Western digital wd blue ssd review in Spanish (full analysis)

WD Blue SDD technical characteristics

Unboxing

Let's start by looking first of all for the unboxing of this WD Blue SSD, an SSD that has come to us in a small box with dimensions typical of one designed for a 2.5 ”SSD, and it is that as in other cases, it will surely be the same for both formats. On the outer faces we can perfectly identify the series that this SSD belongs to because it is painted in blue and white, that is, the Blue series.

Inside the box we have a transparent plastic sandwich type encapsulation that keeps the unit safe from shocks since it closes completely on both sides. Along with it, an hour has been included with support information and contact in some countries in case of warranty processing.

SSD Design

For those who do not yet know this brand in depth, know that their storage solutions are divided by colors, with a total of 5 types. The WD Blue that we analyze today belongs to the most common range so to speak that it will be blue or Blue. In them what is always sought is the best performance / price ratio for these drives under SATA interface. So they are SSD oriented to the daily use for portable or desktop computers that have the system and the data stored on themselves.

This family will be available in the two basic SSD formats, that is, in 2.5 inches and M.2, with measurements in this case 80 mm long, 22 mm wide and 2.38 mm thick. This version of 1 TB only has electronic elements in the upper area of the PCB, something that for example is great for older laptops that work on the SATA interface, or simply as a second unit to store data if we prefer to use an NVMe for the operating system, which would be the most normal.

As we mentioned at the beginning, WD Blue is available in many capacities, something that can be intuited being the most generic family. So we have sizes of 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB in case of M.2 drives and the same, up to 4 TB for 2.5-inch drives due to having more available space on PCB.

Features and characteristics

Once again, what we mention in this section for the WD Blue is extensible for the 2.5 ”versions, since it essentially has the same electronic components.

This blue series from WD uses TLC-type 3D NAND memories, so they effectively offer the best durability at a low price. These memories are manufactured by the brand itself through SanDisk, a company that compared WD in 2015 and now specializes in the manufacture of electronic components for the main brand. And when it comes to warranty and durability we have excellent records. The normal warranty is 5 years limited by the number of writes, which is: 400 TBW (Terabytes written) for the 1 TB SSD that we analyze, starting from 100 TBW for 250 GB and reaching 600 TBW for 4 TB. In this way we have better figures in the intermediate storages than even the Red series.

These memories can intuit that they are 96 layers just seeing that the modules are 256 GB each, making a total of 1024 GB per unit. The controller that is responsible for managing the input and output on this SATA interface is the well-known Marvell 88SS1074. This chip has a 28nm CMOS manufacturing process compatible with TLC / MLC type memories and has 4 memory channels with 8 CEs. As for its performance, it is quite good, since it delivers 560 MB / s in sequential reading and 530 MB / s in sequential writing, exactly the same as the TLC of other models that it markets under the interface. And in input / output operations we will reach 95, 000 IOPS in random read and 84, 000 IOPS in random write. Something that does change compared to the previous WD Blue SN500 is that now we do have cache memory, although its size is not specified.

Ending with the mention of key functions, this WD Blue and its siblings support AES 256-bit hardware encryption, TCG / Opal and IEEE1667 as normal. Consumption stands at 0.6 W in active mode, 2.55 W in read operations and 3.75W in write operations, being exactly the same values as the Red series again. The mean time between failures (MTTF) is 1.75 million hours, being one of the highest for general consumption SATA SSDs.

Test equipment and benchmarks

We now turn to the test battery corresponding to this 1 TB WD Blue SSD. To do this, we have used the following test bench:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i9-9900K
Base plate:	Asus Maximus Formula XI
Memory:	16GB DDR4 T-Force
Heatsink	Corsair H100i Platinum SE
HDD	Western Digital WD Blue SSD 1TB
Graphic card	Gigabyte RTX 2080 Super
Power supply	Cooler Master V850 Gold

The tests to which we have submitted this SSD are as follows:

Crystal Disk MarkAS SSD BenchmarkATTO Disk BenchmarkAnvil´s Storage

All of these programs are in current versions. Remember not to abuse these tests in your units, since the life time is reduced.

We start with the records displayed in CristalDiskMark, where we see that the drive is meeting sequential read and write rates without major problems. Although we see that in random operations it is a little worse than the RED series SSDs specifically in 4K blocks with Q1T1.

In Anvil's there is a decrease in reading performance, which may be due to some type of activity of the unit in the background at the moment. Also the latency results are good, but not the best we have seen, so we intuit that either the memories or the cache offer somewhat lower benefits in these more adjusted units in price. IOPS soar to 95, 600 in reading and 75, 800 in writing, being close to controller specifications.

In the two remaining programs we see similar performance in both MB / s and IOPS with good stability in the rates collected by Atto Disk for blocks from 33 KB, always reaching 500 MB / s in writing and 530 MB / s in sequential reading.

Final words and conclusion about WD Blue SSD

We come to the end of this review where we have seen one of Western Digital's best-selling SSDs. The WD Blue competes directly with the Crucial MX500, Samsung 860 Evo, or the Kingston KC600, and they are all slightly more up-priced than today.

In terms of performance, we have read and write rates that meet the specifications with 560/530 MB / s, as well as the number of input / output operations, exceeding 95K and 83K IOPS in both cases. In random transfers we do see a slightly lower performance, surely due to the type of cache implemented or that the memories are somewhat lower than the Red version for NAS.

We recommend our guide to the best SSDs of the moment.

The warranty is also very good, with no less than 5 years and a fairly large TBW limit for all drives, which for example stands at 400 TBW in the 1 TB version. And on the encapsulation, because we have both 2.5 ”and M.2 versions for all kinds of needs and without an integrated heatsink, which makes them easy to install.

Finally we talk about price and availability, where this WD Blue stands out from its direct competition with fairly tight prices across the range and sizes. This 1 TB M.2 version can be found on Amazon for 123 euros, while the 2.5 ”version decreases to 119 euros. In general it leaves us with very good sensations and experience of use for economical but durable configurations, so it is another of the recommended ones.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ QUALITY / PRICE	- NO REVIEW
+ TLC MEMORIES OF GOOD DURABILITY
+ 2.5 ”AND M.2 2280 FORMATS
+ PERFORMANCE ABOVE 500 MB / S
+ AVAILABLE IN 250, 500 GB, 1, 2 AND 4 TB

The Professional Review team awards you the gold medal and recommended product:

Western Digital WDS100T2B0B WD Blue 1TB 3D NAND Internal SSD M.2 SATA

3D NAND SATA SSD with capacities up to 2TB and improved reliability Active power consumption up to 25% lower than previous generations of WD Blue SSD Sequential read speeds up to 560MB / s and Sequential write speeds up to 530MB / s Average time before failures (MTTF) of 1.75 million hours and up to 500 Terabytes Written Resistance (TBW) with improved reliability WD FIT Lab certified for compatibility with a wide range of computers