You may be wondering why your WD NAS is no longer visible in Windows 10.
Where did it go? How do you get it back?
Find out why your WD NAS cannot no longer be seen in Windows, and what are the solutions!
WD NAS Can’t Be Seen In Windows : What Happened?
You may have been using your WD NAS for some time, but one day, its network share – the “drive” that you directly access – can no longer be seen in Windows 10.
The NAS links in Windows File Explorer will only lead you to the login page for the WD NAS management page, not the actual drive where you can directly read, copy, write or edit your files.
All these NAS issues are happening because Microsoft disabled the Network Browse function from Windows 10 v1709 onwards.
The problems started after Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 1709, which :
The Computer Browser service relies on the SMB 1.0 protocol to discover network devices and display them in the Windows Network Neighbourhood.
Disabling SMB 1.0 breaks the Computer Browser service, so it is automatically uninstalled and your NAS drives “disappear” from Network Neighbourhood.
Disabling guest access prevents guest or public access to your NAS drives, even to folders you specifically set to allow for public access. Hence, the Public folder they had access to earlier “disappears”.
Why Did Microsoft Disable Those Network Features?
The SMB1 network protocol was first implemented in Windows back in 1992, so it’s old… very old.
It’s so old that it lacks encryption. Everything transmitted via SMB1 can be captured and read, and even modified, by any attacker who gains access to the network.
Guest logins even on SMB2 do not support standard security features like signing and encryption. This makes them vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
That’s why Microsoft (finally) disabled them both, starting with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 1709.
WD NAS Can’t Be Seen In Windows : Before We Start…
Preliminary Step #1 : Update Your NAS
Before you do anything, you should log into your WD NAS management system and update its firmware, in case it’s not already set to automatically update.
Updating its firmware will ensure that your NAS supports at least SMB 2, if not SMB 3 as well.
WD NAS
Windows URL
macOS URL
My Cloud EX2100
http://wdmycloudex2100
http://wdmycloudex2100.local
My Cloud DL2100
http://wdmyclouddl2100
http://wdmyclouddl2100.local
My Cloud EX4100
http://wdmycloudex4100
http://wdmycloudex4100.local
My Cloud DL4100
http://wdmyclouddl4100
http://wdmyclouddl4100.local
Preliminary Step #2 : Use A Higher SMB Protocol
Then, enable the highest SMB protocol your WD NAS supports (Settings > Network). Set it to SMB 3 if possible.
This will ensure that both your WD NAS and your network support the most secure network protocol possible, for your security.
WD NAS Can’t Be Seen In Windows : The Solutions!
Best Solution : Map Your WD NAS By Device Name
The best way is to manually map your WD NAS by its device name. This lets you use the more secure SMB2 or SMB3 network protocols, with direct access to your files as usual.
Determine your WD NAS network path, which is based on the device name.If you changed your WD NAS device name to TechARPCloud (for example), the network name will be \\TechARPCloudHere is a list of default network paths for different WD NAS :
WD NAS
Default Network Path
My Cloud Home
\\MYCLOUD-last 6 digits of serial number
Example : \\MYCLOUD-123456
My Cloud Home Duo
My Cloud
\\WDMYCLOUD
My Cloud Mirror
\\WDMYCLOUDMIRROR
My Cloud Mirror Gen 2
My Cloud EX2
\\WDMYCLOUDEX2
My Cloud EX2 Ultra
\\MYCLOUDEX2ULTRA
My Cloud EX4
\\WDMYCLOUDEX4
My Cloud EX2100
\\WDMYCLOUDEX2100
My Cloud EX4100
\\WDMYCLOUDEX4100
My Cloud DL2100
\\WDMYCLOUDDL2100
My Cloud DL4100
\\WDMYCLOUDDL4100
My Cloud PR2100
\\MYCLOUDPR2100
My Cloud PR4100
\\MYCLOUDPR2100
Open Windows File Explorer and click on Network on the left pane.
Key in the network path of the WD NAS, which is based on its device name. Make sure you include \\ before the network path.
You will be asked to key in a user name and password.
This can be the administrator’s login, or the login of any registered user of your WD NAS.
Remember – Windows 10 no longer allows guest logins or public access. So you will need to create a password-protected account even for guests to use.
Once you successfully authenticate your user name and password, the network shares of your WD NAS will become visible in File Explorer under Network!You can stop here, but you will need to keep keying in the network path and login to access your NAS every time you boot into Windows.
For more convenience, you can create a password-protected Private Share.Start by right-clicking on a network share from your WD NAS and select Map network drive…
Select a drive letter for the network share.
Check Reconnect at sign-in if you don’t want to automatically log into the drive.
Then click Finish to map the drive.
That’s it! If you expand This PC in Windows File Explorer, you should now see that the WD NAS network drive has now been mapped by its device name!
Alternate Solution : Enable Network Discovery Without SMB1
This Windows 10 workaround can be used if your WD NAS supports SMB2 or SMB3 and you prefer not to map the network drives.
Go to Windows Services.
Start these two services :
– Function Discovery Provider Host
– Function Discovery Resource Publication
Set the Startup type for both those services to Automatic (Delayed Start).
Open Windows File Explorer and go to Network.
When prompted, enable Network Discovery.
Your WD NAS shares should now be visible in Windows File Explorer.
Worst Case Solution : Enable Network Discovery Without SMB1
This should only be attempted if your WD NAS simply cannot support SMB2 or SMB3, and can only use SMB1.
Go to Control Panel > Programs.
Click on Turn Windows features on or off.
Expand the SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support option.
Check the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client option.
Click the OK button.
Restart Windows 10
After Windows 10 restarts, your WD NAS shares should now be visible in Windows File Explorer.
If you like this review, please support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Tech ARP is now 20 years old! To celebrate, we partnered up with many of the world’s TOP BRANDS to thank you all for your loyal support with a TWENTY-WEEK GIVEAWAY! 😲 😲 😲
Tech ARP Is 20 Years Old & Going Strong!
Time sure FLIES when you are having fun! Twenty years ago, Ken, Chai and I got together to rebrand Adrian’s Rojak Pot as Tech ARP. We were having trouble explaining what rojak was, and that pot did not refer to marijuana / cannabis! 😂😂😂
That was in the good old days of sawing off pipe end caps to turn into CPU water coolers, and modifying SLAB (sealed lead acid batteries) into the world’s first power bank for our PDAs (remember those?).
Those sure were CRAZY DAYS! 😂😂😂
Somehow, we worked our way to the forefront of motherboard technology with our seminal BIOS Optimization Guide, which later got published as Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier : The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide for PCs.
I don’t know how I did it, but somehow, we did all those crazy stuff while I was still in medical school! CRAZY days indeed!
Over the years, we moved from strength to strength, with Ken hand-developing our own backend, and Chai nurturing our budding forums.
Somehow, we persevered and by the miracle of surviving the passage of time, Tech ARP is Malaysia’s oldest tech website!
Today, we are still pretty much the same team, with Falcone, Dashken, Carolyn, Hui Xin, Alyssa, Kar Hoe and Brian Chong helping us out here and there. Thank you, guys!
The Tech ARP 20-Week Giveaway
To thank you all for sharing our crazy journey over the years, we have prepared a 20-week giveaway contest. Actually, a series of twenty weekly giveaway contests.
We worked with many of the world’s TOP BRANDS to bring you all some goodies. We are also sponsoring some of these giveaways ourselves. Here are some of the brands that will be sponsoring their own giveaways here soon :
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Acer – Special Edition Laptop!
AMD – AMD Ryzen CPUs!
BenQ – MONITOR!
Cooler Master – CPU coolers, gaming keyboards and more!
Dell – POWER COMPANIONS, speakers and more!
Edifier – Headphones!
GIGABYTE – Motherboards!
TP-LINK
Western Digital – SSDs + HDDs!
Where possible, we are opening up the giveaways WORLDWIDE. But where our brand partners wish to restrict their giveaways to certain regions or countries, we will notify you of that.
All we ask is that you use your genuine personal Facebook account in our Facebook contests. We will automatically disqualify anyone who uses a Facebook account that is primarily used for contests.
Crowdfunding Tech ARP
As we have been for the last twenty years, Tech ARP is a crowdfunded website. We do NOT charge for our articles. So if you wish to help us out, please feel free to donate to our cause. Thank you!
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 1 Giveaway
To kick things off, we are giving away the following prizes for the first week!
The Awesome Prize : Microsoft Lumia 950 Smartphone + Microsoft Display Dock + Tempered Glass Screen Protector
Cool Prize #1 : TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Cool Prize #2 : TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Cool Prize #3 : Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger with two USB ports
Cool Prize #4 : Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger with two USB ports
Contest Period :31 August to 7 September 2018
Eligibility :WORLDWIDE *
* Tech ARP will pay for standard shipping, but you may opt to pay for expedited or express shipping services.
Everyone definitely wants The Awesome Prize, but we want to know which of the Cool Prizes you prefer – the Groovi Ripple, or the Olike QC 3.0 car charger.
So post a comment in our official Facebook post on the Week 1 Giveaway, and tell us which you prefer :
a) TP-Link Groovi Ripple, or
b) Olike QC 3.0 Car Charger
BONUS :Liking and sharing our posts, or commenting and tagging your friends, will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
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At the end of the contest, we will randomly select FIVE contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the five verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Awesome Prize winner will be randomly selected from that pool.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
Week 1 Giveaway Winners!
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 1 Giveaway!
Mohd Fahmi wins the Microsoft Lumia 950 Smartphone + Microsoft Display Dock + Tempered Glass Screen Protector!
Faridah Akmal wins a TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker!
Alister Lok wins a TP-Link Groovi Ripple Portable Bluetooth Speaker!
Mohd Khairul Zaman wins an Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger!
Ivan Ng wins an Olike Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Car Charger!
Winners, please send your full details to contest @ techarp.com.
Full Name : Full Address : Mobile / Contact Number : Email Address :
LAST CALL : Those who do not submit their details by 12 PM, Friday, 19 October 2018 will forfeit their prizes.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 2 Giveaway
This week, Dell will be giving away prizes worth more than RM 2,000 / $500!
The Awesome Prizes : Dell PW7015M Power Companion (2 units)
Great Prizes : Dell AE215 Speaker System (2 units)
Meet the Dell Power Companion – a handy device that powers select Dell notebooks and ultrabooks, as well as up to two smartphones, tablets or other USB-enabled devices, ensuring users can be more productive on-the-go.
