WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD Review

1. Introduction2. WD Blue SN550 1TB3. Testing Methodology4. CrystalDiskMark5. ATTO Disk Benchmark6. AS SSD7. IOMETER8. 128KB Sequential Performance9. 4K Random Read v QD Performance10. 4K Random Write v QD Performance11. 4K 70/30 Mixed Performance12. Throughput13. PCMark 8 - Storage Consistency14. PCMark 8 - Individual Test Suites15. PCMark 8 Storage Test - Individual Test Suites16. Performance Stability17. Cache Performance18. Performance v Capacity19. Real Life File Testing20. Closing Thoughts21. View All Pages

 

The WD Blue SN550 comes in a smallish box with a clear image of the drive on the front. In the bottom left corner of the box, the 2,400MB/s Sequential read figure is highlighted. Next to this are three boxes displaying the capacity of the drive (in this case 1TB), the fact it uses 3D NAND and that it comes with a 5-year warranty.

The rear of the box has a small clear plastic panel through which part of the drive is visible, sitting in its protective plastic enclosure. The only other thing in the box is a Technical Support and Warranty Guide.

 

WD’s Blue SN550 is a single-sided PCB design, so the rear of the drive is empty and to be honest so is much of the front. Being a DRAM-less design, the only two major chips on the board are the in-house WD controller (SanDisk 20-82-01008-A1) which sits on the PCB just behind the interface contacts and a single 1TB NAND package of SanDisk 96-layer 3D TLC NAND which is housed at the other end of the PCB.

WD's SSD management utility goes under the name of SSD Dashboard. With it, you can monitor drive status, performance, update firmware and monitor temperatures. There’s no cloning tool integrated into the utility but you can download Acronis True Image WD Edition from the WD website.

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