WD formally enters SSD market

WD raises the stakes

Another player doubles down on the competitive SSD game space.

Western Digital has formally entered the Solid State Drive (SSD) market today with two offerings in the WD Blue and WD Green product lines. The   SSDs will broaden the company’s portfolio of existing hard drives for PCs and workstations.  Consumers stand to benefit from the combination of reliable storage, 1.75M hours MTTF, reduced power overhead and less heat when compared to HDDs.

WD Blue SSDs by design are optimized for multitasking and resource-heavy applications. At launch they will be available in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB capacities, and in both 2.5-inch/7mm case or M.2 2280 form factors. Being a performance drive, the WD Blue SSD is expected to offer up to 545MB/s and 525MB/s sequential read and write speeds, and endurance of up to 400 TBW.  Western Digital has told us that the suggested retail price will start from $ 79  for the 250GB model to for the $ 299 for the 1TB model.

WD Green SSDs are set to deliver essential-class performance and be available in 120GB and 240GB capacities, and in both 2.5-inch/7mm case or M.2 2280 form factors. The WD Green lineup of SSD drives are designed to have a sequential read and write times of up to 540MB/s and 405MB/s and endurance up to 80TBW. The drives have an expected launch date of later this quarter.

Both drive offerings will include free, downloadable, WD SSD Dashboard software, as well as are protected by a three year limited warranty.