Since the acquisition of SanDisk, Western Digital has been offering SSDs in its own portfolio. With the WD Blue Western Digital wants to offer an SSD with the flash memory 3D NAND for the normal user. This test will show whether the SSD can stand out against the competition.
Accessories
The SSD comes without physical accessories. However, various software can be obtained from the WD website. On the one hand the program “WD SSD-Dashboard” is offered, which can display the available capacity, the operating temperature and the SMART attributes. On the other hand, “Acronis® True Image™ WD Edition” can be downloaded.
Technical Data of the WD Blue 250 GB SSD
The WD Blue is available in four different memory sizes and in a 2.5-inch or M.2 2280 form factor. In any case, SATA III 6 Gbit/s is used as the interface. Technically, the WD Blue is identical to the SanDisk Ultra 3D.
| Form factor | 2,5 inch |
|---|---|
| Available capacities | 250 GB / 500 GB / 1 TB / 2 TB |
| Cache | 256 / 512 MB DDR3 |
| Over-Provisioning | 6 / 12 / 24 / 48 GB |
| Controller | Marvell 88SS1074 |
| Chipart | 3D-TLC-NAND |
| Read (according to manufacturer) | 550 / 560 MB/s |
| Letter (according to manufacturer) | 525 / 530 MB/s |
| MTTF | 1,75 million hours |
| TBW | 100 / 200 / 400 / 500 TB |
| Manufacturer warranty | 5 years |
| Scope of supply | SSD, WD SSD Dashboard (Download), Acronis True WD Edition (Download) |
| Price | 250 GB for € 50.00 *, 500 GB for € 454.99 *, 1 TB for € 148.00 *, 2 TB for € 265.63 * |
Test System
All tests are performed with the following hardware:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Prozessor*
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Arbeitsspeicher Kit, schwarz*
- Mainboard: 90-MXB530-A0UAYZ ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 Motherboard ATX Socket AM4 ~D~*
- operating system: Windows 10 PRO 64BIT OEM*
Benchmark Results
AS SSD Benchmark
AS SSD Compression Benchmark
AS SSD Copy Benchmark
CrystalDisk Benchmark
ATTO Disk Benchmark
HD Tune
Access Times
Everyday Experience
After formatting under Windows, the WD Blue has 232 GB of usable storage space.
As the benchmark tests show, the SSD is very fast in every situation and is limited in some places by the SATA interface. The 250 GB version of the WD Blue tested here uses a 6 GB cache. If this cache is full, the write speed of the SSD decreases.
In our test case an approx. 20 GB zip file was copied to the WD Blue. After 6 GB the write rate drops to approx. 200 MB/s.
Result of the WD Blue 250 GB SSD Review
The WD Blue with 250 GB tested here is a very good SATA SSD. The SSD’s long stated durability of 100 TB as well as its convincing write and read rate speak for themselves. Only the maximum transfer rate of the SATA port and the cache limit the SSD.
However, the price of the WD Blue is unfortunately quite high in relation to the strong competition like Samsung and Crucial. In order to be able to stand up to them, the price of WD Blue would have to be adjusted.
Access Time
Transfer Rate (read)
Transfer Rate (write)
Value for Money
The WD Blue is a fast and expensive SATA SSD that performs very well in the test. Technically, only the write speed after the cache can be improved.
