Question WD Blue SN550 NVMe model difference?

matheusber

Senior member
Jun 12, 2001
380
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81
Hi,

I bought the WDS100T2B0C part number and would like to know how can I identify it this is TLC or QLC equipped. I would like to buy another unit and will only do it if I can get the TLC one. Is there how to know this in advance? Thanks.
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
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There's a newer article from Tom's about Western Digital changing both the NAND and the controller.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd-blue-sn550-ssd-performance-cut-in-half-slc-runs-out

Hi,

I bought the WDS100T2B0C part number and would like to know how can I identify it this is TLC or QLC equipped. I would like to buy another unit and will only do it if I can get the TLC one. Is there how to know this in advance? Thanks.

You should be able to see what version you have by looking for these details from the newer article:

The WD Blue SN550 utilizes a WD controller (SanDisk 20-82-01008-A1) and SanDisk 96-layer BiCS4 3D TLC NAND flash with the 60523 1T00 part number. Expreview recently purchased a WD Blue SN550 that was manufactured on July 28, 2021. The publication noted that NAND flash on the new revision carries the 002031 1T00 part number.


Besides the dissimilarity in NAND flash, the new revision also comes with a different firmware. While the original WD Blue SN550 features the 211070WD firmware, the revised unit used the 233010WD firmware. Curiously, the WD Green SN350's firmware also start with 23.


The firmware for the previous and new revisions aren't interchangeable with each other. You can't flash the 233010WD firmware on a unit with the 211070WD firmware or vice versa. In fact, the Western Digital Dashboard software doesn't even pick up the 233010WD firmware for the older units. This seemingly tells us that something has changed on a hardware level. Since Expreview confirmed that the new revision still employs the SanDisk 20-82-01008-A1 SSD controller, the NAND flash is the only other possibility.
 

matheusber

Senior member
Jun 12, 2001
380
5
81
Thanks for both of you for the replies. I read it now, UsandThem, and now my issue is find out if I can rely that they didn't mix those information you posted and the part number WDS100T2B0C or WDS100T2B0B, as I can find just this information on online stores here where I live. I have a C unit and will look what numbers it brings. I aimed at TLC and hope WD didn't broke my dreams of not buying QLC this time. I have one and the wear level is not what I would expect. My Intel SATA SSD from 2012 are yet 100% on lifetime, says Intel software. The QLC I got two years agora are both on the 95% area.

Thanks again both of you.

matheus
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
126
FWIW, this is what I got last month (November 2021) from Amazon.ca:

WD_SN550_specs.png

It's the WDS500G2B0C model with 211210WD firmware.

(Note that the link width may be because it's a 2014 Mac mini. I don't think that supports anything faster.)
 

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,140
35
91
This is why I just bought a SN570, which replaces the SN550, as it has TLC, and much better performance than SN550. I ran it with CDM and was hitting the advertised speeds of 3500 MB/s read and about 3000 MB/s write, Q8T1 sequential. The SN570 is so new that I can't even seem to register the drive for warranty purposes.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
126
This is why I just bought a SN570, which replaces the SN550, as it has TLC, and much better performance than SN550. I ran it with CDM and was hitting the advertised speeds of 3500 MB/s read and about 3000 MB/s write, Q8T1 sequential. The SN570 is so new that I can't even seem to register the drive for warranty purposes.
I'm curious as to the power management characteristics on the SN570.
 

taisingera

Golden Member
Dec 27, 2005
1,140
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91
On the sticker, it says 3.3 V and 1.8A. WD seems to hype up the low power consumption of the drive. I am using it in a desktop so I can't speak of how little power it is using.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
126
This is why I just bought a SN570, which replaces the SN550, as it has TLC, and much better performance than SN550. I ran it with CDM and was hitting the advertised speeds of 3500 MB/s read and about 3000 MB/s write, Q8T1 sequential. The SN570 is so new that I can't even seem to register the drive for warranty purposes.
According to reviews the SN570 does better than the SN550 in most measures but the SN570 slows down severely when it comes to large sequential writes. After about 15 GB writes, it falls to SATA speeds.

F7D017E6-D1BA-4F46-B5DA-52FF986AAB4E.png

That may or may not matter depending on usage but it’s good to be aware of.

On the sticker, it says 3.3 V and 1.8A. WD seems to hype up the low power consumption of the drive. I am using it in a desktop so I can't speak of how little power it is using.
That’s similar to the SN550, but I guess I should have been more clear. I am wondering how it performs without all the power management features turned on. This can be helpful to replicate how it might perform in older machines and in Macs. For Macs, Apple generally only activates all the power management features for their OEM drives and not third party drives. You can get around this by installing third party kernel extensions in macOS but that can introduce other problems.

AnandTech has done reviews in the past with power management on and off, so it will be good if they can do that with the SN570. For example, the SN550 will draw 1 Watt at idle in a Mac. That’s roughly 3X the power of an OEM drive, whereas the Crucial P2 is low even without those extra power management features turned on.
 
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Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
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On the sticker, it says 3.3 V and 1.8A. WD seems to hype up the low power consumption of the drive. I am using it in a desktop so I can't speak of how little power it is using.

M.2 power consumption is low enough that it doesn't really matter in a desktop. It's lost somewhere in the PSUs efficiency. Or lack thereof. If you running multiple drives, it's a good idea to keep an eye on the 3.3V rail, as modern PSUs aren't rated that high on it.

Where it can matter a bit if it's a high performance drive that needs a bit of extra cooling.