Western Digital Updates WD Blue Series with SN580 DRAM-less Gen4 NVMe SSD 1TB

Western Digital is unveiling its latest addition to the mainstream WD Blue family today – the SN580 NVMe SSD. A DRAM-less PCIe 4.0 x4 drive, it brings in performance improvements over the current lead product in the line – the SN570 launched in late 2021. This DRAM-less drive is the first PCIe Gen4 SSD in the WD Blue lineup.

As a mainstream drive, the WD Blue SN580 is meant for consumer systems requiring quick launches of applications in multitasking scenarios, along with high responsiveness. WD has also optimized the firmware for fast loading of large-sized media assets (a nod towards content creators). Most importantly, the DRAM-less nature and a non-overreaching performance goal (up to 4150 MBps, which is on the low end for a Gen4 drive) mean that the WD Blue SN580’s power efficiency makes it a good candidate for battery-operated systems.

The SN570 was launched in three capacities – 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB, with a 2TB model introduced later on. The SN580 family is launching today in four capacities, ranging from 250GB to 2TB. All drives are single-sided, come with a 5-year warranty, and carry a 0.25 DWPD rating. The key performance improvements over the SN570 are the increase in sequential read / write speeds from 3500 MBps to 4150 MBps, and random write IOPS from 600K to 750K at the higher capacity points. The move to a new Gen4 controller is the sole reason, as the SN580 continues to use the same BiCS 5 112L 3D TLC as the SN570. These drives will be equipped with 3D TLC over their complete lifetime, and will not move to QLC (which has now been consigned to the higher capacity WD Green NVMe SSDs).