Pros & Cons
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- Available in capacities up to 8TB
- Screaming-fast random read/write speeds
- Exceptional PCMark 10 benchmark performance
- Includes Acronis True Image backup and migration software
- Meets TCG/Opal V2.0 security standard
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- Requires a computer with a PCI Express 5.0 M.2 slot for full performance
WD Black SN8100 Specs
| Bus Type | PCI Express 5.0 |
| Capacity (Tested) | 2 |
| Controller Maker | Silicon Motion |
| Interface (Computer Side) | M.2 Type-2280 |
| Internal Form Factor | M.2 Type-2280 |
| Internal or External | Internal |
| NAND Type | TLC |
| NVMe Support | |
| Rated Maximum Sequential Read | 14900 |
| Rated Maximum Sequential Write | 14000 |
| Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating | 1200 |
| Warranty Length | 5 |
The WD Black SN8100 (starts at $179.99 for 1TB, $279.99 for 2TB as tested) is the first WD-branded PCI Express 5.0 solid-state drive (SSD) to come to market, but it was well worth the wait. The SN8100 not only chalked up the highest Crystal DiskMark throughput and 4K read scores of any SSDs we have tested, it easily set a record high in our PCMark10 Overall Storage testing, which measures a drive's speed in performing a variety of everyday storage tasks. It was no slouch in the 3DMark Storage gaming-centric benchmark, either, falling a fraction of a percent short of the Crucial T705's best-ever score. The SN8100's exceptional overall performance, power efficiency, software, and security earn it an Editors' Choice award as a high-performance internal SSD.
Design and Specs: A Single-Sided Gen 5 Stick
The SN8100 is a four-lane solid-state drive running the NVMe 2.0 protocol over a PCIe 5.0 bus. This internal SSD comes in the standard M.2 Type-2280 "gumstick" format. This single-sided drive (keeping its chips on one side gives it a low profile) uses SanDisk's 218-layer BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND chips and a modified Silicon Motion (SMI) 2508 controller. (Baffled by some of this lingo? Check out our handy guide to SSD jargon.)
A decade ago, Western Digital and SanDisk were among the biggest players in the storage field, with WD focused on hard drives and SanDisk primarily on SSDs. In 2016, WD acquired SanDisk, integrating its operations and producing its own branded SSDs. In March, Western Digital completed the spinoff of SanDisk into an independent public company (of which WD still owns a stake) to handle its NAND flash memory-based products, including SSDs, leaving WD to focus on the hard drive segment.
The SN8100 is the first product from either company we have reviewed since the spinoff, and even though it is a Sandisk product (the new Sandisk's "d" is no longer capitalized), it bears WD Black branding. Both the Western Digital and Sandisk names are printed on the drive. A company spokesperson was unable to confirm if future premium SSDs would be treated in the same way; this particular model was developed before the spinoff. As WD Black is a premier line recognized for its high-performance products—winner of multiple PCMag Editors' Choice awards, including, most recently, the WD Black SN850X—it would make sense for Sandisk to retain the WD branding.
The SN8100 is the first PCI Express 5.0 SSD to come from either WD or Sandisk. They may have been late to the party, but it was worth the wait, as you will soon see.
Capacity, Configurations, and Price: Many Choices
The following configurations of the SN8100 are available at launch:
Sandisk is also slated to release models of the SN8100 this fall in all three capacities, along with a low-profile heatsink, with list prices as follows: $199.99 for 1TB, $299.99 for 2TB, and $569.99 for 4TB. In addition, the company expects to offer 8TB sticks in both heatsink and non-heatsink versions, with prices yet to be announced.
Heat Dissipation: Power Efficiency Is Key
The SN8100 ships naked, without even a heat spreader. I followed our standard procedure for Gen 5 M.2 SSDs that don't ship with a heatsink and tested it using our testbed's motherboard's air-cooled (fan-based) heatsink. The drive is designed to conserve power—in Sandisk's testing, it used less juice in sequential-read (raw speed) testing than the WD SN850X, even though it was more than twice as fast as that Western Digital PCI Express 4 speedster. Sandisk markets the SN8100's power efficiency as a way to simplify your system design without the need for expensive cooling. (For Gen 5 drives, we have seen many massive finned or fan-based solutions.)
A WD spokesperson tells me the company did limited testing of the barebones (sans heatsink) SSD without experiencing thermal throttling (meaning the drive's controller didn't slow down its performance to prevent any damage). We plan to do some similar testing of our own and will report back any significant results. Although we always recommend that our readers use a heatsink with PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs, it would be good to know if, for the SN8100, that's merely a precaution rather than a necessity. If so, Sandisk may have cracked the problem of how to get full performance from a Gen 5 SSD without having to employ a big heat-dissipation attachment.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)The Crucial P510, recently introduced as a mainstream PCIe 5.0 SSD, gets high marks for heat dissipation and sells at a modest price, though most of its benchmark results are more akin to elite previous-generation (PCIe 4.0) SSDs than to those of the Gen 5 drives I've reviewed. Unlike the SN8100, whose controller has a DRAM cache, the P510 is a DRAM-less SSD, relying on its computer's host memory buffer (HMB). Eschewing DRAM may offer cost savings, but it can impact performance, particularly on write-intensive tasks.
