. With the competition working in such narrow margins, all will end based on pricing. The launches prices sit at roughly the same level with €0,256 / 0,25 USD per Gigabyte. The WD Black SN750 1TB NVMeis a very nice SSD series for sure that deserves our top pick award. We do feel the price will need to come down a bit more with competing products in mind.
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