Western Digital's new budget NVMe SSDs arrive at peculiar price points

Western Digital’s new budget SSDs, SN5000, offer improved performance but come close in price to better options like the WD Black SN850X.

: Western Digital has introduced the SN5000 series of budget NVMe SSDs with capacities ranging from 500 GB to 4 TB. Despite being budget-friendly, their prices are close to higher-performing models like the WD Black SN850X. The series features in-house NVMe controllers, up to 5,500 MB/s read speeds, and a lack of onboard DRAM cache.

Western Digital has quietly upgraded its WD Blue line of budget SSDs with the new SN5000 series. These drives come in various capacities from 500 GB to 4 TB and offer PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 form factors, delivering better performance than the previous SN580 series.

With sequential read speeds reaching up to 5,500 MB/s on the 4 TB model, and write speeds ranging from 4,000 MB/s to 5,000 MB/s, the SN5000 series is positioned to provide solid performance for budget-conscious users. However, the line lacks onboard DRAM cache, employing only the in-house NVMe controller and WD's nCache 4.0 technology to manage file transfer tasks.

Priced between $70 and $280, the SN5000 SSDs come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a five-year limited warranty. Despite their budget designation, for only $30 more, users can opt for the faster WD Black SN850X 4 TB drive, while more budget-conscious users could choose the slightly slower Crucial P3 Plus and save around $60.

budget SSDsWD BlueNVMe