We received a portable SSD for review / review Game drive WD_Black P40 V 2 TB from western digital, an upgraded version of the P50, a model with similar specifications but slightly larger. As highlighted, the case of the P40 is made of high strength material that will certainly withstand some drops without causing problems with SSD, after all, we are talking about a type of drive that does not have internal needles, so unlike HD, it is. there will be no problems with falling as long as it does not damage the board and internal chips. The SSD is based on a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection, delivering read speeds up to 2000MB/s and write speeds up to 2000MB/s, one of the fastest on the market.

Official website of the WD_Black P40 game driver

In the international scenario, the 500 GB model is $115, the 1 TB is $180, and the 2 TB is $325 (Research conducted 2/6/2023 at newegg.com). In Brazil, I currently only found a 500 GB model that costs 600 reais in Kabum. I didn’t find the models with the highest capacity. Is it worth it? We will see in this analysis.

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WD_Black P40 Game Drive Specifications

In terms of technical characteristics, the SSDs of the P40 line have not changed much compared to the P50 line. However, they have a smaller body as well as RGB LEDs.

The analyzed model achieves sequential read speeds up to 2000 MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 2000 MB/s, which is practically the limit for a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection. The 500GB model also has the same read speed, with a write speed of 1950MB/s.

Keep in mind that in order to achieve this speed, the connection it is used on must also comply with the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 standard or higher, and even the cable used must be compatible with this product profile.

With the above in mind, it is important to emphasize that video games such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S will not use features related to fast loading of next-generation games, as the consoles do not have USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connectors. For example, in the case of PS5, you can run games made for PS4 directly from the SSD, but you can’t do the same with games made for PS5.

comparative

WD_Black P40 Gaming SSD

WD_Black P50 Gaming SSD

VISION Gigabyte Drive

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD

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Sandisk Extreme Portable 500Gb SSD HDD

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Sandisk Extreme Portable 500Gb SSD HDD

BRL 548.89 up to 9 installments of BRL 60.98

WD has also placed LEDs on the bottom of the SSD that indicate it’s on, including some ways of alternating colors.

Photos of the game drive WD_Black P40

In the photos below, you can see that WD has placed the case with an imposing look, which speaks of high durability, which is actually what happens. It’s a product that survives drops without sacrificing functionality, which sets it apart from solutions with simpler cases and especially HD.

It comes with an SSD, a USB-C to USB-C cable, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Below are photos of competing SSDs and even a portable hard drive to give you a real idea of ​​the P40’s dimensions.

System used

Below are the system configurations and software used for comparison.

Machine used in tests:

– Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-Plus D4
– Intel Core i5-12600K processor
– NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card
– Memory Kingston FURY RGB 64GB (2x32GB)
– Source Cooler Master V850

Operating system and drivers:
– Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit + updates

Apps/Games:
– 3DMark – Storage
– ATTO Benchmark 4.x
– CrystalDiskMark 8.x
– Disbench
– PCMark10 – Fast Storage

USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection and video games

For tests, we used a computer with a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection, also called USB 20Gbps, as shown in the image below. It is important to note that this connection, despite the traditional USB Type-C format, is not available on many computers, but only on later models.

Playstation 5 consoles and Xbox Series X models | S have a USB-C connection, but these are 3.2 Gen1 (USB 3.0) versions, so they cannot take full advantage of the SSD models based on the USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection, which reach speeds up to 2000 MB / s.

It is also important to note that it will not be possible to run games designed specifically for these consoles directly from the SSD, where it will only function as a backup drive.

To understand the speed difference, we ported a Cyberpunk PS5 (57GB) game to a WD-Black P40 with a total copy time of 7:22 minutes. We ported Cyberpunk (63 GB) to Xbox Series S with a total copy time of 6:02 minutes, which means that the connection to the Microsoft console is faster, because even taking up more space with files, it took less time.