Lightweight and compact, and featuring a 12,000 mAh 4-cell battery that provides reliable power, this compact power solution is designed to deliver in-bag charging so you can stay powered without adding bulk to your bag.
The Dell 2.0 Speaker System (AE215) provides high quality sound experience that fits neatly into almost any desktop setup. With premium sound professionally tuned by award-winning Waves Maxx Audio and a compact and modern design, the speakers deliver a surprising amount of full, deep bass without adding clutter to your desk.
In addition, the Dell AE215 speakers also feature a headphone jack so you can plug in your favourite headphones for a private listening experience without interruptions.
The Dell WM514 Wireless Laser Mouse is a stylish, high-precision wireless mouse with long battery life. Its laser tracking feature allows for smooth tracking on virtually any surface, and provides quick response times and accurate clicking.
There is no greater option for a clutter-free workspace with its compact size, and unrestricted performance that allows mobile professionals to have all of the expected conveniences of a wireless mouse. The WM514 is also designed for comfort, allowing users to work or play for longer periods without the usual stress on the wrists or hands.
Dell’s AX210 offers great sound for a PC desk with little room. These speakers are a true upgrade in audio quality and functionality. Designed to complement any Dell computer, the speakers give users a unified aesthetic at home or in the office.
Whether you’re enjoying the latest movie, playing an action-packed game, or participating in a video conference, you will be at the center of excellent sound.
Contest Period :8 to 21 September 2018
Eligibility :WORLDWIDE *
* Tech ARP will pay for standard shipping, but you may opt to pay for expedited or express shipping services.
Tell us the sequence of the Great, Cool or Nice prizes that you prefer!
If you want a shot at winning the Awesome Prize, you will need to share our contest post in Facebook. If you want more chances to win the Awesome Prize, tag your friendsin our our contest post, or comment or like it.
Two winners will be randomly selected out of that poolto win an Awesome Prize each.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from contestants who correctly answered all five questions, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may try multiple times but can only win one prize. If he/she has already won, a new contestant will be randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Week 2 Giveaway Winners!
Here are the correct answers :
How many cells are there in the Dell PW7015M Power Companion?
– 4 Cells
What kind of sensor does the Dell WM514 wireless mouse use?
– Laser
How many models are in the 2018 Dell Precision 3000 Series Workstation family? See https://is.gd/ZM3mPj
– 4
Which Australian university uses Dell Precision workstations for all its engineering requirements? See https://is.gd/Uwpn5w
– Monash University
What Corning technology is used in the Dell S2719DM monitor? See https://is.gd/5YcTTD
– Iris Glass
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 2 Giveaway!
Dell PW7015M Power Companion Winners
– zy****@gmail.com
– forbi****2k@yahoo.com
Dell AE215 Speaker System – vee***@hotmail.com
– wchian****@hotmail.com
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 3 Giveaway
For the third week, Tech ARP will be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
Awesome Prize #1 : honor Band SS smartwatch
Awesome Prize #2 : honor Band SS smartwatch
Cool Prize #1 : VR Box virtual reality glasses
Cool Prize #2 : VR Box virtual reality glasses
Cool Prize #3 : Kaspersky Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard
Cool Prize #4 : Kaspersky Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard
Cool Prize #5 : Honor Tripod Selfie Stick
Cool Prize #6 : Honor Tripod Selfie Stick
Contest Period :17 September to 30 September 2018
Eligibility :WORLDWIDE *
* Tech ARP will pay for standard shipping, but you may opt to pay for expedited or express shipping services.
SHARE the main contest post, and the prizes you want to win on your Facebook wall. Please make sure it is PUBLIC, so we can verify.
BONUS :Liking and sharing our posts, or commenting and tagging your friends, will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on our many Samsung Galaxy Note9 posts will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
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At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TEN contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the ten verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The two Awesome Prize winners will be randomly selected from that pool.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
Week 3 Giveaway Winners!
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 3 Giveaway!
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Isaac Lee Eng Quin
Awesome Prize #2 : Ken-Boon Teoh
Cool Prize #1 : Yee Mee Chan
Cool Prize #2 : Thomas George
Cool Prize #3 : Jireh Phan
Cool Prize #4 : Spectre Phang
Cool Prize #5 : Vicky Loo
Cool Prize #6 : Ilrelda Koh
Winners, please send your full details to contest @ techarp.com.
Full Name : Full Address : Mobile / Contact Number : Email Address :
Note :Please submit your details by 12 PM, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 or you may forfeit your prize! 😀
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 4 Giveaway
For the 4th week, BenQ and Tech ARP will be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
The BenQ EW277HDR Eye-Care monitor is part of a new range of BenQ Eye-Care monitors that feature the new Eye-Care technologies like Brightness Intelligence Plus and Low Blue Light.
BenQ specifically highlighted these HDR monitors (including the BenQ EW277HDR) as the best choices to be paired with the PlayStation 4 Pro or PlayStation 4. Here are their key specifications :
BenQ EW3270U
4K UHD resolution – 3840 x 2160 pixels, HDR
31.5-inch VA panel with 95% DCI-P3 colour gamut
Brightness Intelligence Plus, Low Blue Light, Flicker-free
Would you like to own the BenQ EW277HDR Eye-Care monitor? Here’s how!
Contest Period :24 September to 25 October 2018
Eligibility :Malaysia Only *
* Because it is large and fragile, we require the winner to collect the monitor from us in Selangor or Kuala Lumpur, with Penang as a possibility too. If necessary, the winner may send a representative. We will require a photo to be taken with the winner or representative, with some social media posts.
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Make sure you also use the #BenQPS4Monitor hashtag. You can tell us which Cool Prize you prefer, for example, or why you want to win the BenQ monitor.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use the #BenQPS4Monitor hashtag. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group, using the #BenQPS4Monitor hashtag.
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on our many Samsung Galaxy Note9 posts will give you a higher chance of winning The Awesome Prize or the prize you want!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
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At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TEN contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the ten verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Incredible Prize winner will be randomly selected from that pool.
The subsequent winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 5 Giveaway
For the fifth week, Tech ARP and Dotty’s will be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
Awesome Prizes #1 : 5 x iflix Subscription (1 Year)
Awesome Prizes #2 : 5 x Dotty’s RM 100 voucher
Contest Period :19 September to 29 October 2018
Eligibility :Malaysia Only (for Dotty’s) / Countries that iflix supports *
* The dotty vouchers are only valid in Malaysia. The iflix subscriptions are valid in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Morocco and Uganda.
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Make sure you tell us which prize you prefer using these hashtags – #IWantFREEiflix or #IWantFREEDottys.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use either hashtags. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group, using either hashtags..
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on any of our many Facebook posts will give you a higher chance of winning one of the Awesome prizes!
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
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At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TEN contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the ten verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Incredible Prize winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
Week 5 Giveaway Winners!
We are very excited to announce the winners for the Week 5 Giveaway!
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Franco Kailsan
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Liza Lee
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Mohd Fahmi
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Siew Hong Go
Awesome Prize #1 Winner : Haqeem Norazli
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Vee Fah
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Steven Khoo
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Chai Ser Loon
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Falcone
Awesome Prize #2 Winner : Cyrus Varrus
Winners, please send your full details to contest @ techarp.com.
Full Name : Full Address : Mobile / Contact Number : Email Address :
Note :Please submit your details by 12 PM, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 or you may forfeit your prize! 😀
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 6 Giveaway
For the sixth week, Pocophone be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
Awesome Prize : Pocophone F1
Cool Prize : Mi Band 2
Contest Period :1 November to 14 November 2018
Eligibility :Malaysia only for Pocophone F1, Worldwide for Mi Band 2
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Make sure you tell us which prize you prefer using these hashtags :
– #FreePocophoneF1 and #XiaomiMY, OR – #FreeMiBand2 and #XiaomiMY.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use either hashtags. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group, using either hashtags..
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on any of our many Facebook posts will give you a higher chance of winning one of the prizes!
Note : Use #FreePocophoneF1 if you are residing in Malaysia. It will qualify you for both the Pocophone F1 and the Mi Band 2. Use #FreeMiBand2 if you are residing outside of Malaysia. It will qualify you for the Mi Band 2.
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
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At the end of the contest, we will randomly select FIVE contestants.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the five verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Incredible Prize and Cool Prize winners will be randomly selected from that pool, with prize preference given to those who are selected first.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
20th Anniversary Week 7 Giveaway
For the seventh week, Western Digital be sponsoring these awesome prizes!
The WD Black NVMe SSD is dedicated for PC gamers who are looking to boost the performance of their gaming rigs.
Featuring sequential read/write speeds up to 3,400/2,800 MB/s, and the innovative Western Digital NVMe SSD storage architecture, it’s where blazing speed and top-tier performance combine to keep up with even the most demanding workloads. Innovative power management and thermal throttling consistently help prevent overheating to deliver smooth, fast performance.
With up to 600TBW, 1.75M hours MTTF and an amazing 5-years limited warranty, the WD Black NVMe SSD is the virtually invincible SSD you can rely on.
You can then :
a) Post a comment in the contest post, and tag your friends. Please let us know if you can self-collect the HDD using the hashtag #FreeHDD.
b) Sharethecontest post on your Facebook wall publicly, and use the #FreeHDD hashtag if you can self-collect the HDD. You can tag your friends too for extra credit.
c) Sharethecontest post in a relevant group. Please let us know if you can self-collect the HDD using the hashtag #FreeHDD.
BONUS :Likes, shares, comments or tags on any of our many Facebook posts will give you a higher chance of winning one of the prizes!
Collection : Winners of the HDDs must self-collect the WD Red hard disk drives in person, as we want to avoid the risk of damage during delivery. We can arrange to meet with the winners at these locations :
Selangor : Mutiara Damansara
Kuala Lumpur : TTDI
Penang : Seberang Jaya
Warranty : The drives are also provided as-is, without warranty from Western Digital or Tech ARP.
That’s it! It’s THAT simple!
Contest Mechanics
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At the end of the contest, we will randomly select TWENTY contestants who used the #FreeHDD hashtag.
If any contestant fails to meet any of the rules above, another contestant will be randomly selected.
