Sandisk has simultaneously announced and launched its first PCIe Gen 5.0 SSD under the WD Black banner, the WD Black SN8100. This compact drive is designed with "hardcore PC gamers" in mind, who are looking to future-proof their PC gaming rig with read and write speeds of up to 14,900MB/s1 and 14,000MB/s.
We're barely at the halfway point of the year, and already there's a ton of new Gen 5 contenders vying for the best SSDs for gaming crown, as only yesterday did fellow storage tech brand Kingston FURY release its own new PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, with the Kingston FURY Renegade G5. Now, Sandisk has stepped things up a notch with the "world's fastest" Gen 5 drive, which also directly targets Samsung's new 9100 Pro.
Its integrated TLC 3D CBA NAND tech is what helps bolster its mighty fast speeds and reliability, and it's available starting right now from $179.99 at Amazon, with 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models to choose from. If that's not enough space for you, an 8TB model is also planned for the future, although I shudder to think about its potential price.
Joe Macri, Senior Vice President and CTO for Compute and Graphics at AMD, shared in the latest Sandisk press release that this sparkly new drive " revolutionizes storage performance and power efficiency" for both gaming and content creators alike.
While we'll have to test that out for ourselves, the newly launched WD Black 8100 SSD is equipped with up to 2,400TBW endurance, meaning it'll last you well into the future. It's just as well, too, because from the Gen 5 tests we've done so far, there really aren't massive, immediate benefits to slotting one of these into your best gaming PC. Sure, extremely speedy transfer speeds are ludicrously helpful if you frequently shift data from one drive to another. Unfortunately, not many games really support these mega-fast drives right now, so it's ironically a waiting game for more software developers to really let these things fly in a gaming sense.
If you'd prefer to grab the WD Black 8100 SSD right now, though, there's nothing wrong with some futureproofing. If you want a heatsink in tow, you will have to wait a little longer. A heatsink model is expected to be released this fall, which is a little disappointing it's not available from the get-go. Fortunately, there will be a 1TB ($199.99), 2TB ($299.99), and 4TB ($569.99) capacities available when that time comes.
In need of some of the best external hard drives for gaming instead? Our guides to the best Xbox Series X hard drive, SSD, and memory card solutions, and the best PS5 external hard drives are full of portable storage options for your beloved console of choice.
