When you want to buy an SSD for your PC, either to improve performance because you still had a mechanical hard drive, or because you want to expand the capacity of the equipment or for whatever reason, you have so many models available on the market that sometimes It is quite difficult to choose. For this reason, today we are going to make a technical comparison of the SanDisk SSD Plus vs WD Blue SSDs in their “intermediate” models (480 and 500 GB respectively), two models quite representative of what we can consider cheap SSDs .
2.5-inch format SSDs and SATA 3 interface have come down in price a lot lately, and as manufacturers are increasingly expanding their maximum capacity, intermediate capacity models (500GB – 1TB) are getting cheaper to open a gap in the market. By way of comparison, these are the prices in Amazon Spain of the two SSDs that we compare today:
As you can see, the difference between the two models is only about 10 euros, although the most expensive model (the WD Blue) also has 20 GB more capacity due to the type of NAND memory it uses.
Features SanDisk SSD Plus 480 GB vs WD Blue 500 GB
| SanDisk SSD Plus 480 GB | WD Blue 500 GB | |
|---|---|---|
| Form factor | 2.5 inch | 2.5 inch |
| Interface | SATA 3 | SATA 3 |
| Capacity | 480 GB | 500 GB |
| NAND type | MLC 19 nm | 3D NAND |
| Support | SMART TRIM NCQ DevSleep Garbage Collection |
SMART TRIM NCQ DevSleep Garbage Collection |
| Encryption | Yes | Not |
| Sequential reading | 535 MB / s | 550 MB / s |
| Sequential writing | 445 MB / s | 525 MB / s |
| Durability | 180 TBW | 200 TBW |
| Consumption | 0.003W idle 0.2W average 2.1W max reading 7W max write |
2.2W max reading 2.25W max write |
| Operating temperature | 0 – 70 ºC | 0 – 70 ºC |
| Warranty | 3 years | 5 years |
Looking at performance first, the WD Blue is noticeably faster than the SanDisk SSD Plus, with just 15MB / s more reading but beating 80MB / s in writing speed. To this we must add that it has 20 GB more capacity for the different type of NAND memory it uses, so in terms of performance we have a clear winner.
If we go to assess the durability of both devices, the WD Blue has a 5-year warranty against the 3 that SanDisk offers in its SSD Plus, and also also wins in terms of durability expressed in TBW, 200 vs 180. This means that with a 500 GB WD Blue we could write 110 GB a day every day for 5 years until its durability is exhausted, while in the SanDisk SSD Plus we would be limited to 98 GB a day every day for 5 years. Again, the WD Blue wins the SanDisk SSD Plus.
Both solid state devices support the same technologies, but where the SanDisk SSD does win is in that it supports hardware data encryption natively, while if we want to encrypt the data with the WD Blue SSD, we will have to make do with it. by software.
For the rest, they are two quite similar SSD models in all respects, such as consumption or operating temperatures, so which one is better to buy?
Which of the two SSDs is better to buy?
Actually, as we have seen both are quite decent cheap SSDs, which will give us good performance and good durability. The WD model is slightly more expensive than the SanDisk model, but instead offers better performance, greater durability and more warranty.
For this reason we think that in this case the price difference is worth it, and given the choice, we consider that the WD Blue is a better SSD and that the price difference is justified, so it would be the option we would choose. In any case, and since the SanDisk model is quite old already (from before WD bought SanDisk), it is frequent to find excellent offers, so if money is a problem for you, do not hesitate, because the SSD Plus of the brand is a very good SSD too.
