Remember when Western Digital
picked up SiliconSystems for a song during the height of last decade's Great Recession? Here we are a year later looking at the first fruit of that relationship, as
WD has just introduced its first consumer-oriented solid state drive in the SiliconEdge Blue and its enterprise-ready SiliconDrive N1x. Both 2.5-inch families feature a native SATA 3.0Gbps interface along with read speeds as high as 240 - 250MB/sec and write rates peaking at around 140 - 150MB/sec, and the former has already hit the test bench on a number of occasions. For those considering the upgrade, you should probably dive into those links below -- most everyone came away feeling that the SiliconEdge Blue was a wee bit underwhelming for the price, with
Hot Hardware noting that the "Micron
C300 and Intel
X25-M were measurably faster overall," and the lofty MSRP just left 'em looking for more. Here's hoping for a price drop and / or a SiliconEdge
Black, eh?
posted March 3rd 2010 12:29PM
It's about time WD released an SSD.
@sintricate They aren't a memory company. They're using Samsung flash like most of the rebadgers and a JMicron controller. How much of this is really Western Digital's design other than the sticker?
@DanH The memory is a non-issue. The controller on the other hand is worth a look. So far it doesn't look like WD has invested anything in developing their own controller, only their own firmware. Maybe they have something cooking, who knows. But this new drive is pretty overpriced for what you're getting.
@WSZ True, but you really have to think most of the companies putting these things out aren't doing much actual design work other than a select few (Intel, for instance)
@DanH I think it's the reverse. AFAIK WD and Seagate are the only two without a proprietary controller. I'm pretty sure that all others have developed inhouse hardware.
WD never struck me as a company quick to change. They have always lumbered behind. I guess that could be seen as both a pro and a con...
At any rate, I'm just happy that everyone is moving to SSDs. I'm hoping in 5 years, they'll be standard and platters will be the same as CRTs.
Forgot the review at Legit Reviews - http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1233/1/
A higher end "Black" wouldn't be bad if it took the Blue's lofty price point and the Blue dropped in price. Or if the Black added the latest greatest controller and upped the performance for a nominal free. We don't however need a Green Power version.
I saw on Anandtech that these use a JMicron controller.
Eww. No thanks. It's a ticking time bomb without AT LEAST an Indilinx controller in it.
@Prevacator Ditto. Look at the HALF SECOND maximum access times in the Hot Hardware tests. Now, think how that would feel when you're using your laptop to play some game...
I used to always get WD IDE drives. About the time they went SSD their quality went to crap. Unfortunately my other favorite - Seagate has also dropped significantly in quality about the time they took over that other company whose hard drives were pretty bad for reliability.
@boe
I roll with Samsung now. WD is a tad expensive for a main drive.
@boe
What do you mean about the time they went SSD? They JUST went SSD today, this is the very first SSD announced by WD.
Do you mean SATA?
@Prevacator Whoops- good catch - I meant to say sata. Their IDEs were good but the SATAs have a a lot of issues. I just threw out another client's WD drive last night.
@boe I am so tired of hearing people exclaim WD or Seagate is a fail company because all their drives die, they have the SAME FAIL RATES, learn to you know, KNOW anything about hardware, n00b
@Fantastadon Noobie, I'm tired of reading people's attempt at writing in ebonics. Learn to write.
I'm a bit surprised that nobody has said that this kind of looks like an iPad.
@pax copia well observed :] I did notice something but I hadn't made the connection out loud in my head
@pax copia iPad wall paper, anyone?
@pax copia
Maybe Apple will sue them too
So should I be laughing or crying about these prices?