WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB Review -- Super Fast Storage Made Affordable

| Updated: Thursday, March 12, 2020, 17:54 [IST]

Just a few years ago, most of the users building a custom PC would opt for a small-capacity SSD for the operating system and pair it with a high-capacity HDD to store data. SSDs were expensive back then, in fact, they were as expensive as a computer.

Rating:

4.0/5

PROS

Plug And Play Support
Faster Read And Right Speeds

CONS

Not As Fast As WD Black

The price of SSDs has come down a bit over the last few years. SSDs are now affordable, where one can clearly build a PC with either 512GB or 1TB of SSD, which can accommodate the OS and software. I have reviewed a lot of SSDs here and here is the review of the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB, which retails for Rs. 11,000 (approx) in India.

WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB Specifications

Capacity -- 1 TB
Interface -- NVMe based on PCIe Gen 3
Form Factor -- m.2 2280
Dimensions (L X W X H) -- 3.15" x 0.87" x 0.09"
Endurance (TBW) -- 600#
Sequential Read Speed -- Up To 2400MB/s
Sequential Write Speed -- Up To 1950MB/s

WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB Design And Formfactor

One of the major advantages of the M.2 form-factor is that it can be used with most of the modern laptops or computers. It is small and does not consume a lot of space. Even from an aesthetics point of view, a computer with an M.2 SSD will look more modern, as it directly plugs into the motherboard and does not require any cable. An SSD with M.2 form-factor also consumes less power.

WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB Price Comparison

We reviewed the 240GB M.2 NVMe SSD from Kingston a few months ago and it was priced at Rs. 12,000 at the time. The WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD with four times more storage costs a thousand rupees less than Kingston's offering.

Do note that, the Crucial MX500 and the Pioneer M.2 is a SATA 3, unlike WD SN550, which is based on NVMe.

Note that, for the same price one can also get an HDD with around 4 to 5TB of storage. However, it will be much slower when it comes to sequential read and write speeds. For a secondary drive, one can always consider an HDD over SSD.

WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB Benchmark Performance

Benchmark performance of a storage device will not reflect its real-life performance. However, it will give us an idea of the possible capability of the drive. On CrystalDiskMark 6, the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB posted a sequential read speed of 2446.8MB/s and a sequential write speed of 1991.7MB/s.

These are some impressive numbers when it comes to native benchmark scores, in fact, the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB did outperform Kingston's NVMe SSD. These numbers do confirm that the M.2 storage device from WD will offer good performance, for those who move a lot of files from one computer and another.

WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB Realme Life Performance

We did try to copy a huge file (60GB) and we noticed that the average write speed of the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB was around 170MB. As this was a single file, we can confirm that this is the peak write speed of the SSD in a real-life scenario. This number will also change, depending on the configuration of your PC.

Similarly, if you are copying a large folder with multiple files, the write speed will take a hit for sure. At this speed, one can easily copy and move files without any issue. It usually takes around 5 minutes and 30 seconds to completely write a 60GB file.

WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB: Verdict

The WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB is definitely a value-for-money storage solution for those who are planning to build a new PC or plan to upgrade the storage system of an already existing PC.

It offers higher read and writes speeds, which indicates that the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB SSD will be a great option even for a gaming PC. If you have a laptop with an M.2 SSD slot (most of the modern laptops do), then you can use the same SSD for the storage expansion as well. Overall, the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB is a good SSD that offers a lot of fast-access storage for the asking price.