WD Black WDS256G1X0C 256 GB PCIe High-Performance NVMe SSD Solid State Drive

I'm new to SSD but my latest build was going to have Windows 8.1 on SSD. I chose this WD version because it has a 5 year warranty, 2 years more than the alternative I was considering, and only slightly slower peak data speeds.Good price, good size and works brilliant. Amazing upgrade if you haven't already experienced this.

I installed this into a new Alienware 17 r4 laptop. The startup speeds are not so different than a much cheaper ordinary SATA SSD, but I find it very satisfactory. A cold boot to desktop takes 17-18 seconds on my laptop with an Intel i7 7700 cpu. Copying large files within itself feel instant, and this is where an NVMe shines over a SATA SSD.However, if you are copying files between this drive into a spinning HDD or a SATA SSD, the process would be bottle-necked by the other drive read and write speeds, therefore, you would get little real benefit from the experience. The speed benefit you will experience from game or other application load times is also limited compared to a cheaper SATA based SSD option.I still recommend this product. This is an entry level NVMe, and it is substantially cheaper than a Samsung NVMe, which is faster. Due to the fact that I do not constantly need to copy extremely large files within the same drive over and over, I did not want to spend more money on a more expensive NVMe, but also, I did not want to keep using SATA SSD drives when a newer technology is affordably available. This is a very good value for a fast enough M.2 SSD experience. It is not the best , but at this price point, very good. If you want to spend much more money for a very little real life benefit, get a Samsung NVMe.

This is blazingly fast for a boot drive. All of your main programs also boot quite fast, simply because the read and write speeds are crazy. This uses PCIe lanes which means it is not SATA-based, so you can free up a hard drive space if you wish.If you are coming from a hard drive, you will be amazed with the loading times. If you're coming from an SSD then the jump isnt as big if you are only doing regular day to day tasks and gaming. If you do editing and design then the high speeds will come in handy to you.Just make sure that your motherboard supports the NVMe protocol, if not you will need a PCIe to M.2 adapter. Also double check with your motherboard manual to make sure the slot is PCIe gen 3 x4 to take advantage of the full speed. Be mindful that if you intend on buying the 256GB version, dont download tonnes of games that will take up all the space.EDIT: I have bought a second one to purely for gaming purposes. Games load in quite fast which isn't suprising.However the second M.2 slot on my motherboard is PCIe gen 2 x4 which is equivalent to PCIe gen 3 x2. This meant couldn't hit the full advertised speeds, but note that it's still pretty fast so don't take this as a negative if you have to run it at gen 2 speeds.Another note is the operating temperature. When exposed, it idles on the high 40s degrees C. Again normal use cases like gaming this is not an issue. I highly recommend if you use this drive for professional use (editing, CAD, animation etc.) to get a heatsink to minimise the risk of thermal throttling. Operating temps of this drive range from 0C to 70C.

I am using 2 of these as SSD cache in my Synology DS918+. Working as you would expect as they are on Synology's compatibility list. The only odd thing is that they show up as Sandisk when the model number is clearly WD. I expect this is because WD bought Sandisk in 2016.Update: One month later and according to SMART info attribute "Percentage Used"I have already used 28% on the life of these. I did some further digging and even though these have a 5 year warranty it wont be honoured if SMART says I have used more than 100%. WD have set the SMART counters very low. Luckily the drives will likely work well past the artificial counter that WD have assigned and these are being used as cache in RAID1. There is now a newer model (WDS250G2X0C) of this drive built on 3D NAND which would be a better buy in demanding applications but of course is much more expensive.

Best SSD so far I had. Perfect in any way, I use my laptop a lot not just for gaming but game development, which this SSD helps a lot. Recommend for everyone! BUY IT!

Assuming this drive works I'll have dropped on a decent M.2 drive for a decent price. I have fitted it to my Asus ROG Strix X370-F gaming mobo, unfortunately I haven't yet fitted it all in my case yet so can't comment on its performance yet but judging by the bumf that surrounds the drive it should fly.According to the interweb, one needs a USB stick to install windows onto these types of drives, assuming you're using it as your main C: drive.Make sure that you have the correct socket on your motherboard for this type of drive as there are two similar looking types, one will fit your board perfectly while the other one won't, not without an adapter anyway. Then you'll only get a mild increase in speed with the older NGFF(M.2) type.

Great SSD, for the price, its super fast, but it does run quite hot, 40+ degrees with an aftermarket heatsink.

I changed from a Crucial MX300 1Tb and my computer loads substancially fasster. The 1tb SSD I have it now for installing low demanding games or storing data.