Western Digital SSD Review Posted

So WD dropped their first SSD today, it's a mainstream SSD that is supposed to offer 250MB/s sequential read and 170MB/s write speeds. The drives come in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities and are expensive at $279, $529 and $999 each.

WD is hanging their hat on reliability though, with the drives going through 130,000 hours of testing in the lab, WD feels like they're the most reliable and most compatible SSDs on the market. Only time will tell...

Of course the drive offers TRIM, but WD also added some low-level functionality to help garbage collection work well for XP and Vista users too, which could be a nice touch. Also plays well with MAC.

 

# 4KB Random Read IOPS: Up to 5000 IOPS
# 4KB Random Write IOPS: Up to 5000 IOPS

pricey and slow

 

And doesn't actually reach 5000 IOPS

The price will come down to market though, give it a few weeks.

 

If they left it at that price no one would buy it.

 

Wow 999dollars for 256mb, I guess SSD prices didn't drop as fast as everyone (or atleast myself) expected?

 

actually they did. just WD didn't got the mail, i guess..

they're at around 700$, but the WD drive should be BELOW that price, as it's slower than most of those.

 

Again - their prices will come down, but it makes them look silly offering those MSRPs when they have little expectation of selling product at that price.

 

Maybe they release them at such high prices to give the average consumer the impression of paying more for better quality?
My experience with WD's hard drives has been very good so far, and since I don't know anything about other hard drive brands and their reliability i'd gladly pay a bit more for a WD just because they proved their worth to me.

 

evil evil WD, then

 

IMO , their new SSD's are overpriced and have above average performance .. i get an Intel SSD anytime rather than this.

 

Yea they really should have taken a hit on price to get their foot in the door at launch. They are probably going to drive away a good number of sales just from people scared of the sticker price.

Hopefully something faster is released soon. I probably would have come out guns blazing with an awesome super-fast product... but I also don't run a multibillion dollar company

 

errr, below average right?

 

Samsung had their 256GB SSD from Dell at $400-500 months ago...

 

the speeds are not that good... like i said... above average...

 

For SSDs they're below average across the board, not above average. Indilinx, Intel, and Sandforce based drives are all cheaper and better performing. Who are these drives for? In what situation is it better to buy a WD SSD?

 

Cool. They're already for sale at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...actory=1306&SubCategory=636&SpeTabStoreType=1

As of today, the Newegg prices are as follows:

64GB - $249.99
128GB - $449.99
256GB - $799.99

 

Overpriced.
Not a bad offering, just overpriced.

I think they are counting on their name to carry them through, which will probably work.


SSD's were lower, but as soon as they got any popularity, they spiked in price and are just now slowly coming back down. They are still too high in my opinion. Until you can get a pretty fast 128gig for under $150, it won't go mainstream. I expect that by summer the enthusiast markets will start to really heat up. Around Nov. we might see it start hitting more mainstream levels. If not then, it will probably skip till next summer.

 

Ugh so expensive, no thanks. I'll keep my Intel

 

I don't see why anyone would want to buy this drive - even the brand name loyalty/stability/reliability thing isn't convincing considering how Intel is also in the market and their drives have long since proven themselves in real world usage.

 

I agree- on the enterprise side, corporate and education have Intel and Samsung to choose from, while on the consumer side- well, that market is already flooded.

I just don't see a position in the SSD market for this drive, seeing as how the claim about reliability addresses an issue that no one has any way of actually proving one way or the other right now. The performance is at best passable, the controller is nothing special, and worst of all, the price is completely out of line.

I know WD purchased this company to break into the SSD market, but...

 

Looks like the entry level 64GB one is still overpriced. The 128 and 256GB are at least only past the point of absurdity. The 64GB looks to have a criminal price. The prices are going to need to drop like a penny from the Empire State Building before they are a viable option.

To put those prices in perspective, I paid $410 for my Intel 160GB G2 in November.

In other news, WD also announced an SLC drive for industrial customers. Looks to be the same Jmicron/Toshiba controller. No word on prices.

 

SLC 128GB for 399 would be very interesting! Shake things up a little bit. A man can wish.

 

Yea, in late 2013 maybe. SLC is ridiculously high.

 

nobody cares about SLC anymore except for servers. they have no advantage, they just cost much more.