If you’ve got a computer that’s rapidly filling up with files, don’t add to your desktop clutter with a portable SSD – pop open that side panel and slot home a WD Blue SN5100 instead. It’s one of the more affordable M.2 upgrades out there, and uses a slightly older connection type – but that doesn’t mean it’s a slowcoach.
The 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4GB capacities each use the desktop-standard Type-2280 M.2 form factor, so if your PC is less than a decade old it should have at least one empty slot to house it. And while PCIe Gen 5.0 might be the new record holder for read and write speeds, this PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD isn’t far behind in real-world file transfers.
It’s rated for 7100MB/s reads and 6700MB/s writes, or 1000k/1300k IOPS – faster than rivals from Corsair and Crucial that cost more. I also saw a stellar performance from a 2TB model in the CrystaldiskMark test, being close to that of top-tier rivals aimed more at gamers.
This SSD is more for the creator crowd, with Sandisk (the spun-off company now in charge of Western Digital’s flash memory division) opting for affordable QLC flash and skipping any kind of on-board memory. The SN5100 uses your computer’s host memory buffer (HMB) for cacheing instead.
This helps keep power consumption in check, and doesn’t produce as much heat. That’s why you don’t get any kind of heat spreader or heatsink in the box – it doesn’t really need one. There’s nothing stopping you from adding one if your PC motherboard has a built-in heat sink, of course.
SSDs with QLC flash aren’t always rated for lots of data writes, but the SN5100 is good for more terabytes written than most of its peers. Even workaholics will struggle to use it that much within the warranty period.
Each SSD comes with a free download of Acronis True Image, for backing up your existing disk if you plan on migrating your PC’s operating system across.
The WD Blue SN5100 2TB is available right now: expect to pay $58/£40 for the entry-grade 500GB model; $85/£64 for 1TB; $151/£111 for 2TB; or $300/£236 for 4TB.