Durability: Typical of Gen 5 Sticks
As for durability, expressed as lifetime write capacity in total terabytes written (TBW), the SN8100 matches the Teamgroup Z540 and the Crucial P510, T700, and T705 in the capacities they share. Its durability rating is a notch below the Corsair MP700 Pro, the ADATA Legend 970, and the Aorus 10000, which are rated at 700TBW for 1TB and 1,400TBW for 2TB. And the Seagate FireCuda 540 is the reigning Gen 5 durability champ, with ratings of 1,000TBW for the 1TB stick and 2,000TBW for 2TB.
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The TBW spec is a manufacturer's estimate of how much data can be written to a drive before some cells begin to fail and get taken out of service. Sandisk covers the SN8100 with a warranty of five years or until you hit the rated TBW figure in data writes, whichever comes first. But the drive's durability rating is such that unless you're writing unusually large amounts of data to the SSD, it's a good bet that the SN8100 will last the full warranty period and beyond.
Sandisk includes a free download of Acronis True Image backup and migration software with the purchase of the SN8100. You can also download the Sandisk Dashboard utility, which allows you to monitor the health of your drive and update the firmware. Also, the SN8100 meets the TCG/Opal V2.02 security standard, which supports AES hardware-based encryption for self-encrypted devices.
System Requirements: Buy Boutique, or Build Your Own
PCIe 5.0 SSDs promise a major speed boost over PCIe 4.0 drives, but you can take advantage of it only if you have recent hardware that supports the standard. Only recent enthusiast-grade desktops and a handful of laptops are likely to be PCIe 5.0 SSD-ready off the shelf, so you may have to build your own PC from the ground up or update an existing system to gain the connectivity required. You'll need an Intel 12th Gen or later Core CPU with a motherboard based on Intel's Z690/Z790 or a more recent chipset; or an AMD Ryzen 7000 or 9000 processor with an AM5 motherboard built around an X670, X670E, B650E, or later chipset.
Now, important point: Just because you have one of those chipsets doesn't guarantee that the motherboard maker actually implemented a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 SSD slot. That's up to the board maker, so check your system's or motherboard's specs and documentation to make sure you actually have such a slot before investing in one of these drives. Some boards have PCIe 5.0 expansion slots for graphics cards and other PCI Express cards, but no PCIe 5.0 slots for SSDs. You need a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 slot, specifically.
Performance Testing: The Fastest M.2 Drive We've Benched
In benchmarking the SN8100, we used our latest testbed PC, designed specifically for benchmarking PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs. It is built around an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard with an AMD X670 chipset, 32GB of DDR5 memory, one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot (with lanes that have direct access to the CPU), and three PCIe 4.0 slots. The system sports an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU using an AMD stock cooler; a GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card with 8GB of GDDR6 SDRAM; and a Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Snow 750-watt power supply. The boot drive is an ADATA Legend 850 PCIe 4.0 SSD. (The reviewed SSD is tested as a secondary data drive.)
We put the Sandisk drive through our usual slate of internal solid-state drive benchmarks: Crystal DiskMark 6.0, UL's PCMark 10 Storage, and UL's 3DMark Storage benchmark. The last measures a drive's performance in a number of gaming-related load and launch tasks.
Crystal DiskMark's sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. We use this test largely to see if our tested speeds are in line with the manufacturer's rated speeds.
In both Crystal DiskMark sequential read and write testing, the SN8100 came within 1% of its rated speeds, making it the fastest SSD we have tested. In 4K read testing, it performed 26% better than its nearest rival, the Crucial T705. The SN8100's 4K write results put it in a virtual tie for top score with the Lexar NM1090 Pro. (Good 4K write performance is especially important for an SSD used as a boot drive, though we test them as secondary drives.)
The PCMark 10 Overall Storage test measures a drive's speed in performing a variety of routine tasks such as launching Windows, loading games and creative apps, and copying both small and large files. The SN8100 posted a new PC Labs high score in this metric, besting the previous high scorer, the Crucial T705, by 11%. It also aced most of the trace tests whose scores are aggregated to comprise the Overall score, doing particularly well in the Windows Boot test, the three gaming traces, and Adobe program loading.
Last, in 3DMark Storage, which aggregates a drive's aptitude at performing a variety of gaming-related tasks, the SN8100 effectively matched the Crucial T705's score at the top of our leaderboard, falling just 0.2% short.