WD just released the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD money can buy, and reviewers are in love

Following some accidental listings that spoiled the announcement, Western Digital has finally released its WD_Black SN8100 PCIe 5.0 SSD. It has the fastest rated speeds of any consumer NVMe SSD available, topping out at a staggering 14,900MB/s for sequential reads and 14,000MB/s for sequential writes. That pushes it just a touch ahead of the Samsung 9100 Pro, which clocks in at 14,700MB/s and 13,400MB/s for reads and writes, respectively, and it's leagues faster than a drive like the Samsung 990 Evo Pro.

The SN8100 is available directly from Western Digital now, starting at $180 for a 1TB capacity. There are also 2TB and 4TB models available at $280 and $550, respectively, and Western Digital will launch versions with a heatsink soon. Although the claims about the SN8100's performance seem lofty, reviewers have already had a chance to test the drive, and most have left impressed.

Western Digital's fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD launches to rave reviews

The numbers are looking great

"This is the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD on the market to date," wrote Zak Storey for PCGamer, awarding the SN8100 a generous 94% rating. The drive topped every benchmark featured in the review "by a huge margin," and even managed to offer a massive 31% improvement in random performance over Samsung's 9100 Pro. Ben Hardwidge at PCGamesN agreed, proclaiming the SN8100 as the "new king of the gaming SSD castle."

That's high praise, which is even more impressive considering this is the first PCIe 5.0 drive released under the Western Digital brand. Its main competition is the aforementioned 9100 Pro from Samsung, and although WD comes out ahead in benchmarks, Samsung might come out ahead on price. Although originally priced higher than the SN8100, Samsung has slashed the price on the 9100 Pro across all three capacities. The 1TB model has dropped from $200 to $170, while the 2TB version has gone from $315 to $270, both of which are just a hair below the asking price of the SN8100.

Western Digital is starting the rollout of the SN8100, but the full range isn't here yet. The 1TB and 2TB versions are available directly from WD, and I managed to find the 1TB version on Newegg. The 4TB model isn't available yet, which is a point in favor Samsung, which has already released the 4TB version of the 9100 Pro. As mentioned, versions with heatsinks are on the way for a slightly higher price, though I don't imagine they'll have a ton of applications given how common built-in heatsinks are for any board supporting PCIe 5.0 drives.