expired Posted by phoinix | Staff • Dec 26, 2023
Dec 26, 2023 9:00 AM
Item 1 of 2
Item 1 of 2
expired Posted by phoinix | Staff • Dec 26, 2023
Dec 26, 2023 9:00 AM
4TB WD_Black SN850X Gen4 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
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$290
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The western digital black sn850x is a high end pcie gen 4 tlc ssd with dram, and is well suited for use as a boot drive and any applications where high performance is beneficial. If you're looking for a 4tb non-boot drive that'll primarily be used for static storage and/or games which don't support directstorage, then the sn850x is overkill. It sits firmly in the upper echelons of pcie gen 4 drives according to most reviews, and has no glaring flaws in performance, endurance, or reliability. Real world performance differences between high end gen 4 ssds (lower end drives, particularly without dram, may be slower to a meaningful degree) are essentially negligible, so you should primarily purchase a high end drive based off of reliability and price. The 2400tbw (600tbw per tb) endurance rating is fairly standard for a high end ssd, and should be vastly overkill for 99% of users. According to several post's I've seen, while the 4tb sn850x is technically a double sided drive, it is thinner than most double sided drives and therefore may potentially fit in m.2 slots designed for single sided drives. Its power efficiency and thermal performance is fairly good but not exceptional, it's an acceptable option for laptops and builds with poor airflow. A heatsink may be somewhat beneficial, but as long as it's in a build with decent airflow a heatsink should be unnecessary. Here's a review of the 2tb version of the sn850x (the 4tb version doesn't seem to have been professionally reviewed by any reputable sites): https://www.tomshardwar
The only meaningful downside to the sn850x is a lack of advertised hardware 256 bit aes encryption. This is meaningless if you don't plan on encrypting your ssd. However, if you would be using windows bitlocker with this drive, performance suffers with bitlocker software encryption. In recent months WD has updated the sn850x's datasheet to indicate it is tcg opal v2.01 compliant, and I've seen some claims on forums that hardware encryption is possible. It's possible in the future that firmware updates will enable hardware encryption for use with windows bitlocker, but at this moment it remains software encryption only. Here's tomshardware analyzing the effect of software bitlocker encryption on ssd performance: https://www.tomshardwar
The WD dashboard application (necessary for updating the ssd firmware) is somewhat buggy but all around functional in my experience. It certainly isn't nearly as good as the samsung magician software, but you shouldn't need to use the dashboard much.
The sn850x comes with acronis true image for western digital, however that program has an extremely annoying quirk. Acronis true image comes with a "ransomware protection" driver built in, and that driver remains active even when you disable ransomware protection in acronis true image. This driver forcefully disables bypassio, a feature which reduces cpu overhead for reads and is a necessary part of directsorage. You can read about bypassio here: https://learn.microsoft
While I believe you can use autoruns to disable the ransomware protection driver and still use acronis true image, I'd personally recommend just not bothering with it. Some other third party software, such as antivirus software, can disable bypoassio. The article I linked above has instructions for how to check bypassio status.
Overall, considering the current state of the market, this is a decent deal.
I put a 3rd part heatsink on it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KDDKDNN
I also used an aftermarket plate for better airflow.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CGWJF193
Everything is running great with no throttling.
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The western digital black sn850x is a high end pcie gen 4 tlc ssd with dram, and is well suited for use as a boot drive and any applications where high performance is beneficial. If you're looking for a 4tb non-boot drive that'll primarily be used for static storage and/or games which don't support directstorage, then the sn850x is overkill. It sits firmly in the upper echelons of pcie gen 4 drives according to most reviews, and has no glaring flaws in performance, endurance, or reliability. Real world performance differences between high end gen 4 ssds (lower end drives, particularly without dram, may be slower to a meaningful degree) are essentially negligible, so you should primarily purchase a high end drive based off of reliability and price. The 2400tbw (600tbw per tb) endurance rating is fairly standard for a high end ssd, and should be vastly overkill for 99% of users. According to several post's I've seen, while the 4tb sn850x is technically a double sided drive, it is thinner than most double sided drives and therefore may potentially fit in m.2 slots designed for single sided drives. Its power efficiency and thermal performance is fairly good but not exceptional, it's an acceptable option for laptops and builds with poor airflow. A heatsink may be somewhat beneficial, but as long as it's in a build with decent airflow a heatsink should be unnecessary. Here's a review of the 2tb version of the sn850x (the 4tb version doesn't seem to have been professionally reviewed by any reputable sites): https://www.tomshardwar
The only meaningful downside to the sn850x is a lack of advertised hardware 256 bit aes encryption. This is meaningless if you don't plan on encrypting your ssd. However, if you would be using windows bitlocker with this drive, performance suffers with bitlocker software encryption. In recent months WD has updated the sn850x's datasheet to indicate it is tcg opal v2.01 compliant, and I've seen some claims on forums that hardware encryption is possible. It's possible in the future that firmware updates will enable hardware encryption for use with windows bitlocker, but at this moment it remains software encryption only. Here's tomshardware analyzing the effect of software bitlocker encryption on ssd performance: https://www.tomshardwar
The WD dashboard application (necessary for updating the ssd firmware) is somewhat buggy but all around functional in my experience. It certainly isn't nearly as good as the samsung magician software, but you shouldn't need to use the dashboard much.
The sn850x comes with acronis true image for western digital, however that program has an extremely annoying quirk. Acronis true image comes with a "ransomware protection" driver built in, and that driver remains active even when you disable ransomware protection in acronis true image. This driver forcefully disables bypassio, a feature which reduces cpu overhead for reads and is a necessary part of directsorage. You can read about bypassio here: https://learn.microsoft
While I believe you can use autoruns to disable the ransomware protection driver and still use acronis true image, I'd personally recommend just not bothering with it. Some other third party software, such as antivirus software, can disable bypoassio. The article I linked above has instructions for how to check bypassio status.
Overall, considering the current state of the market, this is a decent deal.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank thackworth
For any wondering if this will fit in their laptop, the answer is maybe, but it's double sided, and probably NOT a good fit for most slim laptops. You'll need a single sided drive and the only one I know of right now is the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB. I paid $199 for my 990 and wish now I purchased two of them.
Laptop and 990 caveat - I couldn't get the drive to work in my Dell XPS with Win 10 Pro even after multiple attempts. The first problem was that MS is being sneaky and turning on Bit Locker without your permission (read about it on the web and check in Disk management before beginning). That stopped me from cloning so I had to turn it off and reset the existing 2TB SKH SSD which took a long time. Check before you begin if you have Win 10 Pro, but definitely turn off bit locker if you use it before cloning. Irrespective of bit locker though, I never got the computer to boot with the drive. I tested it with another laptop (I cloned a 2TB 980 Pro to the 4TB 990 and it worked fine). Is samsung hampering the process or does Data Migration have issues with SKH drives? Don't know..
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Anyone had experience with this drive for said purpose?
Goal is to maximize the speed of backups so I can plug in, wait for a few seconds for the backup and unplug often (like each day).
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