The Likes, Shares, Comments and Tags of the twenty verified contestants in the Tech ARP Facebook page will be calculated.
The Cool Prize winners will then be randomly selected from the pool of verified contestants.
Each contestant may only win one prize, so if his/her number is selected again, it will be discarded and a new number randomly selected.
Got it? Go and try it out!
Note On Gaming Accounts : Contestants who use gaming accounts will be automatically disqualified. Please use your personal Facebook accounts.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Western Digital just announced three new open-source innovations to support its internal RISC-V SweRV Core development efforts and those of the growing RISC-V ecosystem. Learn more about Western Digital’s latest RISC-V move right here!
The New Western Digital RISC-V Developments
Western Digital’s Chief Technology Officer Martin Fink unveiled plans to release a new open source RISC-V core, an open standard initiative for cache-coherent memory over a network and an open source RISC-V instruction set simulator.
These innovations are expected to accelerate development of new open, purpose-built compute architectures for Big Data and Fast Data environments. Western Digital has taken an active role in helping to advance the RISC-V ecosystem.
This includes multiple related strategic investments and partnerships. Western Digital has also demonstrated progress toward its stated goal of transitioning one billion of the company’s processor cores to the RISC-V architecture.
“As Big Data and Fast Data continues to proliferate, purpose-built technologies are essential for unlocking the true value of data across today’s wide-ranging data-centric applications,” said Fink.
“Our SweRV Core and the new cache coherency fabric initiative demonstrate the significant possibilities that can be realized by bringing data closer to processing power.”
“These planned contributions to the open-source community and continued commitment of the RISC-V initiative offer exciting potential to accelerate collaborative innovation and data-driven discoveries.”
What Is RISC-V?
RISC-V is an open, scalable instruction set architecture that enables the diversity of Big Data and Fast Data applications and workloads proliferating in core data centers and in remote and mobile systems at the edge.
As an alternative to current, standard, general purpose compute architectures, RISC-V can be utilized to enable specialty processing, memory centric solutions, unique storage and flexible interconnect applications.
Western Digital is planning to open source its new RISC-V SweRV Core, which has a 2-way superscalar design. Western Digital’s RISC-V SweRV Core is a 32-bit, 9-stage pipeline core that allows several instructions to be loaded at once and execute simultaneously, shortening the time taken to run programs.
It is a compact, in-order core and runs at 4.9 CoreMarks/MHz. Its power-efficient design offers clock speeds of up to 1.8 GHz on a 28 nm CMOS process technology. The company plans to use the RISC-V SweRV Core in various internal embedded designs like flash controllers and SSDs.
Open sourcing the core is expected to drive development of new data-centric applications such as Internet of Things(IoT), secure processing, industrial controls and more.
OmniXtend
Western Digital’s OmniXtend is a new open approach to providing cache coherent memory over an Ethernet fabric. This memory-centric system architecture provides open standard interfaces for access and data sharing across processors, machine learning accelerators, GPUs, FPGAs and other components.
It is an open solution for efficiently attaching persistent memory to processors and offers potential support of future advanced fabrics that connect compute, storage, memory and I/O components.
SweRV Instruction Set Simulator (ISS)
Also introduced was its open-sourced SweRV Instruction Set Simulator (ISS) which offers full test bench support for use with RISC-V cores.
An ISS is a computer program that simulates the execution of instructions of a processor. It allows external events to be modeled, such as interrupts and bus errors, and assures the RISC-V core is functioning properly.
The company utilized the SweRV ISS to rigorously simulate and validate the SweRV Core with more than 10 billion instructions executed. Western Digital expects both the SweRV Core and SweRV ISS will help to accelerate the industry’s move to an open source instruction set architecture.
“Speeds, feeds, and brute compute is no longer the winning formula for edge and endpoint computing. As more data moves to the edge for real-time processing and inferencing, configurable architectures will be better suited to meet the needs of heavy and often dynamic application workloads, especially for those driven by artificial intelligence and Internet of Things,” said Mario Morales, program vice president, enabling technologies and semiconductors, IDC. “Power efficiency, configurability, and low power will become the key metrics for edge and endpoint computing architectures.”
Availability + Resources
Western Digital’s SweRV ISS and OmniXtend architecture are available now for download at the following locations:
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Western Digital today announced the Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Extension Drive – their first product to deliver better in-memory system capacity and performance to drive today’s real-time analytics and business insights.
“Today’s requirement for faster analytics, data processing, cloud services and high-performance computing (HPC) is increasing demand for in-memory computing across a variety of industries, including healthcare, telecommunications and IT, and retail,” said Ashish Nadkarni, group vice president, IDC. “By expanding in-memory capacity, the Ultrastar memory drive helps alleviate the high cost of adding extra DRAM, as well as addresses the physical limitations of available DIMM slots, where scaling is either cost-prohibitive or nearly impossible.”
The WD Ultrastar DC ME200 Memory Drive
The Ultrastar DC ME200 memory drive provides cost-efficient, near-DRAM performance for companies to expand memory pools sizes up to 8X the DRAM capacity, while offering substantial CAPEX and OPEX savings.
With larger memory pools, application developers can take advantage of memory-aware performance and capacity optimizations, and expand faster data processing across many applications and workloads. The Ultrastar memory drive is ideal for in-memory applications such as Redis, Memcached, Apache Spark and large-scale databases, providing higher capacities over current storage-class memory products.
The Ultrastar memory drive is drop-in ready and PCIe-device compatible with most Intel x86 servers. Available in 1 TiB, 2 TiB and 4 TiB, the solution requires no modifications to the operating system, system hardware, firmware or application stacks.
For expandability, a 1U server can typically support up to 24TiB of system memory using the Ultrastar DC ME200 drive for in-memory compute clusters. Supported server interfaces are NVMe U.2 and PCIe AIC (add-in-card) HH-HL.
The WD Ultrastar DC ME200 Availability
The Ultrastar DC ME200 memory drive is currently available and sampling with select customers.
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The WD Black NVMe SSD may be fast, but WD is now introducing a faster WD Black 3D NVMe SSD that combines a new NVMe controller with 3D NAND! Check out the details below!
Today, they introduced the new WD Black 3D NVMe SSD, that features their own SSD architecture and controller, and paired with their 3D NAND. It was engineered from the ground up on a new NVMe architecture, using a new NVMe SSD controller paired with their 3D NAND.
The WD Black 3D NVMe SSD (Price Check) boasts a sequential read speed of up to 3.4 GB/s, and a sequential write speed of up to 2.8 GB/s! It also delivers up to 500,000 random read IOPS, and 400,000 random write IOPS, so it will easily handle any kind of workload, even the most intensive multi-threaded applications.
It comes in three capacities – 1 TB, 500 GB and 250 GB. The 1 TB model can handle up to 600 terabytes of writes (TBW) in its lifetime, while the 500 GB model can handle 300 TBW and the 250 GB model will handle up to 200 TBW.
2018 WD Black 3D NVMe SSD Specifications
Specifications
1 TB Black 3D NVMe
500 GB Black 3D NVMe
250 GB Black 3D NVMe
Model Number
WDS100T2X0C
WDS500G2X0C
WDS250G2X0C
Form Factor
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
Interface
POIe 3.0 x8 (4 lanes)
POIe 3.0 x8 (4 lanes)
POIe 3.0 x8 (4 lanes)
Sequential Read
3.4 GB/s
3.4 GB/s
3.0 GB/s
Sequential Write
2.8 GB/s
2.4 GB/s
1.6 GB/s
Random Read
500,000 IOPS
410,000 IOPS
220,000 IOPS
Random Write
400,000 IOPS
330,000 IOPS
170,000 IOPS
Endurance
600 TBW
300 TBW
200 TBW
MTTF
1.75 million hours
1.75 million hours
1.75 million hours
Average Active Power
140 mW
110 mW
110 mW
Low Power (PS3)
100 mW
70 mW
70 mW
Slumber (PS4)
2.5 mW
2.5 mW
2.5 mW
Operating Temperature
0 °C to 70 °C
0 °C to 70 °C
0 °C to 70 °C
Shock
1,500 G
1,500 G
1,500 G
Operating Vibration
5.0 gRMS, 10–2000 Hz, 3 axes
5.0 gRMS, 10–2000 Hz, 3 axes
5.0 gRMS, 10–2000 Hz, 3 axes
Dimensions
22 mm wide
80 mm long
2.38 mm thick
22 mm wide
80 mm long
2.38 mm thick
22 mm wide
80 mm long
2.38 mm thick
Weight
7.5 g
7.5 g
7.5 g
Warranty
5 years
5 years
5 years
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2018 WD Black 3D NVMe SSD Price + Availability
The new WD Black 3D NVMe SSD (Price Check) is available at the end of July 2018 at the following price points :
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Western Digital today launched two portable SSD drives – the My Passport Wireless SSD and the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. Let’s hear from WD’s Albert Chang on the key features of these new portable SSD drives. He will also introduce the upcoming G-Technology family of professional storage solutions!
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD
The rugged SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (Price Check) delivers high-speed transfers with up to 550MB/s read speeds, making it perfect for saving and editing high resolution photos and videos. Its IP55 dust- and water-resistance rating mean it can stand up to hazards such as rain, splashes, spills and dust.
Offered in capacities up to 2 TB, the new SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (Price Check) is perfect for extensive photo shoots – giving users the capacity to take their portfolio with them on the go, or back up instantly while out in the field.
High-speed transfers with up to 550MB/s read speeds
Rugged, water- and dust-resistant (IP55 rated)
Shock-resistant solid state core for greater durability
Compact and designed to fit in the palm of your hand
Works with both PC and Mac computers and comes with a 3-year limited warranty
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (Price Check) delivers high-performance and capacity in a pocket-sized drive.
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (Price Check) has a three-year limited warranty and is available now at all leading IT retail outlets across Malaysia & online stores including Lazada, 11street and Shopee. Here are its Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) :
G-Technology is a Western Digital brand that focuses on professional-grade storage solutions. Albert gives us a quick overview of G-Technology, and the kind of storage drives they create.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
Western Digital today launched two portable SSD drives – the My Passport Wireless SSD and the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD. Let’s hear from WD’s Albert Chang on the key features of these new portable SSD drives. He will also introduce the upcoming G-Technology family of professional storage solutions!
