WD_BLACK SN850 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 NVMe Gaming SSD with Heatsink - Works with PlayStation 5 up to 7000 MB/s read speed

Product Information

All-in-one heatsink SSD design makes installation and setup worry-free through the PS5™ console’s 4 M.2 expansion slot.

With up to 2TB 1 capacity, your PlayStation®5 console has the additional space to store up to 50 games 3 so you still have room for the next big title.

The performance offered by this solid state drive is of absolute importance and translates into extremely fast loading times even when starting the heaviest games or applications. 3D TLC NAND memories and hybrid SLC cache also ensure high reliability. Performing even under stress

The WD Elements external HDD comes in a variety of sizes from 1TB to 5TB and is an extremely affordable storage solution. It is compatible with PC, Mac, PS4, and Xbox and has both USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. It measures a diminutive 4.35 inches long and 3.23 inches wide and won't take up much room on your desk, TV stand, or travel bag. WD improved performance in sequential read workloads, with a maximum of 7.3GBps from 7.0GBps, and sequential writes improved from up to 5.3GBps to 6.6GBps. Performance in random workloads has also improved significantly, up from a maximum of 1M / 720,000 read and write, respectively, to 1.2M / 1.1M. They all include some form of PCIE "cooling", that I agree is not ideal. Particularly on the VI, that tiny little slab of Aluminium they give you that is not finned in any way, barely does anything. But on all 3 of those ASUS boards they do at least all come ready with Thermal Pads. Western Digital doesn't give us detailed performance specifications the way Samsung does, but the basic specifications make it clear that this drive is aimed at the very top: sequential reads up to 7GB/s are pushing the limits of the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface that is still catching on in the consumer market, and random reads at 1M IOPS from a single M.2 drive were just a dream a year ago. Overall, these peak performance specs line up pretty well with the Samsung 980 PRO: Samsung quotes higher random write performance, and WD quotes slightly faster sequential writes.The write endurance itself, though, is to be commended. My 1TB review unit is rated for 600TB, but 2TB models scale all the way up to 1200TB write endurance, which is on par with the bleeding edge of Gen 4.0 models. Performance Of particular note is the Game Mode 2.0 feature that's new with the SN850X. The original Gaming Mode could be turned on or off within the Dashboard, but Game Mode 2.0 has an additional Auto setting to detect game launches. You can also manually enter game folder locations so the software knows where to watch. The truth about NVMe SSDs is, you actually want the Flash to be hot, it actually prolongs its life to run at the higher operating temps, so its not actually the flash that is throttling you. It is ONLY the Controller on an SSD that needs to perform under a specific operating temperature. The Temperature at which it starts to throttle varies from drive to drive, but it is safe and neccesary for long term heavy storage workloads to adequately cool the controller, and under 75c is a common controller temp to shoot for to avoid throttling. And again, while I agree that something like an aftermarket EK Finned M.2 Heatsink would definitely give you lower operating Temperatures under full load, it does turn out that even the crappy slab of aluminum on the Crosshair VI hero is enough to keep most NVMe Controllers under throttle territory. The SN850's Gaming Mode worked by disabling lower power states, ensuring the drive would be more responsive. Game Mode 2.0 works differently with a three-pronged approach: predictive loading, adaptive thermal management, and overhead balancing. Predictive loading is an algorithm designed to detect upcoming low queue depth, sequential workloads - particularly the read workloads prevalent in many games. Adaptive thermal management works to improve average and sustained throughput via smoother throttling. Finally, overhead balancing seeks to improve read latency while gaming through I/O prioritization.

Western Digital has announced a partnership with Sony to re-release one of its most popular PS5-compatible SSDs with official branding.Store and play more titles on a drive that’s officially tested and certified for your PS5™ console 4, so you can keep gaming without worrying about compatibility issues. While Samsung’s TurboWrite offers awesome sustained performance over the 980 Pro due to its more conservative capacity, it only ensures a 6GB static cache at the 1TB and 2TB capacities. In contrast, the SN850’s cache is larger and scales with drive capacity. In contrast, WD infuses its drive with 12GB of static SLC cache for the 1TB model, and doubles that to 24GB for the 2TB model.