500GB WD Blue SN550 NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal Solid State Drive
Expired
$42
$69.99
+ Free Shipping
+41Deal Score
23,289 Views
Western Digital has 500GB WD Blue SN550 NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Solid State Drive SSD (WDS500G2B0C) on sale for $42 when you apply coupon code 40OFF at checkout. Shipping is free.
Thanks to Deal Hunter DLS4U for finding this deal.
Western Digital[westerndigital.com] has the WD Blue SN550 NVMe 500GB SSD Solid State Drive for $42 w/ free shipping when you apply promo code 40OFF at checkout.
it bears repeating that these SN550 NVMe have swapped in a slower component[tomshardware.com] starting around June of this year, so these now won't give you same performance as you'll see in older reviews.
DRAMless SSD FYI.
Wow. That's not just "swapping in a slower component". That's a bloody downgrade from TLC to QLC. It places the drive in a whole new product tier. What the hell is the point of buying a mainstream-segment "WD Blue" drive when the drive now has the performance characteristics of the budget-segment "WD Green" drive?
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank code65536
10-19-2021 at 04:25 AM.
Quote
from Bluskale
:
it bears repeating that these SN550 NVMe have swapped in a slower component[tomshardware.com] starting around June of this year, so these now won't give you same performance as you'll see in older reviews.
Wow. That's not just "swapping in a slower component". That's a bloody downgrade from TLC to QLC. It places the drive in a whole new product tier. What the hell is the point of buying a mainstream-segment "WD Blue" drive when the drive now has the performance characteristics of the budget-segment "WD Green" drive?
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
The 300tbw is the deal breaker for me cause a lot of others have at least 500tbw. Might not matter if you don't transfer or have files moving around all the time.
Wow. That's not just "swapping in a slower component". That's a bloody downgrade from TLC to QLC. It places the drive in a whole new product tier. What the hell is the point of buying a mainstream-segment "WD Blue" drive when the drive now has the performance characteristics of the budget-segment "WD Green" drive?
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
I have, and will continue to buy WD over seacrap, but everyone should understand that WD if fundamentally a slimy, scum ridden company at the top (meaning management).
They've been this way for a long time, and they're not getting better, they're getting worse. They will cheat you every chance they get, and this was also recently confirmed with them selling SMR drives to unsuspecting people.
Lest anyone forget or didn't know because they're noobs and too new to all of this, RED drives were originally GREEN drives with a new label and sold at a higher price. They may have made a small firmware tweak, but they didn't even take it as far as changing the info the drive reported when queried. I mean, when you can sell a crappy chevy as a real car and get away with it, why not? Just check your ethics at the door (if you had any) and you're good to go.
There is NO bottom to how low WD can and will sink when it comes to cheating people and stealing their money. Every year their inveterate behavior produces a new theft so they should be viewed with caution. Let's hear it for corporate America.
Again, I'm not saying the workers, I'm saying management is scum.
I have, and will continue to buy WD..., but ... WD is fundamentally a slimy, scum ridden company at the top (meaning management).
They've been this way for a long time, and they're not getting better, they're getting worse. They will cheat you every chance they get
If that's actually how you feel, why would you ever buy anything from them ever again? If you continue to buy from them, you are sending the message that you like what they're doing --- and then you go complaining about corporate America. We get what we pay for.
Seems we can n longer trust WD if they try to secretly swap out quality components for cheaper alternatives and still keep the same part #. Shame shame, we know your name.
Wow. That's not just "swapping in a slower component". That's a bloody downgrade from TLC to QLC. It places the drive in a whole new product tier. What the hell is the point of buying a mainstream-segment "WD Blue" drive when the drive now has the performance characteristics of the budget-segment "WD Green" drive?
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
Do SSDs tend to go on sale during Black Friday/Cyber Monday? Looking to put one of these in an external enclosure for MacBook.
Everything will be on sale, it's the last hurrah before people realize they are making 30% less than they did pre-pandemic and that 30% difference was masked by stimulus payments. Unless the stimulus payments increase to an even greater level, then this and last year, we all gonna be broke. USA is copyright China's model to pump the economy rather than run a capitalist free economy. Difference is, in china they have no problem going back to the country as farmers and making $3 a day, where In the USA, people become section 8 heirs and government assistance dependent. I say go crazy on BF and hoard like crazy, as everyone has been falling asleep on the order key all year thinking there won't be anything, then china is gonna crack the fake shortage can open and warehouses will be overflowing. Economic warfare... if you can't beat them outright, hit their weak points, the American consumer.
Users who tested the new version of the drive found that the write speed after exhausting the SLC cache to be basically the same (within margins of error) as that of the SN350 Green drive, which is a QLC drive. In any case, you're right, that is insufficient evidence to draw the conclusion that it's definitely QLC, but the point remains that this Blue drive now has the performance characteristics of the Green drive, which is a lower product tier.
