Western Digital today introduced a range of solid-state drives under the WD_Black and SanDisk brands. The series of gaming products has been supplemented by the WD_Black SN7100 solid-state NVMe drive and the WD_Black C50 external SSD for Xbox game consoles.
Image source: Western Digital
WD_Black SN7100 is a drive without DRAM buffer memory. It is built on TLC 3D NAND flash memory and uses the PCIe 4.0 interface. The new product is available in 500 GB, 1 and 2 TB versions. For the 500 GB version, the manufacturer claims sequential read speeds of 6800 MB/s and write speeds of 5800 MB/s, as well as random read and write performance of up to 760 thousand IOPS and 1.2 million IOPS, respectively.
The 1 and 2 TB SSD versions will offer sequential read speeds of up to 7250 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6900 MB/s, as well as random read and write performance of up to 1 million and 1.4 million IOPS, respectively. The WD_Black SN7100 family of drives will also include a 4 TB model, which the manufacturer promises to release next year.
The 500GB WD_Black SN7100 costs $59.99, while the 1TB and 2TB models cost $89.99 and $149.99, respectively.
The manufacturer has also expanded the WD_Black series of external gaming drives with the C50 Storage Expansion Card for Xbox with a 2 TB model. The device supports the proprietary Velocity Architecture and Quick Resume functions of the Xbox Series X/S consoles. The company will also give WD_Black C50 buyers a month of subscription to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gaming service and a month of subscription to Discord Nitro. The WD_Black C50 for Xbox 2TB is priced at $199.99.