"The SN750 SE brings PCIe Gen4 support but in other respects seems to be a downgrade compared to the SN750, and appears to have more in common with the WD Blue SN550."
The first thing that crossed my mind when I read the title of this article was that this should be branded under the Blue brand.
Typical PR marketing fail. What morons at WD decided to call this the same thing as the previously released PCIe3 drive? It's like Sandisk is influencing WD or somethi....ohhhh!
SSD brands all seem desperate to trade in their credibility and brand names for money. "Let's refresh the WD Blue lineup, call it a WD Black and up the prices!" Just like Samsung with their "980".
Well, at least they're not pulling an ADATA and actually changed the product's name, no matter how slightly.
It would be sweet if a manufacturer would make a drive that actually loaded games and stuff faster than a SATA 3 drive instead of focusing on all this PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 nonsense that has almost no tangible benefit for the vast majority of users.
As someone who has been using the the SN550 as my boot drive for two years, I don't see it as a compelling comparison to the SN750SE. The SN750SE blows it out of the water for speeds and durability numbers. My SN550 1TB in real world numbers is only doing 1600-1800 MB/s in sequential writes and maxes out at 2400 MB/s. Considering the price points currently with SN750SE sitting around $125 CDN on Amazon...it's a no brainer. The SN750SE stomps the $117 CDNSN550.
Further, from an aesthetics POV, the gawdy blue SN550 sticks out like a sore thumb if you don't have a heatsink to cover it. It tends to take the eye away from the rest of the build. Given the extra cost of a heatsink to cover it, any value that it may seem to propose over the SN750SE evaporates if you care about your build looking good. Personally, I'm good with them not labeling it under the Blue nomenclature and giving it those aesthetics.
If you're a gamer, then you're likely gonna be fine either way, as none of the three represent a massive advantage in terms of load times over one another, and install times are gonna be miles faster than SATA no matter which way you go. It's only people using them for workstation and server purposes who are really going to notice the difference. Unless you're writing massive amounts of data daily, it's mostly a toss-up between aesthetics, and minute differences in performance bang for buck between the black models.
To be clear, the SN550 is still a good drive and I've had zero issues with it in terms of performance and reliability, but at current prices on Amazon, it would be silly not to go SN750SE. As far as the SN750 to SN750SE 1TB models...the performance is too close to really worry about shelling out the extra $15 for the SN750. I picked up 2x 1TB SN750SEs for $249.98 before tax. The SN750 2TB is currently $289.99, so if you have two M.2 slots on your mobo anyway, then you may as well. Just my thoughts though.
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Chaitanya - Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - link
Would like to read review of these drives.ballsystemlord - Thursday, May 27, 2021 - link
I agree!29a - Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - link
"The SN750 SE brings PCIe Gen4 support but in other respects seems to be a downgrade compared to the SN750, and appears to have more in common with the WD Blue SN550."The first thing that crossed my mind when I read the title of this article was that this should be branded under the Blue brand.
plopke - Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - link
i agree this should have been like a BLUE 570 or somethingSamus - Thursday, May 27, 2021 - link
Typical PR marketing fail. What morons at WD decided to call this the same thing as the previously released PCIe3 drive? It's like Sandisk is influencing WD or somethi....ohhhh!ballsystemlord - Thursday, May 27, 2021 - link
Same here. WD Blue branding. PCIe 4 is pretty much the new norm now, not the new premium.Wereweeb - Thursday, May 27, 2021 - link
SSD brands all seem desperate to trade in their credibility and brand names for money. "Let's refresh the WD Blue lineup, call it a WD Black and up the prices!" Just like Samsung with their "980".Well, at least they're not pulling an ADATA and actually changed the product's name, no matter how slightly.
LonerPrime - Monday, September 20, 2021 - link
*stares at SN550*Yea... this statement did not age well at all.
oRAirwolf - Thursday, May 27, 2021 - link
It would be sweet if a manufacturer would make a drive that actually loaded games and stuff faster than a SATA 3 drive instead of focusing on all this PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 nonsense that has almost no tangible benefit for the vast majority of users.Spunjji - Friday, May 28, 2021 - link
How would they do that, though? Storage speed isn't the main limitation for game loading times.Wereweeb - Saturday, May 29, 2021 - link
Dude, literally go outside. Your life won't be significantly improved by your game loading in five seconds instead of ten.Spunjji - Friday, May 28, 2021 - link
Trying to fathom what the point of a PCIe 4.0 drive that runs at speeds attainable by PCIe 3.0 drives is... Ah, yes. Marketing.eastcoast_pete - Friday, May 28, 2021 - link
This sort-of devalues the entire "Black" label for WD's SSDs, which actually stood for something. This DRAM-less design is more "baby blue".DarthMaal - Thursday, November 4, 2021 - link
As someone who has been using the the SN550 as my boot drive for two years, I don't see it as a compelling comparison to the SN750SE. The SN750SE blows it out of the water for speeds and durability numbers. My SN550 1TB in real world numbers is only doing 1600-1800 MB/s in sequential writes and maxes out at 2400 MB/s. Considering the price points currently with SN750SE sitting around $125 CDN on Amazon...it's a no brainer. The SN750SE stomps the $117 CDNSN550.Further, from an aesthetics POV, the gawdy blue SN550 sticks out like a sore thumb if you don't have a heatsink to cover it. It tends to take the eye away from the rest of the build. Given the extra cost of a heatsink to cover it, any value that it may seem to propose over the SN750SE evaporates if you care about your build looking good. Personally, I'm good with them not labeling it under the Blue nomenclature and giving it those aesthetics.
If you're a gamer, then you're likely gonna be fine either way, as none of the three represent a massive advantage in terms of load times over one another, and install times are gonna be miles faster than SATA no matter which way you go. It's only people using them for workstation and server purposes who are really going to notice the difference. Unless you're writing massive amounts of data daily, it's mostly a toss-up between aesthetics, and minute differences in performance bang for buck between the black models.
To be clear, the SN550 is still a good drive and I've had zero issues with it in terms of performance and reliability, but at current prices on Amazon, it would be silly not to go SN750SE. As far as the SN750 to SN750SE 1TB models...the performance is too close to really worry about shelling out the extra $15 for the SN750. I picked up 2x 1TB SN750SEs for $249.98 before tax. The SN750 2TB is currently $289.99, so if you have two M.2 slots on your mobo anyway, then you may as well. Just my thoughts though.