For that price, you’re getting a rapid PCIe 4.0 SSD that should provide excellent speeds of up to 5150MB/s reads and 4900MB/s writes. In addition, the quoted 740,000/800,000 random read/write IOPS should also aid in allowing those load times to be especially rapid. Western Digital also says this model is 20 percent more power efficient than the previous model, which could translate into longer battery life when you use it in a laptop - a neat side effect of its PCIe 4.0 speeds, which are delivered using fewer PCIe lanes than an equivalent PCIe 3.0 drive. That does mean that in order to reap the benefits of the high speeds, you’ll need a motherboard or laptop that supports PCIe 4.0. This should include basically all models from the last three years, but if you’re on the cusp then you can Google for the name of your model plus ‘PCIe 4.0’ to get some no-doubt-helpful results. A 1TB capacity also adds a good level of storage to your PC, with enough space for your OS installation, games and a good amount of media too. PC users also benefit from the WD_BLACK Dashboard, companion software that boosts performance in the drive’s gaming mode and allows you easy access to the drive’s vitals. On that point, given this is an SSD, it doesn’t have any moving parts, unlike a mechanical hard drive you might be replacing, which means it’ll be quieter and more resistant to damage from drops, shocks or magnets.