My Passport Wireless SSD
The new My Passport Wireless SSD (Price Check) is an all in one portable drive that helps preserve photos and videos captured on cameras or drones. The device features one-touch card copy to enable editing and sharing of content out in the field, as well as a new capability to directly access the device within third-party mobile creative apps, like FiLMiC Pro and LumaFusion.
Built-in SD card reader with up to 65 MB/s read speeds and one-touch copy button that makes it easy to quickly back up photos and videos from an SD card without a computer or additional software
Durable, shock-resistant SSD inside that helps keep content safe from shock, vibrations and drops up to one (1) meter, even when the drive is in operation
Fast SSD transfer speeds (up to 390 MB/s read) when using the USB 3.0 port to move files to and from PC or Mac computers
All-day battery life (up to 10 hours of continuous use)
Wirelessly stream 4K videos and view photos with the My Cloud mobile app
The My Passport Wireless SSD (Price Check) is backed by a two-year limited warranty and will be available by end of July 2018 at all leading IT retail outlets across Malaysia & online stores including Lazada, 11street and Shopee. Here are its Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) :
G-Technology is a Western Digital brand that focuses on professional-grade storage solutions. Albert gives us a quick overview of G-Technology, and the kind of storage drives they create.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
The highlight of the WD Black NVMe SSD showcase at Computex 2018 was the massive 8TB SSD RAID array that is as fast as DDR4-2400 memory! Wonder how they accomplished this? Read on and find out!
Updated at 2018-06-22 : Our sincere apologies. We mixed up the system specifications for this SSD RAID Array. It’s actually an AMD Ryzen Threadripper system. We have since corrected the article to reflect this.
This 8TB SSD Is As Fast As DDR4 Memory!
As you can see here, Western Digital hit a throughput of 19 GB/s with the Western Digital Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check)! That is as fast as single-channel DDR4-2400 memory!
How To Create This Super-Fast 8TB SSD
The secret? Andrew Vo explains how they created this super-fast 8TB SSD RAID array using the Western Digital Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check) in this video.
This is what you will need, if you plan to replicate their project :
Each WD Black NVMe SSD is capable of a peak transfer rate of 2.8 GB/s (write) to 3.4 GB/s (read), so eight of them would have a theoretical throughput limit of 22.4 to 27.2 GB/s!
To hit 19 GB/s, you need to create a RAID 0 array of those eight 1 TB WD Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check), but you can’t use the motherboard’s RAID feature because you would be limited by the 32 Gbps / 4 GB/s DMI bottleneck.
Intel VROC
The ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 Card (Price Check) supports Intel Virtual RAID on CPU (VROC), which reassigns unused PCIe lanes of an Intel Skylake or Coffee Lake processor to boost transfer rates up to 128 Gbps or 16 GB/s.
Of course, those are the theoretical limits, and the actual throughput will be considerably lower than 16 GB/s. To go beyond that, you will need two ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 Cards (Price Check).
AMD Ryzen Threadripper
However, Western Digital used an AMD Ryzen Threadripper system instead. The Threadripper processor has 64 PCIe lanes – plenty for two Hyper M.2 X16 Card (Price Check).
In the end, Western Digital only hit 19 GB/s with two of these cards. This is 30% lower than the theoretical capability of a perfect RAID 0 array of eight 1 TB WD Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check), and 40% lower than the theoretical capability of two ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 Cards (Price Check).
However, without resorting to this method, a motherboard-based RAID 0 array of eight 1 TB WD Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check) would only deliver a maximum transfer rate of just 4 GB/s. Even that’s in a perfect world.
How Much Does This Super-Fast SSD RAID Array Cost?
Each 1 TB WD Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check) currently costs $399.99. So the eight SSDs alone cost a princely US$ 3,192 / € 2,765 / RM 12,779.
The ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 Card (Price Check) is much cheaper at just $59 each. That’s an additional US$ 118 / € 102 / RM 472.
All in, this 8 TB SSD RAID array will set you back US$ 3,247/ € 2,812 / RM 12,999. And that does not include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper system=.
No doubt, this is a very expensive project. But think about it – you now have a massive 8 TB SSD RAID 0 array that is as fast as DDR4-2400 memory!
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In addition to their WD Black NVMe SSD showcase, Western Digital also showed off their wide range of portable SSD drives under the SanDisk, WD and G-Technology brands. Join us for our tour of the WD Portable SSD showcase at Computex 2018!
The WD Portable SSD Showcas
Western Digital currently has portable SSDs under three brands – SanDisk, WD and G-Technology. Western Digital’s Jared Peck gives us a tour of these portable SSDs, and their key features. He even demonstrates how crushproof the G-DRIVE portable SSD is!
SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD
The SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD is a tough, IP55 dust- and water-resistant drive. It offers capacities up to 2 TB, with transfer rates of up to 550 MB/s.
WD is increasing the capacity of their My Passport SSD drive to 2 TB. It offers up to 540 MB/s in transfer rate, with 256-bit AES hardware encryption built-in.
The WD My Passport Wireless SSD is the SSD version of the WD My Passport Wireless drive. Designed for photographers on-the-go, it not only comes with an internal battery and WiFi-AC connectivity, it also has a SD card reader built-in.
The G-Technology G-DRIVE Mobile SSD has a built-in heatsink that keeps the drive cool and makes it crushproof (up to 450 kg / 1000 lbs). It is also IP67 dust- and water-resistant.
The G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSD uses NVMe and Thunderbolt 3 technologies to achieve transfer rates of up to 2,800 MB/s! It also comes with a heatsink core that doubles as a crushproof cage (up to 450 kg / 1000 lbs).
This is a desktop version of the G-DRIVE Mobile Pro drive above, although it’s arguably portable as well. It has an enterprise-grade SSD inside, with storage capacities of up to 7.68 GB, and transfer rates of up to 2,800 MB/s. You can even daisy-chain multiple G-DRIVE Pro SSDs together.
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On our second day at Computex 2018, we visited the WD Black NVMe SSD showcase, where Western Digital showed off how they achieved a phenomenal 19 GB/s throughput with this SSD! They also showcased a number of interesting gaming PCs powered by the WD Black NVMe SSD. Let’s take a look!
WD Black NVMe SSD Showcase @ Computex 2018
Western Digital’s Andrew Vo took us on a tour of the WD Black NVMe SSD showcase. He points out that the Western Digital Black NVMe SSD (Price Check) is their first 3D NAND product in the NVMe form factor, delivering 6X the performance of SATA drives.
Here are the WD Black NVMe SSD’s specifications :
Specifications
1 TB WD Black NVMe SSD
500 GB WD Black NVMe SSD
250 GB WD Black NVMe SSD
Model Number
WDS100T2X0C
WDS500G2X0C
WDS250G2X0C
Storage Capacity
1000 GB
500 GB
250 GB
Form Factor
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
M.2 2280
Interface
PCIe x4 Gen3
- up to 8 Gb/s
PCIe x4 Gen3
- up to 8 Gb/s
PCIe x4 Gen3
- up to 8 Gb/s
Sequential Read Speed
3,400 MB/s
3,400 MB/s
3,000 MB/s
Sequential Write Speed
2,800 MB/s
2,500 MB/s
1,600 MB/s
Random Read Speed
2,000 MB/s
1,640 MB/s
880 MB/s
Random Write Speed
1,600 MB/s
1,320 MB/s
680 MB/s
Endurance
600 TBW
300 TBW
200 TBW
Reliability (MTTF)
1.75 million hours
1.75 million hours
1.75 million hours
Power Consumption (Active)
140 W
110 W
110 W
Power Consumption (Sleep)
100 mW
70 mW
70 mW
Operating Temperature
0 °C to 70 °C
32 °F to 158 °F
0 °C to 70 °C
32 °F to 158 °F
0 °C to 70 °C
32 °F to 158 °F
Non-Operating Temperature
-55 °C to 85 °C
-67 °F to 185 °F
-55 °C to 85 °C
-67 °F to 185 °F
-55 °C to 85 °C
-67 °F to 185 °F
Shock
1,500 G @ 0.5 ms half sine
1,500 G @ 0.5 ms half sine
1,500 G @ 0.5 ms half sine
Dimensions
22 mm wide
80 mm long
2.38 mm thick
22 mm wide
80 mm long
2.38 mm thick
22 mm wide
80 mm long
2.38 mm thick
Weight
7.5 g
7.5 g
7.5 g
Limited Warranty
5 years
5 years
5 years
And here are some purchase links for these Western Digital SSDs :
Andrew also showed us how they hit a throughput of 19 GB/s with the Western Digital Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check)!
The secret? Use eight 1 TB WD Black NVMe SSDs (Price Check) in a RAID array! Each of those Western Digital SSDs is capable of a peak transfer rate of 2.8 GB/s (write) to 3.4 GB/s (read), so eight of them would have a theoretical throughput limit of 22.4 to 27.2 GB/s!
Western Digital also showed off several gaming PCs at their showcase. These were set-up for the explicit purpose of letting people try out and see how fast these gaming PCs ran with the WD Black NVMe SSD,
InWin WINBOT Gaming PC
This magnificent gaming PC is built using the InWin WINBOT chassis – an aluminium and plexiglass marvel that supports the largest E-ATX motherboards, and up to four SATA drives. It is available in three colour options – Black + Red, Black + Green and White + Blue.
iBuyPower Snowblind Gaming PC
The iBuyPower Snowblind gaming PC looks like a perfectly ordinary gaming PC, until you notice the transparent LCD display on its side! This large 1280 x 1024 transparent LCD display lets you display anything you want – your favourite photos or video clips – while still letting you see your PC components through it!
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
This is the fourth and last day of our LIVE COVERAGE of Computex 2018. You can follow us LIVE on theTech ARP Facebook page or keep track on this article.
This article will be updated live with pictures and details as and when they come in. Videos will be inserted at the end of every night, as they take time to process and upload.
The Special Acer Showcase @ Computex 2018
Acer really went all out this Computex… filling up an entire avenue with these showcase booths.
A massive Acer showcase at Xinyi Plaza.
This is the new Acer Predator Helios 500 gaming laptop, powered by the new AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and Radeon RX Vega graphics!
And this is the new Acer Predator Helios 300 Special Edition gaming laptop!
Acer also introduced a new Acer Nitro 50 gaming PC. Small but powerful. Comes with option of Intel or AMD processors.
And if you want nothing but the best, here is the new Acer Predator Orion 9000! 😱
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We Drop By Western Digital Again!
