EXPERIENCE SUPREME PERFORMANCE Prepare for the next evolution of speed with the WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD, giving you supreme PCIe Gen4 technology for your PC or laptop (not intended for NAS or server environments) so you don’t lag out on the next generation of games.
SPEED KILLS. THIS DECIMATES. You asked for fast, we over delivered. The WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD reaches irrational 7000MB/s read speed and 5300MB/s write speed (1TB model)2 to get you in quicker, with up to 1,000,000 IOPS (1TB and 2TB models)3 for a smooth, responsive and powerful gaming experience.
STORE MORE, PLAY MORE With up to 2TB1 capacity, the WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD gives you the space to store your favorite games so you still have room for the next big title.
OPTIMIZED WITH THE WD_BLACK DASHBOARD Take total control with the WD_BLACK Dashboard, allowing you to monitor the health of your drive and optimize performance using gaming mode to ensure you’re firing on all cylinders during intense gaming sessions.
THROTTLE NOTHING BUT YOUR ENEMIES Supreme performance is best served cold with the WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD, featuring built-in heatsink model (intended for desktop PC only) so your PC doesn’t bottom out when you’re at the top of your game.
LIGHT UP YOUR STATION WITH RGB Enhance your gaming station with fully customizable RGB lighting controlled through the downloadable WD_BLACK Dashboard4, designed to match your style.
Environmental
Power Consumption (Idle)
PS3 (low power): 40mW Sleep (PS4) (low power): 5mW PS3 (low power) LED on: 80mW Sleep (PS4) (low power) LED On: 60mW
Pros: - Gets close to rated speeds out-of-the-box
- Faster sequential read/write speeds than Samsung 980 Pro (on average)
Cons: - Gets pretty hot without some sort of heatsink
Overall Review: Worked immediately with no fuss on a couple of different X570 boards. The WD software is unobtrusive enough; one can use it to turn on game mode then uninstall/ignore if one wishes. I did notice that this SSD got very hot - it got up into the high 80s Celsius while running CrystalDiskMark with no heatsink. With a simple heatsink (one that was included as part of the motherboard), it now peaks around 65 C running the same benchmark.
If you're coming from a PCI-E gen3 SSD, then maybe this drive won't be as much of a shock to you as it was to me, but this thing just beats the pants off of my old Samsung 840 Evo SATA SSD. The difference between this drive and my SATA SSD is actually significantly larger than the difference between that SATA SSD and a mechanical hard drive, which is pretty astounding.
A new standard in solid state drive usage2/13/2021 12:02:39 PM
Pros: This drive is insanely fast. My bottlenecks are no longer retrieving data from a drive but now CPU and video card influencing.
This drive will work in PCI 3.0 slot but it's speed will be reduced as advertised. In PCI 4.0 slot, it will certainly perform at rated speeds. Transferring large amounts of data feels nearly instant with this thing.
Cons: Not a con for this module. Just be sure your motherboard supports this drive and pay attention to what other components share the same bus. For example, some motherboards may disable certain SATA ports if you consume your PCI slot.
Other factors to consider: This device will not take advantage of PCI 4.0 for Intel fans. You'll need to upgrade to an 11th gen processor. If you're an AMD fan, make sure you install with the correctly supported chipset.
Overall Review: Currently one of the fastest solid state drives on the planet.
Anonymous
Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
Verified Owner
Had to send it back10/11/2021 12:22:11 PM
Pros: Fast
Reached advertised speeds
Cons: Didn't play nice with my motherboard
Overall Review: When i did my build the prices on the PCIE 4 drives were crazy high so I went with an M.2 Gen. 3 drive which has worked without issue.
When the prices started coming down I picked up this drive on promo. It works great and at advertised speeds when it is up and running. I didn't expect a major noticeable difference but there is definitely a snappier feel compared to my 3x drive.
The problem is the drive frequently but not always is not recognized on the initial boot requiring a second and maybe a third boot to to get going. Although most everyone here is happy with their drive, an online search revealed this problem to be common.
