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Sandisk Launches WD_BLACK SN8100 PCIe Gen 5.0 NVMe SSD

Nomad76

Nomad76

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Setting a new standard for client SSDs, Sandisk today unveiled the powerful WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD with PCIe Gen 5.0 technology, a cutting-edge internal SSD delivering speeds up to 14,900 MB/s and capacities up to 8 TB, for high-performance gaming, content creation and artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.

With the evolution of gaming graphics, high-quality 4K and 8K content and AI applications, today's gamers and professionals need solutions to help maximize the performance of their PCs. The Sandisk WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe PCIe Gen 5.0 SSD is built for hardcore PC gamers looking to add the most advanced combination of speed and reliability to their rig for peak performance and for professionals needing a top-of-the-line PC storage solution for intensive workflows and AI applications. In addition to blistering speeds, the new PCIe Gen 5.0 SSD is also 100% more power efficient than Sandisk's high-performance PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD.



"Whether it's for high-level gaming, professional content creation or AI applications, high-performance users now have a PCIe Gen 5.0 storage solution that matches speed with power efficiency to help them build the ultimate gaming rig or best-in-class workstation, enabling them to play and create with next-level performance and reliability," said Eric Spanneut, vice president of devices for Sandisk. "The WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD with PCIe Gen 5.0 delivers peak storage performance for the most discerning users."

"PCIe Gen 5.0 is the next evolution of the PCIe interface offering up to 2x performance capability over today's PCIe 4.0," said Joe Macri, Senior Vice President and CTO for Compute and Graphics at AMD. "The WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD with PCIe Gen 5.0 revolutionizes storage performance and power efficiency bringing the next level of flash storage to PCs for Gamers, Content Creators, or Professionals seeking only the highest storage performance possible."

"Technologies like the Intel Core Ultra processors combined with WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe PCIe Gen 5.0 SSDs will fuel the innovation of PCs and workstations, vastly speeding up play, productions or projects for gamers, creators and professionals," said Todd Lewellen, Vice President of Client Ecosystem Group at Intel. "With its great performance and power efficiency, the WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe PCIe Gen 5.0 SSD is a great option for those looking to build their best gaming and high-performance PCs."

As an industry-leader for PCIe Gen 5.0 power efficiency, the WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD features advanced Sandisk BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND technology powering performance and reliability, with a low-power profile and optimized thermal performance to help simplify system design without adding expensive cooling. Key features include:
  • Delivers an enhanced gaming and workflow experience with the speed of PCIe Gen 5.0x4 NVMe M.2 SSD technology.
  • Blistering sequential speeds of up to 14,900 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write and over 2,300,000 IOPS of random performance (2 TB - 4 TB models) - a 2x performance improvement in read speeds over Sandisk's PCIe Gen 4.0.
  • Over 100% more power efficient than Sandisk's PCIe Gen 4.0, plus energy optimization with an average operating power of 7 W or under helps keep drives running at optimal performance.
  • Up to 2,400TBW endurance (4 TB) means machines can handle the most intense tasks, such as gaming, video editing and AI workloads.
  • Capacity to hold the biggest new games and projects, while still having room for models for AI-powered applications, large datasets and growing game libraries.



In addition to the WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe with PCIe Gen 5.0 SSD, Sandisk is offering an optional WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe with PCIe Gen 5.0 SSD with Heatsink. The heatsink version features a new integrated, low-profile passive cooling design engineered with anodized aluminium with no extra power or noisy fans required. Plus, it comes with a customizable RGB LED for those who want to match their lighting style and build needs.

The WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD is available for purchase at Sandisk.com, select retailers and e-tailers worldwide in 1 TB ($179.99 U.S. MSRP), 2 TB ($279.99 U.S. MSRP) and 4 TB ($549.99 U.S. MSRP) capacities. The WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe with Heatsink will also be available this fall in 1 TB ($199.99 U.S. MSRP), 2 TB ($299.99 U.S. MSRP) and 4 TB ($569.99 U.S. MSRP) capacities. An 8 TB WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD and WD_BLACK SN8100 NVMe SSD with Heatsink are expected to be available later this year.


View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
We getting any in for review?
 
I'm a bit confused but the new WD nomenclature. Is this the follow up to SN850X?
 
Tyl3n0L said:
I'm a bit confused but the new WD nomenclature. Is this the follow up to SN850X?
Click to expand...
I'm confused that it's still called WD, wasn't WD going to be all about HDD now and Sandisk branding to be used for flash based storage?
www.crn.com

Western Digital Splits In Two As Sandisk Reemerges

Western Digital and new CEO Irving Tan will focus on the hard drive business, while Sandisk under CEO David Goeckeler will focus on flash storage and memory.
www.crn.com www.crn.com
 
Chomiq said:
I'm confused that it's still called WD, wasn't WD going to be all about HDD now and Sandisk branding to be used for flash based storage?
Click to expand...
I'm afraid not even Sandisk can answer that. The product pics on Sandisk's product page say Western Digital, without as much as a word of explanation.
 
Philaphlous said:
Excited to see how many watts this puppy is going to pull. Hello 100C
Click to expand...
"with an average operating power of 7 W or under helps keep drives running at optimal performance."
It was in the write up.
 
Chomiq said:
I'm confused that it's still called WD, wasn't WD going to be all about HDD now and Sandisk branding to be used for flash based storage?
www.crn.com

Western Digital Splits In Two As Sandisk Reemerges

Western Digital and new CEO Irving Tan will focus on the hard drive business, while Sandisk under CEO David Goeckeler will focus on flash storage and memory.
www.crn.com www.crn.com
Click to expand...
@TheLostSwede had mentioned in other post regarding this SSD, far too along into development cycle to change the branding from WD to Sandisk. Basically sunk cost too high to make changes before launch.
 
Chomiq said:
I'm confused that it's still called WD, wasn't WD going to be all about HDD now and Sandisk branding to be used for flash based storage?
www.crn.com

Western Digital Splits In Two As Sandisk Reemerges

Western Digital and new CEO Irving Tan will focus on the hard drive business, while Sandisk under CEO David Goeckeler will focus on flash storage and memory.
www.crn.com www.crn.com
Click to expand...
It's easy to confuse company with brand.
The trick is to pay attention to the brand because Sandisk can use WD_BLACK but not WD and if you look at the article you''ll notice there isn't a single WD without the _BLACK.
 
AGlezB said:
It's easy to confuse company with brand.
The trick is to pay attention to the brand because Sandisk can use WD_BLACK but not WD and if you look at the article you''ll notice there isn't a single WD without the _BLACK.
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But mister, we can clearly see the western digital logo on those WD product, and many other WD SSD, with no mention of Sandisk at all. Are you sure that this SSD wasn't just already in production before western digital decided to divide the company in two ?
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AGlezB said:
It's easy to confuse company with brand.
The trick is to pay attention to the brand because Sandisk can use WD_BLACK but not WD and if you look at the article you''ll notice there isn't a single WD without the _BLACK.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was expecting to see the Sandisk company logo along with the WD_<colour> brand name on the SSD.
 
Prices are too high. But nice product to wish for.
 
Blistering sequential speeds of up to 14,900 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write and over 2,300,000 IOPS of random performance (2 TB - 4 TB models) - a 2x performance improvement in read speeds over Sandisk's PCIe Gen 4.0.
Click to expand...
And the controller specs?
 
Makaveli said:
While we all wait for the TPU review you can view this one for now.

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Lots of talk about power efficiency and she has no data? not even heat/throttling data. wtf.

Need W1zzard to get this drive even if he has to buy it.
 
dyonoctis said:
But mister, we can clearly see the western digital logo on those WD product, and many other WD SSD, with no mention of Sandisk at all. Are you sure that this SSD wasn't just already in production before western digital decided to divide the company in two ?
Click to expand...
Computer harware product cycles are long. It takes years from R&D to product-on-shelves and the brand of a product can only be changed up to a certain point in the process, usually 1-2 years before it hits the shelves. Think about it in terms of the interval between a new version of PCI Express being announced and the time it takes for devices using that PCIe version hitting the retail market and that's more or less how long you'll need to wait after the split to get the branding sorted out, with one important caveat: "popular" or well known brands like WD_BLACK will not change, ever, because they're very well stablished in the mind of the buyers. In marketing terms those brands are "valuable" and you don't get rid of them without very good, serious reasons.

EDIT:
Aso, the split between WD and Sandisk was strategic. If the split had been hostile, WD probably wouldn't have tranfered the ownership of any WD_* brand to Sandisk or if they've been forced to transfer them they'd immediately go to court to litigate the use of the brands based on similarity and they'd probably win, leaving Sandisk without access to brandis inclusing WD in the name. As it stands both companies might have agreements in place retaining limited use of eachother's brands, extending the time frame for branding to get sorted out.
 
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AGlezB said:
Computer harware product cycles are long. It takes years from R&D to product-on-shelves and the brand of a product can only be changed up to a certain point in the process, usually 1-2 years before it hits the shelves. Think about it in terms of the interval between a new version of PCI Express being announced and the time it takes for devices using that PCIe version hitting the retail market and that's more or less how long you'll need to wait after the split to get the branding sorted out, with one important caveat: "popular" or well known brands like WD_BLACK will not change, ever, because they're very well stablished in the mind of the buyers. In marketing terms those brands are "valuable" and you don't get rid of them without very good, serious reasons.

EDIT:
Aso, the split between WD and Sandisk was strategic. If the split had been hostile, WD probably wouldn't have tranfered the ownership of any WD_* brand to Sandisk or if they've been forced to transfer them they'd immediately go to court to litigate the use of the brands based on similarity and they'd probably win, leaving Sandisk without access to brandis inclusing WD in the name. As it stands both companies might have agreements in place retaining limited use of eachother's brands, extending the time frame for branding to get sorted out.
Click to expand...
We'll see how it pan out. But keeping the Western digital brand visual identity largely present in the SanDisk universe would be an odd choice, especially after the whole Sandisk rebranding.
On one side there's a very coherent identity between Sandisk-named products, and then there's going to be the WD heritage.

Even if they do specifically change the visual identity of WD *colors* specifically for the SSD, For years Western Digital was just WD. There's always going to be that association in people's minds. Especially with WD the HDD company, also keeping that sub brand with the same naming scheme for themselves. Keeping "WD" around while trying to establish Sandisk as its own brand with its own expertise feels clunky. Especially when Sandisk is a behemoth of its own right in the memory business.
 
dyonoctis said:
We'll see how it pan out. But keeping the Western digital brand visual identity largely present in the SanDisk universe would be an odd choice, especially after the whole Sandisk rebranding.
On one side there's a very coherent identity between Sandisk-named products, and then there's going to be the WD heritage.

Even if they do specifically change the visual identity of WD *colors* specifically for the SSD, For years Western Digital was just WD. There's always going to be that association in people's minds. Especially with WD the HDD company, also keeping that sub brand with the same naming scheme for themselves. Keeping "WD" around while trying to establish Sandisk as its own brand with its own expertise feels clunky. Especially when Sandisk is a behemoth of its own right in the memory business.
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I think what they should do in this instance is stamp a large Sandisk logo close to the WD_* brand so people begin to associate those products directly with Sandisk instead of WD. At some point later they can remove the WD and let the Sandisk BLACK carry the torch and buyers wouldn't mind that much. IIRC that's a form brand transition and it's usually effective in retaining buyer loyalty when changing brands for an existing product. It's been like 30 years since my marketing studies so I could be wrong.
 
I still consider them the same company until further clarification. By "them", I mean the entire Toshiba Memory + Kioxia + Sandisk + Western Digital blob.

Another detail I noticed: Sandisk BiCS8 TLC 3D CBA NAND is mentioned in the press release. Until now, flash chips were either Toshiba or Kioxia branded.
 
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