On a Windows 11 PC, we transferred 59 GB over a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection with a total copy time of 1:44 minutes, which is much less than others. This shows that consoles have slower connections and can’t take advantage of faster drives, which is one of the reasons it’s not possible to run the latest games directly from an SSD.

Temperature

In terms of temperature, 2.5″ SATA SSDs change little with ambient temperature. In this regard, it is important to pay attention to what the manufacturer calls a safe margin for SSD operation.

In the case of the WD_Black P40, the company indicates that the SSD was designed to operate from 0 to 85º, which is a very large margin and should not be a problem in most of the planet. When stored without operation, the specified temperatures range from -40 to 85º.

synthetic tests

ATTO 4 disc test

Another well-known drive performance testing application is ATTO. See below the behavior of the compared models:

CrystalDiskMark

In CrystalDiskMark, another very well-known drive testing application, we decided to use two results recommended by the developers themselves: test “SEQ1M Q8T1 (8 GB)“And”RND4K Q1T1 (8 GB)“. Below points in read and write mode:

PKMark 10

PCMark 10 contains a number of benchmarks to measure the performance of various computer components, including specific tests to measure the performance of drives. We conducted tests in Quick Storage mode.

Performance tests with WD_Black P40

File Copy – NVMe SSD

The following are copy performance tests using a virtual disk created with the RAMDisk application. On the system we’re using, this drive achieves read and write speeds of 15,000MB/s, so it’s not a limitation for any PCIe 4.0 SSD, and even the upcoming PCIe 5.0.

Application used in the test Diskbench for the copy process.

Tested disks for RAMDisk (reading)

In this test, we copy files from the analyzed disk to the RAMDisk. This will be a read test, since it does not write anything to the disk being analyzed.

RAMDisk for verified disks (letter)

In reverse, we are now copying the files from the RAMDisk to the WD_Black P40 for a practice write test as the data is being written to the disk.

Copy verified discs to yourself

Another important process is how the drive behaves when something is being copied from it to itself, which includes shared reads and writes.

Should I buy WD_Black P40 Game Drive?

The WD Black P40 Game Drive Portable SSD is a great model for those looking for a high-speed, drop-resistant solution built into a very rugged chassis that will provide more durability to even the most casual user. Its size is significantly smaller than an external HD and even many SSDs, which is a very positive thing, as it is easy to carry with you anywhere, even in your pants pocket.

In terms of speed, since it’s based on a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection – the fastest currently available – you can achieve speeds up to 2000MB/s, the level of a good NVMe SSD in M.2 format. The problem is that in practice it is not so easy to achieve such good results. First of all, you need to have a computer with this connection, and many models, despite having a USB-C connection, do not have version 3.2 Gen2x2. Soon the SSD will be limited by the speed of the connection that the computer has. OBS.: If it’s USB 3.2 Gen1 (old USB 3.0), the transfer speed will be around 500MB/s, if it’s USB 3.2 Gen2 (old USB 3.1), the transfer speed will be maximum 1000MB/s.

In practical tests, it was also possible to notice that even in a computer of the latest generation with a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection, the SSD does not outperform the USB 3.2 Gen1 model by 4 times, as expected. Another detail is that he sometimes played P50. In graphics, Gigabyte’s Vision model stood out, which is also based on the same connection speed, but costs much more and does not justify it, not to mention that its size is significantly larger.

In addition, video games such as PS5 and Xbox Series X | S do not have a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 connection and do not support fast download technologies for games from external drives. As such, it will not be possible to run games designed for next generation video games directly from a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 SSD such as the WD_Black P40. It will only serve to transfer games to another console or even backup.

In any case, this is a good SSD, it has a high-resistance package, which can be very interesting depending on the use case and user profile. It also has a compact size compared to other solutions, which is interesting because of the ease of transportation. Perhaps its biggest problem is that it’s hard to find on sale in Brazil, and also that Kingston has a model called the XS2000 with a smaller size, same speed but lower values, probably a better current one. solution for this type of drive in the world. , a country.