WD_BLACK P40 Sport Drive USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Transportable SSD Assessment: Balanced Storage

The What’s Subsequent Western Digital occasion again in Could 2022 noticed the introduction of recent merchandise within the WD_BLACK lineup. On the moveable SSD (PSSD) entrance, the WD_BLACK P40 Sport Drive SSD augmented the corporate’s sturdy set of choices within the gaming market. As a complement to the favored WD_BLACK P50 Sport Drive SSD, the brand new PSSD retained the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) hyperlink whereas including RGB lighting to the case.

The P40 was launched at a a lot cheaper price level in comparison with the P50. As a way to obtain the cheaper price level and make the P40 a mid-range providing, the corporate has minimize some corners whereas nonetheless promoting the drive as a 2GBps-class one. The overview beneath presents an in depth analysis of the WD_BLCK P40 Sport Drive SSD and compares it towards a number of different PSSDs in the identical capability class. Our evaluation reveals use-cases the place the P40 does make sense to make use of with out spending far more for the premium-class P50.

Introduction

Exterior bus-powered storage units have grown each in storage capability in addition to speeds during the last decade. Because of speedy developments in flash expertise (together with the appearance of 3D NAND and NVMe) in addition to sooner host interfaces (corresponding to Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.x), we now have palm-sized flash-based storage units able to delivering 3GBps+ speeds. Whereas these speeds could be achieved with Thunderbolt, mass-market units need to depend on USB. Throughout the USB ecosystem, USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) is quick turning into the entry degree for thumb drives and moveable SSDs. Premium units sporting the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) interface have been making it to the market during the last couple of years, with host assist in desktops and different computing platforms beginning to decide up. Broadly talking, there are 5 distinct efficiency ranges on this market:

• 2GBps+ drives with Thunderbolt 3 or USB4, utilizing NVMe SSDs
• 2GBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, utilizing NVMe SSDs or direct USB flash drive (UFD) controllers
• 1GBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 2, utilizing NVMe SSDs or direct UFD controllers
• 500MBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 1 (or, Gen 2, in some instances), utilizing SATA SSDs
• Sub-400MBps drives with USB 3.2 Gen 1, utilizing UFD controllers

The PSSD we’re at this time – the WD_BLACK P40 Sport Drive – belongs to the second class within the above checklist. Western Digital’s WD_BLACK lineup of merchandise targets the gaming market, with give attention to efficiency numbers in addition to industrial design / RGB lighting. The corporate has additionally been utilizing the lineup to deliver new expertise to the market – such because the WD_BLACK P50 Sport Drive SSD again in 2019. It was one of many first 20 Gbps PSSDs to hit the market when it was launched. This allowed the corporate to cost a premium for the high-performance product that continues to at the present time. In an try and increase the lineup with a mid-range providing, WD launched the P40 Sport Drive SSD with very comparable specs (as much as 2000 MBps) earlier this yr at a a lot cheaper price level.

The WD_BLACK P40 Sport Drive SSD retains the economic design and look of its premium sibling, whereas being barely extra compact. One of many key updates appreciated by the goal market is the addition of RGB lighting (controllable through WD’s dashboard software program) to the case. As a substitute of supplying two separate cables, WD is offering a single Kind-C to Kind-C cable with an connected Kind-C to Kind-A adapter.

WD_BLACK P40 Sport Drive SSD – Package deal Contents

The strong aluminum metallic casing lends a rugged look to the drive, and lays to relaxation any potential thermal considerations throughout operation.

CrystalDiskInfo offers a fast overview of the PSSD as seen by the host system. The P40 assist S.M.A.R.T passthrough and TRIM, as proven within the screenshot beneath. In comparison with the DRAM-equipped SN750E used within the P50, WD is utilizing a DRAM-less SN560E within the P40. The price-savings translate to the cheaper price on the P40 in comparison with the P50.

S.M.A.R.T Passthrough – CrystalDiskInfo
WD_BLACK P40 1TBWD_BLACK P50 1TBKingston XS2000 1TBOWC Envoy Professional Elektron 1TBSeagate FireCuda 1TBSilverstone MS12Samsung T7 Contact 1TB	WD_BLACK P50 1TBKingston XS2000 1TBOWC Envoy Professional Elektron 1TBSeagate FireCuda 1TBSilverstone MS12Samsung T7 Contact 1TBWD_BLACK P40 1TB

The desk beneath presents a comparative view of the specs of the completely different storage bridges offered on this overview.

Previous to wanting on the benchmark numbers, energy consumption, and thermal resolution effectiveness, an outline of the testbed setup and analysis methodology is offered.

Testbed Setup and Analysis Methodology

Direct-attached storage units are evaluated utilizing the Quartz Canyon NUC (primarily, the Xeon / ECC model of the Ghost Canyon NUC) configured with 2x 16GB DDR4-2667 ECC SODIMMs and a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD – the IM2P33E8 1TB from ADATA.

Essentially the most engaging facet of the Quartz Canyon NUC is the presence of two PCIe slots (electrically, x16 and x4) for add-in playing cards. Within the absence of a discrete GPU – for which there is no such thing as a want in a DAS testbed – each slots can be found. The truth is, we additionally added a spare SanDisk Excessive PRO M.2 NVMe SSD to the CPU direct-attached M.2 22110 slot within the baseboard as a way to keep away from DMI bottlenecks when evaluating Thunderbolt 3 units. This nonetheless permits for 2 add-in playing cards working at x8 (x16 electrical) and x4 (x4 electrical). Because the Quartz Canyon NUC would not have a local USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port, Silverstone’s SST-ECU06 add-in card was put in within the x4 slot. All non-Thunderbolt units are examined utilizing the Kind-C port enabled by the SST-ECU06.

The specs of the testbed are summarized within the desk beneath:

The testbed {hardware} is just one phase of the analysis. Over the previous few years, the everyday direct-attached storage workloads for reminiscence playing cards have additionally developed. Excessive bit-rate 4K movies at 60fps have turn into fairly widespread, and 8K movies are beginning to make an look. Sport set up sizes have additionally grown steadily even in moveable recreation consoles, due to excessive decision textures and art work. Protecting these in thoughts, our analysis scheme for direct-attached storage units includes a number of workloads that are described intimately within the corresponding sections.

• Artificial workloads utilizing CrystalDiskMark and ATTO
• Actual-world entry traces utilizing PCMark 10’s storage benchmark
• Customized robocopy workloads reflective of typical DAS utilization
• Sequential write stress check

Within the subsequent part, we’ve an summary of the efficiency of the WD_BLACK P40 Sport Drive SSD in these benchmarks. Previous to offering concluding remarks, we’ve some observations on the gadget’s energy consumption numbers and thermal resolution additionally.