Almost three years back Western Digital snapped up SanDisk and they have been reaping the rewards since. While the old school hard disk is not dead for many uses, the world is moving to SSD fast. Let’s face it most of use want an NVMe drive for the speed. But cost has been a holding many of us back in the past.
Lucky prices for NVMe drives are becoming much easier on the pocketbook. Which is a good thing with games taking up more space and people shooting 4K, and even 8K video. Yes, while we are at ECCC, we are getting ready for NAB in a few short weeks.
Today Western Digital announces its upcoming WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSDs targeting those who are on a budget or who need large about of storage at a fair price.. The new 500GB M.2 NVMe drive is three-times faster than WD’s SATA SSD, making it ideal for 4K video editing and gaming .
Content transitioning from 4K and 8K means it’s a perfect time for video and photo editors, content creators, heavy data users, and PC enthusiasts to transition from SATA to NVMe,” said Eyal Bek, vice president marketing, data center and client computing, Western Digital. “The WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD will enable customers to build high-performance laptops and PCs with fast speeds and enough capacity in a reliable, rugged and slim form factor.”
Now these drives are not as speedy as WD Black 3D NVMe models which features sequential read and write speeds up to 3,400/2,800 MB/s. Since many machines now have two m.2 slots for NVMe drives, having a second drive from the blue line should make a great paring for those who want to save a few dollars but still want or need to have a great performing rig. For those of us that need to watch our pennies, WD now offers us a great option at budget builders prices.
Pricing and Availability
The WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD will be available in 250GB and 500GB capacities in a single-sided M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x2 form factor. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) in the U.S. is $54.99 USD for 250GB (model number: WDS250G1B0C) and $77.99 USD for 500GB (model number: WDS500G1B0C).
WD did not share release date(s) with us a this time.
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