If that's actually how you feel, why would you ever buy anything from them ever again? If you continue to buy from them, you are sending the message that you like what they're doing --- and then you go complaining about corporate America. We get what we pay for.
Yeah, I understand why you ask, and it's troubling to me, however, who else builds commonly available drives for a reasonable price? No one; we don't have any real choice is the answer.
Seacrap Digression - At least WD can build a hard drive and have it last a while, compared to seacrap that just can't. Yes, I know, Backblaze, etc. and I have had a small sample size, but every drive I've purchased from them met an early death causing headaches, so that's my empirical evidence.
Many won't remember this or possibly never knew, but seacrap got so bad that their warranty dropped to "2000 hours". That wasn't 2000 actual usage hours, that was "power on time". IOW, if you bought a drive, hooked it up and left your computer on, your warranty was gone in under 3 months. Seriously, what kind of product were they building that it had to have such a short warranty? Wait, I already know the answer.
None of this changes WD's slimy behavior. Who else would do theses things except an unethical company? Do you see Tesla swapping out their batteries for garbage after they get some reviews? What about AMD? Do they release a new processor and then substitute one with fewer cores after the reviews? What other purportedly *reputable* company sells a drive with a new label and calls it a new product (green -> red)? The chinese don't count because many of their companies are unethical, and I take it for granted.
Toshiba/Hitachi are not commonly available, nor as affordable. When SSDs are big enough and the technology long lasting enough to displace hard drives, I'll do it {and yes, I have many SSDs in different computers, but I have 120+ TBs of drives).
39 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Featured Comments
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank JDubb66
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank code65536
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
They've been this way for a long time, and they're not getting better, they're getting worse. They will cheat you every chance they get, and this was also recently confirmed with them selling SMR drives to unsuspecting people.
Lest anyone forget or didn't know because they're noobs and too new to all of this, RED drives were originally GREEN drives with a new label and sold at a higher price. They may have made a small firmware tweak, but they didn't even take it as far as changing the info the drive reported when queried. I mean, when you can sell a crappy chevy as a real car and get away with it, why not? Just check your ethics at the door (if you had any) and you're good to go.
There is NO bottom to how low WD can and will sink when it comes to cheating people and stealing their money. Every year their inveterate behavior produces a new theft so they should be viewed with caution. Let's hear it for corporate America.
Again, I'm not saying the workers, I'm saying management is scum.
They've been this way for a long time, and they're not getting better, they're getting worse. They will cheat you every chance they get
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
This is the equivalent of buying a laptop with a 6-core Ryzen 5 but actually getting something with a 4-core Ryzen 3. And saying that you won't notice the difference between the old and new WD Blue until the SLC cache runs out is the same as saying, "Oh, but most people don't have a heavily-multithreaded workload to notice the difference between a Ryzen 5 and a Ryzen 3!" So? If you bought a mid-tier product, you should be getting a mid-tier product, not a budget-tier product deceptively labeled as a mid-tier product.
If WD is having supply issues and can't make enough TLC drives, then they should be selling more WD Greens. Instead of turning their more popular WD Blues into mislabeled WD Greens and pulling a fast one on their customers.
This should be an automatic deal-breaker for everyone. This is a trash-tier QLC drive now. Avoid it.
Should be fine just needs a heat sink
Yeah, I understand why you ask, and it's troubling to me, however, who else builds commonly available drives for a reasonable price? No one; we don't have any real choice is the answer.
Seacrap Digression - At least WD can build a hard drive and have it last a while, compared to seacrap that just can't. Yes, I know, Backblaze, etc. and I have had a small sample size, but every drive I've purchased from them met an early death causing headaches, so that's my empirical evidence.
Many won't remember this or possibly never knew, but seacrap got so bad that their warranty dropped to "2000 hours". That wasn't 2000 actual usage hours, that was "power on time". IOW, if you bought a drive, hooked it up and left your computer on, your warranty was gone in under 3 months. Seriously, what kind of product were they building that it had to have such a short warranty? Wait, I already know the answer.
None of this changes WD's slimy behavior. Who else would do theses things except an unethical company? Do you see Tesla swapping out their batteries for garbage after they get some reviews? What about AMD? Do they release a new processor and then substitute one with fewer cores after the reviews? What other purportedly *reputable* company sells a drive with a new label and calls it a new product (green -> red)? The chinese don't count because many of their companies are unethical, and I take it for granted.
Toshiba/Hitachi are not commonly available, nor as affordable. When SSDs are big enough and the technology long lasting enough to displace hard drives, I'll do it {and yes, I have many SSDs in different computers, but I have 120+ TBs of drives).
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.