WD and I go waaaaaaayyyyy back! 😅😅😅 so I popped over to say adieu! We have more from WD to show you later.
Jared Peck and Albert Chang (not here) are such awesome dudes to chat with. May we meet again…soon!
Goodbye, Taipei!
We had to cut short our Computex coverage this year. But we still have many pictures, videos and articles to share with you shortly.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
This is the second day of our LIVE COVERAGE of Computex 2018. You can follow us LIVE on theTech ARP Facebook page or keep track on this article. Computex 2018 began yesterday and we will be here until tomorrow!
This article will be updated live with pictures and details as and when they come in. Videos will be inserted at the end of every night, as they take time to process and upload.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
GIGABYTE Showcase @ Taipei 101
Time to head up to the 36th floor of Taipei 101!
View from the GIGABYTE and AORUS showrooms on the 36th floor of Taipei 101.
Now you can game on a Mac with the GIGABYTE RX580 Gaming Box!
The GIGABYTE RX580 Gaming Box turns you MacBook and MacBook Pro into a gaming machine!
This is the new GIGABYTE Sabre 17 gaming laptop.
And this is the new GIGABYTE Sabre 15 gaming laptop.
Those are live fish swimming in the water.
The entire system is actually soaked in mineral oil under the water.
With my GIGABYTE hosts!
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AORUS Showcase @ Taipei 101
The top-secret AORUS B450 PRO WiFi motherboard
And this is the top-secret X399 Refresh motherboard… tadaaaa… video coming up soon!
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Intel Computex 2018 Press Conference with Gregory Bryant
Gregory Bryant just announced the Intel Core i7-8086K Anniversary Limited Edition processor!
And here is the new Lenovo Yoga Book 2 with dual display panels!
Gregory Bryant announced the Intel AI for PC Developer Program.
Jerry Shen shows off the new ASUS PreCog laptop.
Gregory Bryant announces that the Intel Optane SSD 905P will be available in the M.2 form factor.
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Intel will introduce a new 28-core processor very soon!
The future 28-core Intel processor will have a Cinebench score of 7334!
Omaigerd… it’s @jlin7 😁😁😁
Intel shows off an AI band!
Gregory Bryant even showed off his drumming skills! 😁
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Western Digital + SanDisk Showcase
The Western Digital Black NVMe SSD – a real performance beast!
The InWin WinBot gaming PC with WD Black SSD and HDD inside.
The iBuyPower SnowBlind PC with transparent LCD panel and WD Black NVMe SSDs.
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Western Digital actually installed two ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 cards – each with four WD Black NVMe SSDs. Guess how fast they ste???
Freaking unbelievable!!! The eight WD Black NVMe SSDs delivered more than 19 GB/s in throughput!!!
Here are the IOMeter results details of the 8 WD Black NVMe SSDs in RAID array.
Close up of the ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Card with four 1TB WD Black NVMe SSDs.
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ADATA + TweakTown Computex Parties!
The ADATA Computex Party is really happening! @ *inhouse
Taiwanese girls are not only hot, they’re tall! 😅😅😅
Nothing beats an open bar… 😁
Entertainment at the ADATA Computex Party
With David (left) and Scott of ADATA
Hey… an open bar at the TweakTown Computex Party too! 😁 @ The Brass Monkey
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The new WD Purple microSD cards are purpose-built for the complex and dynamic data demands of modern surveillance cameras and edge systems. Check them out here!
WD Purple microSD Cards For 4K Surveillance
Optimized for 24/7 surveillance video capture, the new WD Purple microSD cards support a continuous surveillance workload. They can capture and preserve video in a variety of high-definition and next-generation formats, including 4K Ultra HD video.
The rugged and humidity-resistant design of the new WD Purple microSD cards enable video capture in a wide range of environmental conditions, including outdoors in snowy winters and indoors in hot and humid factory settings.
Optimized for Evolving Data-Centric Surveillance Demands
Designed to support a wide range of video resolutions and surveillance video recording implementations, additional highlights of the new microSD card include:
Robust Endurance for Continuous Recording : Supports up to 1,000 PE Cycles
Card Health Status Functionality for Easy Card Maintenance : In compatible cameras, a unique health monitor offers reporting capabilities to provide users and system installers valuable information, including the card’s endurance and capacity status, enabling predictive maintenance and taking the “guess work” out of when to service the card.[adrotate group=”2″]
High Performance for Next-Generation Video : Offers speeds of up to 80 MB/s sequential read and 50 MB/s sequential write and supports Speed Class 10 and UHS Speed Class 1.
Trusted Video Capture in Wide Range of Climates : Designed for use in temperatures ranging from -25°C to 85°C, it enables reliable video capture indoors and outdoors.
High Capacity to Capture and Preserve Video if Connection to Network Connection is Lost : Offered in capacities up to 64GB.
WD Purple microSD Card Price + Availability
The new WD Purple microSD card will be available in Malaysia by end April, at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of RM 99 for 32GB capacity and RM 159.00 for 64GB capacity. Here are some purchase links for your convenience :
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The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD is the first Western Digital solid state drive to feature their 64-layer 3D NAND technology that delivers higher storage capacities, performance and endurance, with lower power consumption. Let’s see if the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD delivers on that promise!
The WD Blue 3D NAND SSD Family
The WD Blue 3D NAND SSD family consists of four models built upon the same technology. They mainly differ in storage capacities, with some performance characteristics. Here’s a table comparing their key specifications :
Specifications
2 TB WD Blue 3D SSD
1 TB WD Blue 3D SSD
500 GB WD Blue 3D SSD
250 GB WD Blue 3D SSD
Model Number
WDS200T2B0A
WDS100T2B0A
WDS500G2B0A
WDS250G2B0A
Storage Capacity
2048 GB (Total)
2000 GB (Effective)
1024 GB (Total)
1000 GB (Effective)
512 GB (Total)
500 GB (Effective)
256 GB (Total)
250 GB (Effective)
Overprovisioning
48 GB (2.4 %)
24 GB (2.4 %)
12 GB (2.4 %)
6 GB (2.4 %)
SSD Controller
Marvell 88SS1074-BSW2
Marvell 88SS1074-BSW2
Marvell 88SS1074-BSW2
Marvell 88SS1074-BSW2
NAND Flash Type
64-layer WD 3D NAND (BiCS3)
64-layer WD 3D NAND (BiCS3)
64-layer WD 3D NAND (BiCS3)
64-layer WD 3D NAND (BiCS3)
SDRAM Cache
None
None
512 MB DDR3
256 MB DDR3
Interface
SATA 6 Gb/s
SATA 6 Gb/s
SATA 6 Gb/s
SATA 6 Gb/s
Peak Sequential Read
560 MB/s
560 MB/s
560 MB/s
550 MB/s
Peak Sequential Write
530 MB/s
530 MB/s
530 MB/s
525 MB/s
Random Read I/O
95,000 IOPS
95,000 IOPS
95,000 IOPS
95,000 IOPS
Random Write I/O
84,000 IOPS
84,000 IOPS
84,000 IOPS
81,000 IOPS
Write Endurance
500 TB
400 TB
200 TB
100 TB
Slumber Power
56 mW
56 mW
56 mW
56 mW
DEVSLP Power
5-12 mW
5-12 mW
5-7 mW
5-7 mW
Mean Time To Failure (MTTF)
Up to 1.75 million hours
Up to 1.75 million hours
Up to 1.75 million hours
Up to 1.75 million hours
Ambient Temperature
0°C to 70°C (Operating)
-55°C to 85°C (Non-Operating)
0°C to 70°C (Operating)
-55°C to 85°C (Non-Operating)
0°C to 70°C (Operating)
-55°C to 85°C (Non-Operating)
0°C to 70°C (Operating)
-55°C to 85°C (Non-Operating)
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) comes in a deceptively light cardboard box. Let’s unbox it and take a closer look!
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) is a low-profile 2.5″ drive, with a thickness of only 7 mm. This is thinner than the regular 9.5 mm drives, making it suitable for all 2.5″ drive bays, even in thin laptops.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
The WD 3D NAND Technology
Western Digital first announced their 64-layer 3D NAND technology, also known as BiCS3, last year. However, it was only slated for commercial volume production in the first half of 2017.
BiCS3 was developed jointly with their technology and manufacturing partner, Toshiba. It not only uses 64-layers, but also 3-bits-per-cell technology to achieve high capacity (256 to 512 gigabits per chip) and performance at a much lower cost.
SanDisk nCache 2.0 Technology
SanDisk nCache 2.0 is a proprietary pseudo-SLC caching technology that greatly increases the write performance of the solid state drive. Here is an old infographic (from their Ultra II SSD) that shows how it works :
A small portion (about 4%) of the NAND memory blocks are set to run in the SLC mode, which allows for a much higher write speed. This SLC portion serves as a fast write cache for all writes to the drive, allowing for write speeds of up to 530 MB/s.
The data is later transferred to the TLC portion using the special On Chip Copy feature. This proprietary feature allows the transfer to occur internally on-die without affecting any other transfers.
In a 1TB drive, about 40 GB is reserved for use as the nCache 2.0 write cache. That translates into an effective write cache size of about 13 GB.
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The Marvell 88SS1074 SSD Controller
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) uses the Marvell 88SS1074 SSD controller, which boasts the following key features :
Supports up to 4 NAND channels, with up to 8 NAND chips per channel
Features Marvell’s third-generation NANDEdge low-density parity check (LDPC) technology
Supports SATA 3.2 (6.0 Gbps)
Toggle 2 and ONFI2 support at up to 400 MT/s
Integrated DEVSLP (Device Sleep) mode for low power support
Supports 256-bit AES hardware encryption
Built on 28 nm CMOS process
The Marvell NANDEdge LDPC technology allows for reliable on-the-fly error correction of the 3-bit TLC flash memory, with minimal impact on latency, performance and power consumption.
However, the Marvell 88SS1074 is likely to fall short in sustained throughput, because it only supports 4 NAND channels. Competing controllers like the Phison S10, for example, boast 8 NAND channels, allowing twice as many NAND chips to be accessed simultaneously.
SATA 6 Gb/s Interface
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) is a Serial ATA drive, with native support for SATA 6 Gb/s interface. It is backward-compatible, so you will have no problem using it with older SATA 3 Gb/s controllers. However, the faster SATA 6 Gb/s interface is necessary for optimal performance because this SSD is capable of a peak transfer rate of 560 MB/s.
