WD Red NAS SSD Announced – The SA500 Solid State Drive for NAS

The WD Red SA500 SSD for NAS Drives is Revealed

WD is really, REALLY pushing their wares in the closing stages of 2019 with the latest announcement of a new series of NAS targetted SSD drives. The new Western Digital Red SA500 SSD, arriving hot on the heels of the announcement of the WD Red 14TB NAS Hard Drives, is a brand new series of solid-state drives that are designed with NAS users who need SERIOUS performance for the data on their servers. With the growth in areas of NAS use in SSD caching, live editing over 10Gbe and Thunderbolt NAS, as well as improved methods of storage tiering across multiple media types, there is an enormous demand for network-attached storage designed media in non-mechanical design that can cope with this level of demand. Arriving very soon, the WD SA500 series will serve as a great NAS upgrade option for both the more brand loyal buyer and those looking to make their first steps into the world of NAS in the best possible setup. So, let’s take a closer look at everything we know about his new series of flash-based NAS media.

What are the specifications of the WD SA500 Red NAS SSD?

It is still very early in release with regard to the specifications that are available on this series of SSD drives for NAS. However, these new WD Red drives will arrive in both 2.5″ SATA and M.2 SATA based form factors (as an answer to the growing need for tiered storage and NAS brands like QNAP supplying devices supporting numerous media types in a single chassis). The 2.5″ based WD RED SA500 arrives in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB Capacity. Whereas the m.2 WD Red SA500 series will arrive in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB at this stage. Despite their difference in form factor, both of these SATA 6Gb/s based SSD boasts maximum read speeds of 560MB/s, as well as utilizing WD 3D NAND that has been featured in other SSD families from the manufacturer – WD Green and WD Blue.

WD Red SA500 NAS SSD – 500GB	WD Red SA500 NAS SSD – 4TB	WD Red SA500 NAS SSD – M.2

There is still no word on an NVMe based WD Red SSD (akin to the WD Black series), but no doubt the popularity and user environments that the SA500 will end up in will dictate if later down the line we see a PRO/Enterprise NAS option for this. The SATA based series of WD Red SSD will arrive at 10 x 7 x 0.7 cm in size and the fact we will have 4TB NAS SSDs at just 7mm is very interesting indeed (with the m.2 drive arriving at 8 x 2.2 x 2.4 cm). Finally, all SSD in the WD Red SA500 series arrive with 5yrs of the manufacturer’s warranty. So, to summarize, the WD Red NAS SA500 SSD range features:

Click to Enlarge

• Built for NAS compatibility
• 7mm SSD Height (2.5″)
• 3D NAND FLASH
• Available in 2.5″ and m.2 Form Factors
• 560MB/s Read (Though the NAS and RAID config you use will affect real-world results)
• 5-year Warranty on all models

With Capacities available in:

• WDS500T1R0B = 500GB M.2
• WDS100T1R0B = 1TB M.2
• WDS200T1R0B = 2TB M.2
• WDS500G1R0A = 500GB 2.5″
• WDS100T1R0A = 1TB 2.5″
• WDS200T1R0A = 2TB 2.5″
• WDS400T1R0A = 4TB 2.5″

 

What are the Differences Between the WD Red SA500 SSD and Regular SSD?

Solid-state drives (SSD) being used in NAS devices is not a new thing. However much like when hard drives were first used in NAS devices, it took a while for the stress points of the media involved in the world of NAS drives to be properly identified.  Traditional SSD drives that are available to consumers have been around now for the best part of a decade, but are still largely designed for singular use. It has only been in the last year or two with the use of NAS in high end, high IOPs scenarios that we have seen SSDs being produced that are designed to be used in much more rugged or demanding environments. It is because of this that we have seen the rise of SSD brands producing SSDs for specific tasks/users, with Professional, Enterprise or Business level users being recommended to buy high end ‘Pro’ drives, as they are more rugged in design, use higher quality NAND chips (that cost more) and feature longer warranty levels on their products. Much the same, WD Red Hard drives were produced because up until then, users were using WD Blue and WD Green drives in NAS – which are not designed to be on 24×7, are not designed to be in big RAID environments and are much more susceptible to the heat and vibration damage that are involved in a NAS Drive. The same is true pf the WD Red SA500 NAS SSD series. These devices are much more NAS focused than regular SSDs and along with the more 24×7 usage and sporadic read/write actions that are a feature of NAS being factored into their controllers, they are designed to be used in larger RAID arrays that can work alongside/with traditional HDD in a NAS Drive.

How Much will the WD Red SSD for NAS Cost?

At this stage, all we have are guideline prices on the new series of WD Red SA500 SSD for NAS. We can obviously anticipate the drives being noticeably more expensive than WD Red Hard drives, but not as much as we first thought. The 500GB SA500 will arrive around the £80-90 mark, the 1TB at around the £160-170 mark, and the 2TB and 4TB at £330+ and £650+ respectively. These are very early pricing guidelines and subject to change. However, they are at a price point that is close to their rival Seagate, with their Ironwolf 110 SSD series of NAS SSD – Though arriving at a greater capacity per drive with the WD Red SAS500.

When will the WD Red SA500 NAS Solid State Drive Be Released?

Details on full release of the new WD Red SA500 is still yet to be fully confirmed, but with the guide price now available, along with the recent reveal of the WD Red 14TB NAS Hard Drive, these drives must be very, very close to release and of course we recommend that you visit the guys at nascompares.com below to find out more information with regard to availability, prices and further specification details!

WD Red SA500 NAS SSD – 500GB	WD Red SA500 NAS SSD – 4TB	WD Red SA500 NAS SSD – M.2

 

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  This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today’s video. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases