Western Digital 4TB WD Blue SN5000

Written analysis

Western Digital 4TB WD Blue SN5000 at a glance

The Western Digital 4TB WD Blue SN5000 is a 4000 GB M.2 2280 SSD using PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4. The controller is WD Polaris 3 A101-000172-A1. Flash type is QLC 162-layer. Cache is listed as Host-Memory-Buffer (HMB).

Rated sequential throughput is 5500 MB/s read and 5000 MB/s write. Random throughput is 690K read IOPS and 900K write IOPS. The calculated specification score is 66.1.

Best fit: General storage workloads where compatibility and price matter more than peak transfer rates.

Endurance and thermals

Rated endurance is 1200 TBW, or approximately 300 TBW per TB of capacity. The listed warranty is 5 years. Active power is listed at 6.3 W, with 0.8 W idle. Check the drive and motherboard guidance to determine whether a heatsink is recommended for sustained transfers.

Current value

At $450, the drive costs $112.50 per TB. Performance / price is 22.0 and capacity value is 88.1. Compare these values with nearby drives below; interface generation and headline speed alone do not determine value.