Western Digital has a new SSD on the block, and it's quite the speedster. The company today took the wraps off of its new WD Black NVMe SSD, which offers up incredibly fast speeds at relatively affordable prices.
According to Western Digital, the Black NVMe SSD can achieve sequential read speeds of up to 3,400 MB/s and write performance of up to 2,800 MB/s. You'll only reach those top speeds on the 500GB (read) and 1TB (read and write) options, but that's still exceptionally fast. The drive is also available in 250GB option, which can reach up to 3,000 MB/s read and up to 1,600 MB/s write speeds. Here's the full breakdown:
- 1TB: Up to 3,400 MB/s Read, Up to 2,800 MB/s Write
- 500GB: Up to 3,400 MB/s Read, Up to 2,500 MB/s Write
- 250GB: Up to 3,000 MB/s Read, Up to 1,600 MB/s Write
Western Digital says that it took advantage of a new NVMe architecture and controller to drive performance up to levels intended primarily for the gaming crowd and those looking to eke out the best performance from their video editing rigs.
"Today's gaming applications require increasing capability from their PCs, and this will only continue to advance. With our new architecture and controller, the Western Digital Black SSD integrates our 3D NAND technology with the NVMe interface to enable new levels of performance. Whether it's a new gaming rig or a video-editing workstation, our innovative NVMe drives will power many existing and future environments that enable data to thrive," said, Mark Grace, senior vice president, Devices Business Unit, Western Digital.
All three variants of the WD Black NVMe SSD are up for order now, starting at $119.99 for 250GB, $229.99 for 500GB, and $449.99 for 1TB. The drives are expected to be available by "late April."