Like all Serial ATA drives, it comes with the standard SATA data (left) and power (right) connectors, and is hot-pluggable. That means you can connect and disconnect this solid state drive while the PC is still running. There is no jumper block, because there’s really nothing for you to set. It’s just plug and play!
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
SSD Endurance
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) is rated for a lifetime write lifespan of 400 TBW (Terabytes Written). That does not seem like a lot (equal to overwriting the drive just 400 times), but it is considered enterprise-grade endurance. Many consumer-grade SSDs of equivalent capacity are rated at around 75-100 TBW.
Based on a typical consumer DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) of 20 GB per day, this 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) will last at least 54 years.
Please note that this long lifespan is due to the large capacity. The 500 GB and 250 GB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSDs are rated at 200 TBW and 100 TBW respectively. That corresponds to an estimated lifespan of 27 years and 13.5 years respectively.
Like all other current SSDs, the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) comes with certain features to help extend its lifespan :
Wear Levelling
Unlike hard disk drives, flash-based SSDs write and overwrite data in large blocks of 512 KB to 1 MB in size. Even if you only need to write one byte of data, it has to erase and overwrite an entire block. This causes a lot of wear on the memory cells and greatly reduces their lifespan.
To help extend the lifespan of the drive, SSDs perform wear levelling by spreading the writes, so that the flash memory cells have equal wear. The lifespan of the memory cells remain unchanged, but it prevents some of them from failing earlier due to excessive wear.
Write Combine Cache
SSDs also use a write buffer to temporarily store and combine the writes before they are actually written to the flash memory. This reduces the number of block erases required, and consequently, extends the lifespan of the flash memory cells.
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) uses the aforementioned nCache 2.0 technology instead of a dedicated SDRAM write combine cache. It reserves about 4% of the NAND blocks and uses them in the SLC mode.
The resulting nCache 2.0 write cache may not be as fast as an SDRAM cache, but it is much larger in size. The 1TB WD Blue SSD, for example, boasts a large 1 GB DDR3L memory cache, but that is nothing compared to the 13 GB (or so) SLC cache in the 1TB WD Blue 3D SSD.
TRIM
Current SSDs support the TRIM command, otherwise known as the ATA8-ACS-2 DATA SET MANAGEMENT command. Operating systems that support TRIM (e.g. Microsoft Windows 7) will notify the SSD when data blocks are deleted in the file system. This allows the SSD to perform garbage collection in the background – internally erasing the affected blocks so that they are ready to be written to.
Without the TRIM command, the SSD will not know when a block of data has been deleted by the operating system. When new data is written to the same block of data, it will force the SSD to perform the time-consuming read-erase-modify-write cycle, which not only cripples performance but also increases wear on the affected memory cells.
Multi-Stream
This is a new SSD technology that was introduced in May 2015, as part of the T10 SCSI Standard. Multi-stream greatly improves performance and extends lifespan by reducing or even eliminating garbage collection.
It achieves this by marking data writes that are associated with one another, or have a similar lifetime, with a unique stream ID. This allows the SSD controller to pack all data writes with the same stream ID into the same block.
When the operating system deletes data, it is likely that they are all packed into the same block. If the block has not been written to the SSD, then this eliminates the pending write operation completely. If the block has been written to the SSD, then this would only require that single block to be erased, instead of multiple blocks (which would happen if the data was not all packed into the same block).
SSD Maintenance
First of all, you should never, ever defragment solid state drives. Spatial fragmentation of data on the SSD has no effect on its performance. Fragmented data are accessed as quickly as nicely-packed blocks, so it’s pointless to defragment the data blocks. Doing so will only reduce the lifespan of the flash memory cells by putting them under additional wear.
3D NAND flash memory will only last about 1,000 erase/write cycles – about the same as TLC NAND memory. You will want to minimise the number of times each flash memory cell is erased.
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You should also use an operating system that supports the TRIM command. If you are using one of the following operating systems, then you have nothing to worry about :
Microsoft Windows 7, or better
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, or better
Linux 2.6.33, or better
FreeBSD 8.2, or better
Mac OS X Snow Leopard, or better
If not, you should consider upgrading your operating system. Otherwise, you will need to perform manual garbage collection on a regular basis, either using a manufacturer utility, or newer defragmentation software that specifically supports solid state drives.
Basically, these utilities will retrieve the list of free blocks from the operating system’s file system and pass it to the SSD in the form of TRIM commands, so that it will know which blocks to erase internally. Again, these utilities are not necessary if you are using an operating system that supports TRIM.
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We tested in both Windows 7 and Windows Vista, with the latest updates. We chose to use IO Meter 2008, AS SSD Benchmark, ATTO Disk Benchmark as well as our “old faithful”, WinBench 99 2.0, with the following tests :
Platter Data Transfer Profile
Business Disk WinMark 99
High-End Disk WinMark 99
Disk Transfer Rate (Beginning)
Disk Transfer Rate (End)
Business Disk WinMark 99 is a real-world simulation based on three office application suites – Microsoft Office 97, Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, as well as a web browser, Netscape Navigator. They are quite dated, but should still reflect the usage patterns of users in an office environment using such applications. The test runs through a script that keeps multiple applications open, while it performs tasks that switches between those applications and Netscape Navigator. The result is the average transfer rate during the script run.
High-End Disk WinMark 99 is a real-world simulation based on AVS/Express 3.4, FrontPage 98, MicroStation SE, Photoshop 4.0, Premiere 4.2, Sound Forge 4.0 and Visual C++ 5.0. However, it differs by running the applications serially, instead of simultaneously. There are individual results for each application but in this comparison, we will be looking only at the weighted average score, which is the average transfer rate during the tests.
Unfortunately, WinBench 99 is not fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, registering a SetFilePointer error in the Disk Access Time test. So, we were not able to obtain any Disk Access Time results.
In addition, it would keep crashing if the hard drive was tested with a single partition. This is likely due to a limit on the size of the partition that is supported by WinBench 99. We came up with a workaround by dividing the hard disk drive into 5 partitions of equal sizes. We then tested each partition individually and averaged the results.
This 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) has a maximum storage capacity of 1,024 GB, courtesy of eight 128 GB SanDisk 3D NAND chips. Of that, a mere 24 GB has been set aside for garbage collection, wear levelling and replacement of failing blocks.
Ordinarily, the limited 2.4% over-provisioning may impact long-term performance and lifespan. However, Western Digital mitigated that using a large 13 GB pseudo-SLC write cache they call nCache 2.0.
After it is formatted in NTFS, the actual formatted capacity is 1,000,202,039,296 bytes. This is slightly (202 MB) more than the official formatted capacity of 1,000 GB.
With about 124 MB of space allocated to the NTFS file system, the actual usable capacity is just above 1,000 GB.
Transfer Rate Profile
We compared the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) to the 1TB WD Blue SSD. As you can see, it has a sustained throughput of about 378 MB/s, which makes it almost twice as fast as the 1TB WD Blue SSD, which uses TLC NAND memory.
This chart shows you the range of memory cell-to-controller transfer rates for SSDs, or the range of platter-to-buffer transfer rates from the innermost track to the outermost track in HDDs.
Despite boasting an official peak read speed of 560 MB/s, the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) could only hit 386 MB/s. That is impressive in its own right, but puts it below the 256 GB OCZ Vector and the 240 GB HyperX Savage SSDs.
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The small random reads and writes are the most important tests for applications that make a lot of random accesses, so these would be key performance indicators for SSDs that are often used as boot drives.
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) did incredibly well in this test, solidly beating the 1TB WD Blue SSD. Thanks to its built-in nCache 2.0 technology, it delivered almost twice the large random write performance of the 1TB WD Blue SSD!
Random Access Time
Test
1 TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
1.41 ms
2.19 ms
– 35.5%
512 KB Write
1.07 ms
2.04 ms
– 47.4%
4 KB Read
0.13 ms
0.17 ms
– 25.1%
4 KB Write
0.05 ms
0.08 ms
– 29.8%
The random write performance of the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) was truly stellar, in comparison to the 1TB WD Blue SSD.
Random CPU Utilization
Test
1 TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
29.50 %
7.16 %
+ 312.0%
512 KB Write
30.12 %
7.31 %
+ 312.3%
4 KB Read
32.53 %
9.94 %
+ 227.2%
4 KB Write
35.72 %
11.91 %
+ 199.9%
The only downside – the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) uses up a lot more CPU performance than the 1TB WD Blue SSD. About 3X more CPU performance, on average!
The sequential read and write performance indicators determine how fast you can copy and move files. This is also important in determining how fast you can launch an application or game.
The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) did marvellously in this test, coming in twice as fast as the 1TB WD Blue SSD in large, sequential reads and writes. It also had a large boost in small sequential read and write performance.
Sequential Access Time
Test
1 TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
1.03 ms
2.10 ms
– 51.2%
512 KB Write
1.06 ms
2.05 ms
– 48.3%
4 KB Read
0.05 ms
0.07 ms
– 26.7%
4 KB Write
0.05 ms
0.07 ms
– 22.4%
Sequential CPU Utilization
Test
1 TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
29.61 %
8.69 %
+ 240.7%
512 KB Write
29.11 %
5.76 %
+ 405.4%
4 KB Read
36.38 %
15.93 %
+ 128.4%
4 KB Write
35.69 %
15.42 %
+ 131.5%
Again, the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) took up a significant amount of CPU processing power.
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Even though the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) is rated for enterprise-class endurance, its Marvell 88SS1074 controller is just not capable of handling too many simultaneous operations. It appears to handle up to 8 simultaneous transactions.
Its nCache 2.0 technology appears to have compensated for its limited NAND channels, allowing it greatly supersede the performance of the 1TB WD Blue SSD, even though they both use the same SDD controller.
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AS SSD Benchmark
AS SSD Benchmark is a simple and easy-to-use SSD benchmark by Alex Intelligent Software. It not only tests the drive’s sequential transfer rates and access times, but also its performance at both single-threaded and multi-threaded 4K IOPS.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
ATTO Disk Benchmark
ATTO Disk Benchmark is a free benchmark that allows you to compare the performance of solid state drives using a variety of transfer sizes. It also allows us to determine if the SSD performs data compression to improve performance, and extend lifespan.
