WD Black SN770 1TB SSD Review

It was at the end of 2020 when we last looked at a WD PCIe Gen4 drive, the Black SN850, but now we have the latest one to hand, the Black SN770.

Aimed at gamers, the new drive uses a new in-house WD 4-channel controller combined with 112-layer BiCS5 flash. WD is keeping details of the new controller close to their chest but it comes in a tiny package measuring just 11 x 7mm.

The Black SN770 line-up at launch consists of four capacities; 250GB, 500GB, 1TB (the drive we are looking at here) and a 2TB flagship drive. The layout of the 1TB drive looks much the same as the last WD drive we reviewed, the Blue SN570, as in all the major components (controller and NAND package) sit at either end of the PCB with nothing in between them.

Official Sequential ratings for the 1TB drive are up to 5,100MB/s for reads with writes at up to 4,900MB/s. When benchmarked with the ATTO benchmark we couldn’t quite hit the official maximums, the drive producing a read figure of 4,880MB/s with writes at 4,610MB/s. However, with CrystalDiskMark we could confirm both figures with best test results of 5,228MB/s for reads and 4,994MB/s for writes.

When it comes to 4K random performance, WD quote figures of up to 740,000 IOPS and up to 800,000 IOPS for read and writes respectively. With our standard 4-threaded tests we saw a best of 448,613 IOPS (QD32) for reads and 375,676 IOPS for writes also at QD32. However, using the Peak Performance profile in CrystalDiskMark 8 we got a lot closer to the official figures with test results of 725,446 IOPS for reads and 606,000 IOPS for writes.

In terms of endurance, the 1TB SN770 is rated at 600TBW while the 250GB drive is rated at 200TBW, the 500GB model 300TBW and 1200TBW for the 2TB drive. WD backs the drive range with a 5-year warranty.

WD's latest PCIe Gen4 drive is a good all-around drive but the fly in the ointment is the pricing. The 1TB drive has an MSRP of £142.99, but the trouble is the standard 1TB Black SN850 is only £11 more on WD's own website.

We don't yet have a buy link but the MSRP for the new 1TB WD Black SN770 is £142.99.

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Pros

• Overall performance.
• 5-year warranty.

Cons

• Couldn’t match the official maximum 4K random write figures in some of our testing.

KitGuru says: It's taken a while for WD to launch another Gen4 drive into the market, but with the Black SN770 WD has introduced a new controller which is used in combination with BiCS5 TLC NAND to good effect. But the 1TB Gen4 market space is highly competitive and the price could do with a little trimming.

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