WD was not helpful with their boilerplate support response. So 5 star performance but a drives gotta boot.
MSI X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI
RYZEN 7 3800X
Manufacturer Response:
Hello Anonymous,
We are sorry to hear about your experience with WD BLACK SN850 NVMe Solid State Drive and appreciate your time providing this review and bringing this matter to our attention.
Please let us confirm that there can be multiple factors that may work with or against the drive and we would like to have the opportunity to address your concerns directly as we think there were greater underlying causes that needed to be investigated with care resulting to a positive outcome.
All our products must pass our stringent quality standards before leaving our factory to be free from defects in materials and craftsmanship. We stand behind our products throughout the device's factory warranty period. Please contact us via the phone to ensure an overall good experience with Western Digital. We'd be happy to help.
Need Help? Please see our "'Contact Us" page for information.
Overall Review: I put two of these in an LVM Raid0; one is on the chipset slot, the other is on the CPU-direct slot so they aren't fighting for bandwidth. The speedup isn't quite 2x, but at 12GB/sec sequential reads and >1mil iops, it's still very, very fast.
Pros: Fits into PS5 perfectly
Improves performance (games loaded slightly faster when moved over to this M.2)
Cons: Expensive
Overall Review: Would definitely recommend, but it is expensive and remember that if getting this for PS5 you need to have the Beta 2.0 update, until Sony release the M.2 capability into the mainstream OS.
Figured I would splurge building a new PC was not disappointed.1/13/2021 7:29:40 PM
Pros: Fast
Very Fast
Cons: Still premium price
Overall Review: Initially I was going to buy an SSD. Then I decided to get an M.2. Then I saw this and on a whim change from the 3.0 to this one. This is like going from HDD to SSD in terms of speed over SSDs. (Well maybe not that much but it is much much faster) Western Digital doesn't disappoint. (I still have 6 750 GB WD Blacks in a RAID that has been running 24x7 for 10 years with no failures.) Idea on speeds it takes Windows 10 longer to copy the WIM file from a USB 3.0 stick than it does to actually do the install.
You better have the latest MB with 4.0 support and a current gen processor (AMD Ryzen 3rd gen) to take full advantage of this.
I'm getting ready to buy a second one to RAID them.
Overall Review: This SSD is little pricey but is totally worth it so dont have to keep deleting games and reinstalling since it takes up so much time to reinstall games. I would definitely recommend this to everyone as it works flawlessly with the PS5 and can only assume it does on a PC too.
Anonymous
Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
Verified Owner
**Update your firmware!!!!**9/19/2021 5:41:14 AM
Pros: Fast. Small. Its from WD.
Cons: Doesnt install itself. I had a firmware update for my drive. Not really a con, but it could be an issue for someone without something to update the drive.
Overall Review: Bought this drive to expand my PS5 storage. Combined this with the be quiet mc1 (non pro) heatsink and it fits perfectly. The 1TB module is single sided.
As noted in the cons, I did have to update the drives firmware out of the box. Apparently it fixed some potential performance issues.
Just something to keep in mind if you cant access a computer with an m.2 slot. Im not sure if you can buy a USB adapter to update it.. I could be wrong though.
Pros: - Gets close to rated speeds out-of-the-box - Faster sequential read/write speeds than Samsung 980 Pro (on average)
Cons: - Gets pretty hot without some sort of heatsink
Overall Review: Worked immediately with no fuss on a couple of different X570 boards. The WD software is unobtrusive enough; one can use it to turn on game mode then uninstall/ignore if one wishes. I did notice that this SSD got very hot - it got up into the high 80s Celsius while running CrystalDiskMark with no heatsink. With a simple heatsink (one that was included as part of the motherboard), it now peaks around 65 C running the same benchmark. If you're coming from a PCI-E gen3 SSD, then maybe this drive won't be as much of a shock to you as it was to me, but this thing just beats the pants off of my old Samsung 840 Evo SATA SSD. The difference between this drive and my SATA SSD is actually significantly larger than the difference between that SATA SSD and a mechanical hard drive, which is pretty astounding.