I/O Comparison
Results
Compressible Data
Non-Compressible Data
Minimum
Maximum
Minimum
Maximum
Read Speed
6.5 MB/s
145.1 MB/s
5.8 MB/s
143.6 MB/s
Write Speed
5.6 MB/s
137.2 MB/s
6.1 MB/s
134.2 MB/s
The Marvell 88SS1074 controller does not perform any data compression, which is why the performance results are the same for both compressible and non-compressible data. The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) reached its peak transfer rate with a block size of 1 MB.
Multiple I/O Comparison
Results
Compressible Data
Non-Compressible Data
Minimum
Maximum
Minimum
Maximum
Read Speed
8.8 MB/s
147 2 MB/s
10.2 MB/s
147.5 MB/s
Write Speed
8.3 MB/s
139.6 MB/s
9.0 MB/s
136.5 MB/s
With just 8 simultaneous transactions, the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) reached its peak transfer rate with a block size of 128 KB.
Our Verdict & Award
The first 1 terabyte solid state drive we tested was the 1TB WD Blue (WDS100T1B0A) SSD. While it had a large storage capacity, high endurance and a affordable price point, it was not particularly fast.
That changed with the introduction of the 64-layer 3D NAND technology, which not only increases storage capacity and performance, but also reduces cost and power consumption. Now we can have our cake and eat it too.
The 1TB WD Blue 3D SSD (Price Check) is the first Western Digital solid state drive to make use of the 64-layer 3D NAND technology and it sure impressed us with its performance.
Despite using the same SSD controller as the 1TB WD Blue, the 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) was twice as fast in large reads and writes. It accomplished this without using any SDRAM cache, thanks to nCache 2.0 technology.
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The 1TB WD Blue 3D NAND SSD (Price Check) will work well as a boot drive, thanks to its excellent small random performance. It will be particularly attractive as an upgrade option for laptops still running on hard disk drives, or smaller SSDs.
Just note that its high performance requires a significant amount of CPU performance. So make sure you pair it with a fast processor.
We like its combination of great performance, large storage capacity and lower cost so much, we think it deserves our Editor’s Choice Award. Great work, Western Digital!
WD Blue 3D NAND SSD Prices & Warranty
The WD Blue 3D SSDs are available in storage capacities from 250 GB to 2 TB in the 2.5-inch / 7mm cased drive form factor, at the following price points :
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Western Digital colour-codes their hard disk drives not to make the drives look sexier, or to help sell more hard disk drives. They created the WD drive colours to help users understand the distinct advantages or use of each drive family. In this article, Western Digital will help us show you how to choose the best drive for your PC.
Every Drive Has A Purpose
There is no better person than Albert Chang, Senior Manager of Product Marketing at WD Asia Pacific, to explain why every drive has a purpose. He also points out a key point that users often forget to factor when consumers purchase a drive – the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).
That’s right. The TCO is often overlooked, because that is ultimately the price you are paying over the lifetime of a drive. So make sure you don’t just buy the cheapest possible drive, because that may result in a high TCO… including the loss of priceless data.
Introducing The Five WD Drive Colours
Here is a quick primer on the five WD drive colours, and how they can help you determine the best drive for your PC.
Now, let’s take a closer look at each WD drive colour, and find out what advantages each drive colour boasts!
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WD Blue For Mainstream PCs
The WD Blue (Price Check) family are focused on offering highly-affordable drives with large storage capacities.
The WD Blue family does not just consist of hard disk drives. Western Digital also offers WD Blue SSHDs (solid state hybrid drives) and WD Blue SSDs (solid state drives).
For more information, you can read these WD Blue articles :
The WD Black family (Price Check) is targeted at power users and gamers who want the fastest possible hard disk drives for their PCs.
The WD Black drives offer a much higher spindle speed, a very large cache, and a fast processor. For more information, you can read these WD Black articles :
The WD Red (Price Check) family of NAS drives is specifically designed for the “always on” environment of a NAS enclosure. They run cooler and vibrate less, greatly increasing their reliability and lifespan in NAS enclosures.
The WD Red drives are also optimised for NAS usage patterns (80% reads, 20% writes), so you will be able to access your files faster than with a regular hard disk drive.
For more information, you can read these WD Red articles :
WD Purple drives (Price Check) are designed to handle the high-temperature, “always-on” environment of the CCTV and DVR systems. Regular drives will fail quickly under such conditions.
They are also designed to handle multiple video streams without dropped frames, or gaps in recorded footage… and do this 24/7 without rest!
For more information on the WD Purple, and why it is the best drive for surveillance and CCTV systems, please read :
Qualified for nearline storage use in datacenters, datacenter hard disk drives like WD Gold (Price Check) are designed to offer high storage capacities at maximum performance and reliability while operating continuously 24 hours a day in large drive arrays.
So if you want nothing but the best drive to secure your company’s data, there can be no doubt that the WD Gold (Price Check) is the ultimate storage solution.
For more information, you can read these WD Gold articles :
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The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD is the first SanDisk solid state drive to feature their 64-layer 3D NAND technology that delivers higher storage capacities, performance and endurance, with lower power consumption. Let’s see if the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD delivers on that promise!
The SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD Family
The SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD family consists of four models built upon the same technology. They mainly differ in storage capacities, with some performance characteristics. Here’s a table comparing their key specifications :
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) comes in a deceptively light cardboard box. Let’s unbox it and take a closer look!
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) is a low-profile 2.5″ drive, with a thickness of only 7 mm. This is thinner than the regular 9.5 mm drives, making it suitable for all 2.5″ drive bays, even in thin laptops.
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
The WD 3D NAND Technology
Western Digital first announced their 64-layer 3D NAND technology, also known as BiCS3, last year. However, it was only slated for commercial volume production in the first half of 2017.
BiCS3 was developed jointly with their technology and manufacturing partner, Toshiba. It not only uses 64-layers, but also 3-bits-per-cell technology to achieve high capacity (256 to 512 gigabits per chip) and performance at a much lower cost.
SanDisk nCache 2.0 Technology
SanDisk nCache 2.0 is a proprietary pseudo-SLC caching technology that greatly increases the write performance of the solid state drive. Here is an old infographic (from their Ultra II SSD) that shows how it works :
A small portion (about 4%) of the NAND memory blocks are set to run in the SLC mode, which allows for a much higher write speed. This SLC portion serves as a fast write cache for all writes to the drive, allowing for write speeds of up to 530 MB/s.
The data is later transferred to the TLC portion using the special On Chip Copy feature. This proprietary feature allows the transfer to occur internally on-die without affecting any other transfers.
In a 1TB drive, about 40 GB is reserved for use as the nCache 2.0 write cache. That translates into an effective write cache size of about 13 GB.
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The Marvell 88SS1074 SSD Controller
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) uses the Marvell 88SS1074 SSD controller, which boasts the following key features :
Supports up to 4 NAND channels, with up to 8 NAND chips per channel
Features Marvell’s third-generation NANDEdge low-density parity check (LDPC) technology
Supports SATA 3.2 (6.0 Gbps)
Toggle 2 and ONFI2 support at up to 400 MT/s
Integrated DEVSLP (Device Sleep) mode for low power support
Supports 256-bit AES hardware encryption
Built on 28 nm CMOS process
The Marvell NANDEdge LDPC technology allows for reliable on-the-fly error correction of the 3-bit TLC flash memory, with minimal impact on latency, performance and power consumption.
However, the Marvell 88SS1074 is likely to fall short in sustained throughput, because it only supports 4 NAND channels. Competing controllers like the Phison S10, for example, boast 8 NAND channels, allowing twice as many NAND chips to be accessed simultaneously.
SATA 6 Gb/s Interface
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) is a Serial ATA drive, with native support for SATA 6 Gb/s interface. It is backward-compatible, so you will have no problem using it with older SATA 3 Gb/s controllers. However, the faster SATA 6 Gb/s interface is necessary for optimal performance because this SSD is capable of a peak transfer rate of 560 MB/s.
Like all Serial ATA drives, it comes with the standard SATA data (left) and power (right) connectors, and is hot-pluggable. That means you can connect and disconnect this solid state drive while the PC is still running. There is no jumper block, because there’s really nothing for you to set. It’s just plug and play!
If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
SSD Endurance
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) is rated for a lifetime write lifespan of 400 TBW (Terabytes Written). That does not seem like a lot (equal to overwriting the drive just 400 times), but it is considered enterprise-grade endurance. Many consumer-grade SSDs of equivalent capacity are rated at around 75-100 TBW.
Based on a typical consumer DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) of 20 GB per day, this 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) will last at least 54 years.
Please note that this long lifespan is due to the large capacity. The 500 GB and 250 GB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSDs are rated at 200 TBW and 100 TBW respectively. That corresponds to an estimated lifespan of 27 years and 13.5 years respectively.
Like all other current SSDs, the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) comes with certain features to help extend its lifespan :
Wear Levelling
Unlike hard disk drives, flash-based SSDs write and overwrite data in large blocks of 512 KB to 1 MB in size. Even if you only need to write one byte of data, it has to erase and overwrite an entire block. This causes a lot of wear on the memory cells and greatly reduces their lifespan.
To help extend the lifespan of the drive, SSDs perform wear levelling by spreading the writes, so that the flash memory cells have equal wear. The lifespan of the memory cells remain unchanged, but it prevents some of them from failing earlier due to excessive wear.
Write Combine Cache
SSDs also use a write buffer to temporarily store and combine the writes before they are actually written to the flash memory. This reduces the number of block erases required, and consequently, extends the lifespan of the flash memory cells.
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) uses the aforementioned nCache 2.0 technology instead of a dedicated SDRAM write combine cache. It reserves about 4% of the NAND blocks and uses them in the SLC mode.
The resulting nCache 2.0 write cache may not be as fast as an SDRAM cache, but it is much larger in size. The 1TB WD Blue SSD, for example, boasts a large 1 GB DDR3L memory cache, but that is nothing compared to the 13 GB (or so) SLC cache in the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD.
TRIM
Current SSDs support the TRIM command, otherwise known as the ATA8-ACS-2 DATA SET MANAGEMENT command. Operating systems that support TRIM (e.g. Microsoft Windows 7) will notify the SSD when data blocks are deleted in the file system. This allows the SSD to perform garbage collection in the background – internally erasing the affected blocks so that they are ready to be written to.
