Western Digital Dials In Performance With SN850 PCIe 4 SSD, AN1500 RAID SSD, And D50 Game Dock

Starting off with the SN850, this is a standard NVMe M.2 SSD that uses the PCIe 4.0 interface. As you might expect from a PCIe 4.0-based SSD, Western Digital is quoting sweet sequential read speeds of up to 7,000MB/sec, while sequential writes come in at 5,300MB/sec (2TB SKU). The SN850 will be available in both a standard version, and an optional version with a heatsink to reduce thermal throttling and RGB lighting effects.

Western Digital says that the standard WD_Black SN850 will be available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities priced at $149.99, $229.99, and $449.99, and will begin shipping later this month. Add $20 to each of those prices for the Heatsink+RGB SKUs, which will be available during the first quarter of 2021.

Moving on, we have the AN1500, which is a dual-drive PCIe add-in card for desktop PCs. It uses a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, but it includes two internal SSDs that are linked in RAID-0 to boost performance. As a result, the SSD is rated for up to 6,500MB/sec reads and 4,100MB/sec writes (4TB SKU). As you might expect, Western Digital has infused the AN1500 with a heatsink and RGB lighting, while it is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities priced from $299.99. The WD_Black AN1500 is available now from Western Digital’s retail partners.

Finally, we come to the D50 Game Dock. NVMe SSD, which is an interesting storage device. This is relatively small external gaming SSD that uses the Thunderbolt 3 interface. Not only does the D50 Game Dock have a 1TB SSD (3,000MB/sec sequential reads, 2,500MB/sec sequential writes), but it includes two Thunderbolt 3 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, audio in/out, and a GbE port. For those hooking up an external monitor, the D50 Game Dock supports up to 5K resolutions at 60Hz and can deliver 87W of pass-through charging power for a laptop. And yes, there are RGB lighting effects on the D50 Game Dock as well.

Western Digital says that the WD_Black D50 Game Dock NVMe SSD is priced at $499.99 and is available to purchase right now.