Western Digital has introduced its new 3D NAND based solid state drives to Malaysia. The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD and the SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD both utilise the stacking of NAND wafers to improve on efficiency and size.
The technology differs from traditional SSDs in that the memory is stacked vertically to save space. Reducing the footprint on which it sits, allowing WD to increase storage space without making the drive bigger.
Western Digital will be releasing both new SSDs in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB sizes. The Blue 3D NAND SSD has sequential write speeds of up to 560MB/s and random read speeds of up to 95,000 IOPS. Curiously, the 250GB version performs slightly below these specifications. Either way, WD says that the 64-layer 3D NAND will use 25 percent less power.
The WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD will be available in 2.5-inch cases drive and M.2 2280 form factors. While the SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD only ships as a 2.5-inch cased drive.
Retail prices for the for the WD Blue 3D NAND SSD start from RM 620 (250GB), RM 1100 (500GB), RM 2000 (1TB), and RM 3800 (2TB). The SanDisk branded drive will be sold for RM 640, RM 1150, RM 2100, and RM3950 for the 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB drives respectively. The WD Blue M.2 2280 will be sold for RM 2100 for 1TB and RM 3950 for 2TB.
