Western Digital announces the 'Blue SN500,' a budget-friendly NVMe SSD

[iamcts]

With the speeds of SSD getting so fast now, why have RAM? The SSD is your RAM. It might simplify the software too.

I believe you can do that if you wanted to test it out. In Windows, disable your RAM in the device manager. At lest SSD’s give a whole new meaning to thrashing.

You cannot disable your RAM in Windows. That is definitely NOT a thing.

 

[deemon]

How does this compare to Intel 660p? Faster? Cheaper?

 

[JayCD]

Mac books have had SSD for ages who cares about this.

 

[JamesSWD]

I haven't been able to find any information about this, but can two SSD's be used in a RAID 1 configuration, like with HDD's? Or in any other RAID configuration?

 

[LNCPapa]

Yes they can depending on your controller.

 

[LNCPapa]

Mac books have had SSD for ages who cares about this.

This is not just an SSD - this is an inexpensive NVMe drive. People who care about technology and technological advances care about this. This is a tech site so the likelihood that many of the users here care is very high.

 

[JamesSWD]

Yes they can depending on your controller.

Thanks. I would assume the controllers would be built into today's motherboards, right? Much like controllers for HDD RAIDs are already built-in?

 

[LNCPapa]

Most of the time, yes... it depends on the controller built into your motherboard. At one point (and I'm not sure if it is still the case) you had to buy a VROC hardware key to do NVMe RAID on intel chipsets but AMD gave this function away for free. I would check your motherboard manual to make sure yours supports it and does not require the VROC purchase.

 

[JamesSWD]

Thanks for the help. I'm considering building a new rig and going with SSD's, but also like the redundancy of a RAID 1. But it's been tough finding solid info about SSD's and RAID's. One of my new laptops uses an SSD and boot up is mere seconds, versus a few minutes with HDD's. LOL.

 

[Resonator]

The drives pictured are most definitely m.2 NVMe drives.

apparently they must be since they say so on the sides, but the pins on the connector tell otherwise since that design is typically for sata m.2 drives, not nvme.
nvme usually as only one gap between the pins, this has 2 like sata drives typically have

They are NVMe drives, but the two notches mean they are PCIe Gen3 x2 and not PCIe Gen3 x4, which is most likely why they are cheaper. "For example, M.2 modules with two notches in B and M positions use up to two PCI Express lanes and provide broader compatibility at the same time, while the M.2 modules with only one notch in the M position use up to four PCI Express lanes; both examples may also provide SATA storage devices." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2

"Perfect in slim form factor notebooks or desktop PCs, the WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD will be available in 250GB and 500GB capacities in a single-sided M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x2 form factor." - https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...tern-Digital's-Award-Winning-WD-Blue-SSD-NVMe

 

[Bp968]

The 1tb m2 Intel 660p NVMe PCIe, boasting speeds up to 1800mb/s read/write, is available through Newegg for $112.99 right now.

That's a Sata III drive though so I would religate one of those to my second M.2 slot and just use it for any current games I'm playing.

660p is *not* a sata drive. Its a NVMe drive.