Following in the footsteps of the legendary WD_Black SN850X is no easy task, but Sandisk has crafted a worthy successor with its new WD_Black SN8100. While it’s not poised to set the professional world alight, it manages to speed past the fastest SSD we’ve tested, all without the need for a garish cooler plonked on top.
WD_Black SN8100 2TB
£234 / $280
Pros
- Class-leading sequential speeds
- Solid random read performance
- Up to 8TB capacities
- Cool under load
- Five-year warranty
Cons
- Middling random write speeds
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How we test and review products.
Starting at £153.99 / $179.99 for the 1TB model, rising to £233.99 / $279.99 for 2TB and £426.99 /$549.99 for 4TB capacities, there’s no shaking that this PCIe 5.0 SSD is markedly more expensive than PCIe 4.0 alternatives. However, these prices are actually slightly cheaper than those that came before, and should only become more affordable with time.
Specifications
WD_Black SN8100 sees Sandisk finally make its PCIe 5.0 debut, with new BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND Flash in tow courtesy of Kioxia. It’s this memory that gives the SSD its class-leading read speeds across all capacities. While the drive will be available with 8TB of space later this year, you can expect to find 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models on store shelves come launch.
| WD_Black SN8100 | 1TB | 2TB | 4TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| NAND | BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA | BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA | BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA |
| DRAM | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 |
| Seq. Read Speed (MB/s) | 14,900 | 14,900 | 14,900 |
| Seq. Write Speed (MB/s) | 11,000 | 14,000 | 14,000 |
| Random Read IOPS (K) | 1,600 | 2,300 | 2,300 |
| Random Write IOPS (K) | 2,400 | 2,400 | 2,400 |
| Average power (watts) | 6.2 | 6.5-7.0 | 6.5-7.0 |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Endurance (TBW) | 600 | 1,200 | 2,400 |
| Hardware encryption | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Heatsink version | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Warranty | Five years | Five years | Five years |
| Price | £153.99 / $179.99 | £233.99 / $279.99 | £426.99 / $549.99 |
Regardless of capacity, WD_Black SN8100 offers a sequential read speed of 14,900MB/s, making it the fastest consumer drive on the market. Its sequential write speeds aren’t far behind at 14,000MB/s but only 2TB and 4TB models are capable of this performance. 1TB versions are markedly slower at 11,000MB/s.
Similarly, both 2TB and 4TB versions boast Random Write IOPS of 2,300K while 1TB drives come in at a lower 1,600K. These lower specs do net the smaller capacity drive a lower average power draw of 6.2W, but this only marks a 0.3-0.7W difference according to Sandisk.
Endurance ratings grow by 600TBW per TB of capacity, meaning WD_Black SN8100 keeps pace with other drives on the market in this regard. Few users will ever hit this lofty ceiling, though, which makes Sandisk’s offering of a five-year warranty more pertinent and welcome.
Absorbing all the above, the 2TB drive I’m rocking for this review seems to provide the best balance of performance and price. Cost and capacity scale almost linearly moving up to the 4TB version, but value becomes more questionable shifting down to 1TB. The smallest drive simply feels too expensive relative to its siblings, given its smaller space and slower speeds.
Performance
To put WD_Black SN8100 2TB through its paces, I’ve slotted it into the Club386 7950X3D test bench. While the components surrounding the drive will have little impact on its read and write performance, there are few finer homes for an SSD than the PCIe Gen 5 slot on the system’s MSI MEG X670E Ace motherboard.
Our 7950X3D Test PCs
Club386 carefully chooses each component in a test bench to best suit the review at hand. When you view our benchmarks, you’re not just getting an opinion, but the results of rigorous testing carried out using hardware we trust.
Shop Club386 test platform components:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Motherboard: MSI MEG X670E ACE
Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB
GPU: Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7800 XT
Memory: 64GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5
Storage: 2TB WD_Black SN850X NVMe SSD
PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1,300W
Chassis: Fractal Design Torrent Grey
Before we dive into benchmark results, I should stress that performance will vary versus the heatsink version of WD_Black SN8100. However, as should become clear, paying the extra cash for built-in cooling may not be necessary unlike other PCIe 5.0 SSDs.
