Western Digital today announced the WD Black PCIe SSDs that are aimed at consumers and will be competitive priced. The M.2 2280 PCIe drives use the NVMe interface and are available in capacities of 256GB or 512GB.
Both drives have a specified maximum sequential read speed of up to 2050 MB/s. The maximum write speed of the 512GB drive is 800 MB/s and that of the 256GB drive is 700 MB/s. Random reads are specified at 170,000 IOPS for both drives. The 256GB performs random reads at a maximum of 130,000 IOPS and the 512GB model at 134,000 IOPS.
The SSDs are covered by a 5 year warranty and a Terabytes Written (TBW) specification of 80 for the 256GB drive and 160 TBW for the 512GB drive.
WD Black PCIe SSDs feature thermal and power management algorithms that are, according to Western Digital, beyond the NVMe specification. This should make sure the drives have consistent performance as well as low power consumption.
The SSDs have an anticipated ship date of February the 14th this year and beat most PCIe SSDs in price. Currently only the Intel 600p are better value for money.