Without the TRIM command, the SSD will not know when a block of data has been deleted by the operating system. When new data is written to the same block of data, it will force the SSD to perform the time-consuming read-erase-modify-write cycle, which not only cripples performance but also increases wear on the affected memory cells.
Multi-Stream
This is a new SSD technology that was introduced in May 2015, as part of the T10 SCSI Standard. Multi-stream greatly improves performance and extends lifespan by reducing or even eliminating garbage collection.
It achieves this by marking data writes that are associated with one another, or have a similar lifetime, with a unique stream ID. This allows the SSD controller to pack all data writes with the same stream ID into the same block.
When the operating system deletes data, it is likely that they are all packed into the same block. If the block has not been written to the SSD, then this eliminates the pending write operation completely. If the block has been written to the SSD, then this would only require that single block to be erased, instead of multiple blocks (which would happen if the data was not all packed into the same block).
SSD Maintenance
First of all, you should never, ever defragment solid state drives. Spatial fragmentation of data on the SSD has no effect on its performance. Fragmented data are accessed as quickly as nicely-packed blocks, so it’s pointless to defragment the data blocks. Doing so will only reduce the lifespan of the flash memory cells by putting them under additional wear.
3D NAND flash memory will only last about 1,000 erase/write cycles – about the same as TLC NAND memory. You will want to minimise the number of times each flash memory cell is erased.
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You should also use an operating system that supports the TRIM command. If you are using one of the following operating systems, then you have nothing to worry about :
Microsoft Windows 7, or better
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, or better
Linux 2.6.33, or better
FreeBSD 8.2, or better
Mac OS X Snow Leopard, or better
If not, you should consider upgrading your operating system. Otherwise, you will need to perform manual garbage collection on a regular basis, either using a manufacturer utility, or newer defragmentation software that specifically supports solid state drives.
Basically, these utilities will retrieve the list of free blocks from the operating system’s file system and pass it to the SSD in the form of TRIM commands, so that it will know which blocks to erase internally. Again, these utilities are not necessary if you are using an operating system that supports TRIM.
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We tested in both Windows 7 and Windows Vista, with the latest updates. We chose to use IO Meter 2008, AS SSD Benchmark, ATTO Disk Benchmark as well as our “old faithful”, WinBench 99 2.0, with the following tests :
Platter Data Transfer Profile
Business Disk WinMark 99
High-End Disk WinMark 99
Disk Transfer Rate (Beginning)
Disk Transfer Rate (End)
Business Disk WinMark 99 is a real-world simulation based on three office application suites – Microsoft Office 97, Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, as well as a web browser, Netscape Navigator. They are quite dated, but should still reflect the usage patterns of users in an office environment using such applications. The test runs through a script that keeps multiple applications open, while it performs tasks that switches between those applications and Netscape Navigator. The result is the average transfer rate during the script run.
High-End Disk WinMark 99 is a real-world simulation based on AVS/Express 3.4, FrontPage 98, MicroStation SE, Photoshop 4.0, Premiere 4.2, Sound Forge 4.0 and Visual C++ 5.0. However, it differs by running the applications serially, instead of simultaneously. There are individual results for each application but in this comparison, we will be looking only at the weighted average score, which is the average transfer rate during the tests.
Unfortunately, WinBench 99 is not fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, registering a SetFilePointer error in the Disk Access Time test. So, we were not able to obtain any Disk Access Time results.
In addition, it would keep crashing if the hard drive was tested with a single partition. This is likely due to a limit on the size of the partition that is supported by WinBench 99. We came up with a workaround by dividing the hard disk drive into 5 partitions of equal sizes. We then tested each partition individually and averaged the results.
This 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) has a maximum storage capacity of 1,024 GB, courtesy of eight 128 GB SanDisk 3D NAND chips. Of that, a mere 24 GB has been set aside for garbage collection, wear levelling and replacement of failing blocks.
Ordinarily, the limited 2.4% over-provisioning may impact long-term performance and lifespan. However, SanDisk mitigated that using a large 13 GB pseudo-SLC write cache they call nCache 2.0.
After it is formatted in NTFS, the actual formatted capacity is 1,000,202,039,296 bytes. This is slightly (202 MB) more than the official formatted capacity of 1,000 GB.
With about 124 MB of space allocated to the NTFS file system, the actual usable capacity is just above 1,000 GB.
Transfer Rate Profile
We compared the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) to the 1TB WD Blue SSD. As you can see, it has a sustained throughput of about 410 MB/s, which makes it almost twice as fast as the 1TB WD Blue SSD, which uses TLC NAND memory.
This chart shows you the range of memory cell-to-controller transfer rates for SSDs, or the range of platter-to-buffer transfer rates from the innermost track to the outermost track in HDDs.
Despite boasting an official peak read speed of 560 MB/s, the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) could only hit 411 MB/s. That is impressive in its own right, but puts it below the 256 GB OCZ Vector and the 240 GB HyperX Savage SSDs.
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The small random reads and writes are the most important tests for applications that make a lot of random accesses, so these would be key performance indicators for SSDs that are often used as boot drives.
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) did incredibly well in this test, solidly beating the 1TB WD Blue SSD. Thanks to its built-in nCache 2.0 technology, it delivered almost twice the large random write performance of the 1TB WD Blue SSD!
Random Access Time
Test
1 TB SanDisk Ultra 3D
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
1.35 ms
2.19 ms
– 38.3%
512 KB Write
1.06 ms
2.04 ms
– 48.0%
4 KB Read
0.13 ms
0.17 ms
– 22.8%
4 KB Write
0.05 ms
0.08 ms
– 29.9%
The random write performance of the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) was truly stellar, in comparison to the 1TB WD Blue SSD.
Random CPU Utilization
Test
1 TB SanDisk Ultra 3D
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
30.21 %
7.16 %
+ 321.9%
512 KB Write
29.72 %
7.31 %
+ 306.8%
4 KB Read
32.15 %
9.94 %
+ 223.4%
4 KB Write
35.61 %
11.91 %
+ 199.0%
The only downside – the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) uses up a lot more CPU performance than the 1TB WD Blue SSD. About 3X more CPU performance, on average!
The sequential read and write performance indicators determine how fast you can copy and move files. This is also important in determining how fast you can launch an application or game.
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) did marvellously in this test, coming in twice as fast as the 1TB WD Blue SSD in large, sequential reads and writes. It also had a nice boost in small sequential read and write performance.
Sequential Access Time
Test
1 TB SanDisk Ultra 3D
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
1.02 ms
2.10 ms
– 51.2%
512 KB Write
1.06 ms
2.05 ms
– 48.3%
4 KB Read
0.05 ms
0.07 ms
– 26.8%
4 KB Write
0.05 ms
0.07 ms
– 22.1%
Sequential CPU Utilization
Test
1 TB SanDisk Ultra 3D
1 TB WD Blue SSD
Difference
512 KB Read
30.17 %
8.69 %
+ 247.1%
512 KB Write
30.11 %
5.76 %
+ 422.7%
4 KB Read
36.07 %
15.93 %
+ 126.4%
4 KB Write
35.74 %
15.42 %
+ 131.9%
Again, the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) took up a significant amount of CPU processing power.
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Even though the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) is rated for enterprise-class endurance, its Marvell 88SS1074 controller is just not capable of handling too many simultaneous operations. It appears to handle up to 8 simultaneous transactions.
Its nCache 2.0 technology appears to have compensated for its limited NAND channels, allowing it greatly supersede the performance of the 1TB WD Blue SSD, even though they both use the same SDD controller.
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AS SSD Benchmark
AS SSD Benchmark is a simple and easy-to-use SSD benchmark by Alex Intelligent Software. It not only tests the drive’s sequential transfer rates and access times, but also its performance at both single-threaded and multi-threaded 4K IOPS.
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ATTO Disk Benchmark
ATTO Disk Benchmark is a free benchmark that allows you to compare the performance of solid state drives using a variety of transfer sizes. It also allows us to determine if the SSD performs data compression to improve performance, and extend lifespan.
I/O Comparison
Results
Compressible Data
Non-Compressible Data
Minimum
Maximum
Minimum
Maximum
Read Speed
11.6 MB/s
426.1 MB/s
11.6 MB/s
427.1 MB/s
Write Speed
7.6 MB/s
526.3 MB/s
7.6 MB/s
525.1 MB/s
The Marvell 88SS1074 controller does not perform any data compression, which is why the performance results are the same for both compressible and non-compressible data. The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) reached its peak transfer rate with a block size of 1 MB.
Multiple I/O Comparison
Results
Compressible Data
Non-Compressible Data
Minimum
Maximum
Minimum
Maximum
Read Speed
25.8 MB/s
559 2 MB/s
26.7 MB/s
580.5 MB/s
Write Speed
16.2 MB/s
538.1 MB/s
16.1 MB/s
538.1 MB/s
With just 8 simultaneous transactions, the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) reached its peak transfer rate with a block size of 128 KB.
Our Verdict & Award
The first 1 terabyte solid state drive we tested was the 1TB WD Blue (WDS100T1B0A) SSD. While it had a large storage capacity, high endurance and a affordable price point, it was not particularly fast.
That changed with the introduction of the 64-layer 3D NAND technology, which not only increases storage capacity and performance, but also reduces cost and power consumption. Now we can have our cake and eat it too.
The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) is the first SanDisk solid state drive to make use of the 64-layer 3D NAND technology and it sure impressed us with its performance.
Despite using the same SSD controller as the 1TB WD Blue, the 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) was twice as fast in large reads and writes. It accomplished this without using any SDRAM cache, thanks to nCache 2.0 technology.
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The 1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD (Price Check) will work well as a boot drive, thanks to its excellent small random performance. It will be particularly attractive as an upgrade option for laptops still running on hard disk drives, or smaller SSDs.
Just note that its high performance requires a significant amount of CPU performance. So make sure you pair it with a decent processor.
We like its combination of great performance, large storage capacity and lower cost so much, we think it deserves our Editor’s Choice Award. Great work, SanDisk!
SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD Price Check
The SanDisk Ultra 3D SSDs are available in storage capacities from 250 GB to 2 TB in the 2.5-inch / 7mm cased drive form factor.
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SanDisk just unveiled a unique fast charging and backup solution for iPhone users – the SanDisk iXpand Base! It automatically backs up your important data whenever you recharges your iPhone. Check it out!