CrystalDiskMark
Straight out the gate, WD_Black SN8100 impresses with chart-topping sequential write and read speeds. This is the fastest consumer drive on the market in these regards, bar none.
I still can’t get over just how fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs have become sans a chonky heatsink. Competing drives like MSI Spatium M580 Frozr look somewhat ridiculous by comparison given their size and performance relative to Sandisk’s offering.
WD_Black SN8100 keeps its head held high as the reading race shifts from sequential to random, topping the chart once again. However, it stumbles from one side of the board to the other as CrystalDiskMark puts its random writes to the test.
It’s unclear why this is the case, but it’s not the only PCIe 5.0 SSD to perform this way. Samsung 9100 Pro similarly goes from podium positions with random reads before markedly falling relative to its peers in random writes.
Iometer
Iometer proves a bloody battle for WD_Black SN8100 as it fights for a place alongside its PCIe 5.0 peers. The drive certainly holds its own as queue depth increases, even securing a surprise bronze medal at QD4. However, the gap notably widens between it and similarly-specced competitors at QD8.
PCMark 10
PCIe 5.0 SSDs boast markedly improved latency over prior generation models, and WD_Black SN8100 is no exception. It’s several nanoseconds short of the top spot, but markedly faster to respond than the best PCIe 4.0 has to offer, namely Samsung 990 Pro.
Despite boasting superior sequential read and write speeds, WD_Black SN8100 concedes to its peers when it comes to average bandwidth alongside Samsung 9100 Pro. Exceeding Samsung 990 Pro by 115MB/s but falling short of Crucial T700 by 118MB/s, Sandisk’s offering serves as something of a middle point between generations in this test.
A final score of 4,227 places WD_Black SN8100 within a hair of Samsung 9100 Pro to the point that you’d struggle to tell the difference between the two drives in real-world usage. It’s a markedly better result than any PCIe 4.0 SSD, but is short of many other PCIe 5.0 drives.
Gaming
Shifting from general workloads to gaming, 3DMark’s Storage benchmark largely mirrors the average bandwidth results PCMark 10 produces. However, this time SN8100 pips past Samsung 9100 Pro. Note that the drive’s predecessor, WD_Black SN850X remains hot on the heels of both in this test.
Given that historic Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker results no longer reflect the performance of the game’s latest expansion, Dawntrail, I’ve trimmed back comparison points to drives I can retest for this review. Nonetheless, this handful of models highlight what you can expect from pretty much all PCIe 5.0 SSDs give or take a few tenths of a second.
Adding up loading times in the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail becnhmark, WD_Black SN8100 performs identically to other PCIe 5.0 SSDs with a total of 6.4 seconds. While technically better than the results of PCIe 4.0 drives, we’re talking about a 0.5-0.7 second saving.
Temperature
There’s no need for fans á la Corsair MP700 Pro or enormous heatsinks to keep WD_Black SN8100 cool. Under the care of motherboard heatsinks and thermal pads, it runs at a cool 55°C under load, sharing the top spot with Samsung 9100 Pro.
Conclusion
A future in which PCIe 5.0 SSDs are more affordable, efficient, and speedy is one we should all welcome and drives like WD_Black SN8100 mark an important step towards that. It’s an impressive drive and a worthy successor to the beloved WD_Black SN850X, even if it doesn’t always top the charts in the face of chonkier, more-power-hungry alternatives.
There’s little to gain from gaming on WD_Black SN8100 over a PCIe 4.0 alternative, but this is the case with all PCIe 5.0 SSDs. However, professionals that need a do-it-all drive to speedily process large data sets and load their games right-quick will extract plenty of value out of this SSD.
Had I need of its class-leading capabilities, it’d go straight into my rig. Although, putting it in my system anyway for bragging rights is certainly tempting.
