One Design, Two Products: The SanDisk Ultra 3D (1TB) and WD Blue 3D (1TB) SSD Reviews, with BiCS 3D NAND
by Billy Tallis on September 14, 2017 9:00 AM ESTConclusion
Compared to last year's WD Blue that used planar TLC NAND flash, the new WD Blue 3D NAND and SanDisk Ultra 3D perform much better on tests where the older drive was weakest. At lower queue depths where the bandwidth of the SATA link was not a bottleneck, the new SSDs delivered significantly better random read and write performance than their predecessors. But the SATA bus has limited how much of a peak improvement 3D NAND could make for the raw performance of Western Digital's SSDs.
Compared to the competing drives on the market today, the new WD Blue 3D NAND and SanDisk Ultra 3D have the performance that is expected of a mainstream SATA SSD. On most real-world workloads, there's no noticeable performance difference between the Ultra 3D and the Samsung 850 EVO. The Ultra 3D also handles being full better than most TLC drives, and does not show the spike in latency that several drives like the Crucial MX300 exhibit. Overall, it is clear that SanDisk is still very good at managing TLC flash and implementing SLC caching in a way that has almost no downsides.
The switch to 3D NAND also brings substantial power savings to the WD Blue 3D NAND and SanDisk Ultra 3D. Idle power is unchanged from the previous generation of drives, but power draw under load is much lower.
240-275GB | 480-525GB | 960-1050GB | 2TB | |
SanDisk Ultra 3D | $89.99 (36¢/GB) | $149.99 (30¢/GB) | $284.99 (29¢/GB) | $549.99 (28¢/GB) |
WD Blue 3D NAND | $94.99 (38¢/GB) | $164.99 (33¢/GB) | $309.99 (31¢/GB) | $619.99 (31¢/GB) |
Crucial BX300 | $89.99 (38¢/GB) | $149.99 (31¢/GB) | ||
Crucial MX300 | $92.99 (34¢/GB) | $149.99 (29¢/GB) | $284.47 (27¢/GB) | $544.62 (27¢/GB) |
ADATA SU800 | $91.99 (36¢/GB) | $154.99 (30¢/GB) | $269.99 (27¢/GB) | |
Intel SSD 545s | $99.99 (39¢/GB) | $209.00 (41¢/GB) | ||
Samsung 850 PRO | $104.99 (41¢/GB) | $209.09 (41¢/GB) | $406.00 (40¢/GB) | $859.99 (42¢/GB) |
Samsung 850 EVO | $89.99 (36¢/GB) | $147.99 (30¢/GB) | $327.00 (33¢/GB) | $697.99 (35¢/GB) |
Current pricing for the Western Digital SSDs is a bit odd. The WD Blue 3D NAND is more expensive than the SanDisk Ultra 3D by several cents per GB despite the two products being the same under the sticker. The only reason to go with the WD Blue 3D NAND at the moment is for the M.2 version, since the SanDisk Ultra 3D is only available in the 2.5" form factor.
The SanDisk Ultra 3D is priced in between the Crucial MX300 and the Samsung 850 EVO. This matches their relative performance. The performance advantage of the 850 EVO is quite small for most real-world workloads, so its premium mostly buys you a longer warranty and the proven maturity of a product that has been on the market for a long time. If your workload is heavy enough for the difference between the 850 EVO and the Ultra 3D to matter, you should probably be shopping for a NVMe SSD instead of SATA. Meanwhile, the SanDisk Ultra 3D offers higher write endurance ratings and lower power consumption for a slightly lower price. The Ultra 3D makes more sense for most consumers.
Between the SanDisk Ultra 3D and the Crucial MX300, the Ultra 3D should be preferred for heavier workloads. The MX300 will get you an extra 25 or 50GB for the same price, but if you fill up the drive enough for that slightly higher capacity to come into play, the Ultra 3D will perform better. The MX300 still has the advantage in power efficiency and is the better pick for mobile use.
With a good balance of price, performance and power efficiency, the SanDisk Ultra 3D is an easy recommendation.
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MrSpadge - Thursday, September 14, 2017 - link
The production cost is pretty much the same, be it SATA or PCIe. So "SATA being tapped" doesn't help price at all, except for the fact that manufacturers can't bill you for extra performance. But that was always the case with the slower SSDs.nathanddrews - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I know it's not realistic, hence "it would just be nice if".CheapSushi - Sunday, September 17, 2017 - link
V-NAND QLC will make that happen. I think for bulk storage, QLC SATA drives will be perfect for that duty and will decrease price per GB.Magichands8 - Thursday, September 14, 2017 - link
Unfortunately, it's still about 3 times more expensive than it should be for it to be viable. Still wouldn't buy either as they're both crippled by the SATA interface but hey, at least they got the form factor right by offering them in 2.5".MajGenRelativity - Thursday, September 14, 2017 - link
I'm not aware of any SSDs that are 1/3 the price, and there certainly aren't any that are 1/3 the price and have competitive performance. The SATA interface will not be going away for a while, and most people don't need the performance afforded by PCIeDanNeely - Thursday, September 14, 2017 - link
I assume he's sulking because it's still about 5-6x as expensive as spinning rust. ($50 for the 1TB blue at 5400 RPM on amazon). I haven't seen any more recent projections but as of a a year ago the crossover in price per TB was predicted to occur in the mid 2020's; so we've still got a way to go.MajGenRelativity - Thursday, September 14, 2017 - link
Fair point, but SSDs are still viable without a price drop, mass-market adoption is what requires the price dropMagichands8 - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Oh I don't mind paying a premium for the SSD tech but I do mind the ridiculously inflated prices and performance bottlenecks that we've had to put up with for years and years. From the other posts here it's obvious that there are a lot of people comfortable with that though and willing if not eager to pay very high prices for low capacity and low performance drives even while manufacturers have had years to differentiate their products. Even when said people must know of the supply shortages and the impending lower prices only a matter of months away. Like I've said before, drives like these might be real last ditch options for people in a crunch who absolutely need a replacement drive immediately or perhaps some other niche reason. But otherwise it just doesn't make much sense.CheapSushi - Sunday, September 17, 2017 - link
Are you saying this because you want to have ONE drive in your system to function as a performance panacea? I can see why someone would advocate for that particular setup if JUST a gamer with a mini-ITX system. But with ATX systems, there's nothing wrong with multiple drives; fom NVMe Optane, to NVMe PCIe to AHCI SATA, each have a place.Magichands8 - Sunday, September 17, 2017 - link
EVERYONE should advocate for that setup. You're obviously very accustomed to think it natural for someone to have 3 or 4 different kinds of storage to achieve their goal(s). Are you telling me that if I offered you a single drive and interface that satisfied all of those rolls you would reject it? Are you actually advocating that computer users should be FORCED to compromise at every step of the way when they use their system?