Western Digital returns to SSD market, launches Green and Blue drives

[Scorpus]

Western Digital, best known for their hard drives, has decided to re-enter the solid state market with new Green and Blue series SSDs. This comes just five months after Western Digital completed their acquisition of SanDisk for $19 billion, which gave the company the resources to produce these new products.

Similar to Western Digital's hard drive line-up, the Green and Blue series SSDs are entry-level products. The Green line, based on the SanDisk SSD Plus, sits at the bottom to provide the best value. These drives use a basic Silicon Motion controller, SanDisk 15nm TLC NAND, and do not feature a DRAM cache, so low-end performance is expected.

Green SSDs will be available in two capacities, 120 and 240 GB, in both 2.5-inch and M.2 2280 SATA form factors, with prices yet to be announced. The 240 GB model is rated at 545 MB/s sequential reads and 435 MB/s writes, along with 37k/68k IOPS random read/writes; the 120 GB drive features slightly reduced performance.

Expect to see Green SSDs on the market later this quarter with three year warranties and endurance rated at up to 80 TB.

Western Digital Blue drives are based on the SanDisk X400 SSD, and again come in 2.5-inch and M.2 2280 SATA form factors. These drives use SanDisk 15nm TLC NAND as well, but feature a Marvel 88SS1074 controller for improved performance: 545 MB/s reads, 525 MB/s writes, 100k IOPS random reads, and 80k IOPS random writes.

The Blue series will include three capacities: 250 GB for $79.99 with slightly reduced performance; 500 GB for $139.99; and 1000 GB for $299.99. All three drives are available now, and sport three year warranties.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66635-western-digital-returns-ssd-market-launches-green-blue.html

 

[oldikes]

Not the most competitive pricing...

 

[Kotters]

For that price, why would you get a Blue over an 850 Evo?

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I don't remember then ever being in the SSD market.

 

[Techstar]

We knew this was coming when they bought out SanDisk.

 

[skipmichael]

WD.... get real on your prices. Don't try to make up your 19 Billion you paid SanDisk by over charging the public.

 

[BSim500]

"These drives use SanDisk 15nm TLC NAND"

Like the 840 EVO and BX200? Maybe they should have colored them brown...

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

So according to this article, if a SSD doesn't features a DRAM cache you get better low end performance. What's the advantage of paying more to go slower?

 

[mbrowne5061]

I don't remember then ever being in the SSD market.

Both them and Seagate were in back near the 'beginning', circa summer 2013. Trouble was, both of their offerings sucked when compared to the competition. Not that they were bad products, but they sat as 'middle of the pack' in all categories while asking for pricing you'd expect to see on an equivalent Intel or Samsung drive. They also ad terrible driver support.

I suspect these drives will meet a similar fate, unless they seriously cut their asking price.

 

[Uncle Al]

No doubt they will cut their prices. Like any good marketing department, despite all the surveys and focus groups the reality only becomes obvious once you've entered the market place. Within 6 months they will adjust and will survive. Right now it's all about all those "business buyers" and getting them to kick in the $$ or the latest and greatest. Once that starts to play out they will come after the consumer market and reality will set in fast!

 

[Kibaruk]

Not that impressive and a tad late for the party, specially on the pricing as some have stated there are some really solid drives with better performance that have made a name for themselves like the EVO line on the same price range.

What impresses me the most is noticing how much the prices have lowered in just a couple of months.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

The write endurance on those green drives is abysmal. 80TB? the blue 250GB drive has over double that.

Otherwise, they are run of the mill drives. They are not bad, but they are identical to other drives with the same price/capacity. Only the WD name is different here.

It'll be interesting to see if WD will lower the price or offer something to make these drives more competitive.

 

[lripplinger]

I'm sticking with Samsung SSDs. Their Magician software alone makes them a winner in my book.