Overall and Final Verdict

After having the WD_Black P50 in the office for months and after fighting trying to get in a way to test it having some of the Z490 boards support it was a silver lining after a stressful launch. The fact is, I knew what the P50 was capable of. I mean it does have an SN750 or at least a variation of it inside which we have tested multiple times and I use in a few of our test benches. So when I tested it and saw that it did reach the 2000 MB/s speed in at least one of our tests I wasn’t all that surprised. On one note, that is twice as fast as any none Gen 2x2 drive is even capable of, but the SN750 is capable of even more of USB would allow it. The drive also has the same styling that I liked with the P10 which looks good and does offer the drive inside good protection. A big bonus from WD was the 5-year warranty, which is two years longer than the Crucial X8 that I tested late last year. I also like that the drive uses USB Type-C for its main connection and that they include two different cables for those times when you need to hook up to a Type-A connection. I would prefer it to be one cable with an adapter that is maybe hooked on to the cable or hidden in the drive so it isn’t lost. But I will always prefer Type-C, it is smaller, doesn’t need to be plugged in a specific direction, and is what most phones use now as well so you should have a cable near your desk. Of course that cable may not get you the full USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 speeds.

Speaking of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, I do have to point out that at least right now finding motherboards with it is extremely rare. The latest TRX40 motherboards for Threadripper 3 may have it and there are a few late X299 boards which have support. Then of course some of the new Z490 boards. There aren’t even external options available with the exception of one made by Gigabyte that was announced but hasn’t been available. It is the future, but I just have to make sure people know going in that your current hardware may not support it and if that is the case you will be stuck at lower (but still fast) speeds.

The price of the WD_Black P50 is also a concern. It is hard to compare with other NVMe external drives because they are all slower than the P50. But you are paying a premium for that price with our 1TB model running $249.99 right now. That is $100 more than the SN750, so you are paying a premium for the interface and enclosure. Rumors have the ASUS U32 20G enclosure coming out for a lot less, but that still isn’t out yet. So right now you are paying more because there aren’t any other options. But on that same note, that means this is the only way you can get those speeds. So if you need the best possible performance from an external SSD and your PC supports 3.2 Gen 2x2 or (20G Superspeed which is another name for it) then the WD_Black P50 is the drive for you!

fv5editorschoice

Live Pricing: HERE

 

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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