When it comes to hard drives, the first name that comes to mind is Western Digital, and with good reason, they've been major players in storage drive industry for a good part of a decade. Yet when it comes to SSD's, their presence in that particular market is nonexistent. That now has all changed with their acquisition of SanDisk, causing the company to venture into the solid state drive market.
Yes folks you read it correctly, Western Digital is now manufacturing consumer/commercial brand SSD's which interestingly enough use the WD Blue and Green naming scheme that's implemented on their hard drive line. It also helps that along with acquiring SanDisk, they gain full access to their technology.
The WD Green lineup will be made specifically for the entry level PCs that will have a much lower power draw, the Blue variant on the other hand is intent on attracting the mainstream consumer. Both variants will be made available in 2.5" SATA lll and M.2 SATA lll form factors.
More in detail, the WD Green SSD will only be available in lower capacities at 120GB and 240GB respectively. While the WD Blue will come in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, which by the way is constructed more for that PC enthusiast. Both of these drives will not come embedded with AES-256 bit hardware encryption. Instead, WD will use DevSLP (Device Sleep) power saving technology. While in DevSLP mode, the 1TB SSD will draw anywhere between 6.0 and 9.7 mW, in comparison to a whopping 70mW for overall active power that takes place with most SSD's currently on the market.
The main attraction here is the low prices with the WD Blue SSD's, with most storage manufactures the trend is to start high in price point when introducing a SSD or hard drive to market, WD Blue and Green is introduced to market being very price friendly. The price listing goes as follows; WD Blue 1TB SSD retails on Amazon for $259.99, 500GB $132.99, and 250GB $79.99. The M.2 variant 1TBwill retail for $279.99, 500GB $139.99, 250GB $81.99
The moral to this post is if you're in the hunt for a good quality SSD and don't want to sacrifice a good portion of your cash to acquire one, the WD Blue series SSD's should be your obvious choice.
On a side note, if you're interested in WD Blue spec numbers and listed overall features, direct your attention to hothardware.com/reviews/wd-blue-ssd-review website.
Source: hothardware and Western Digital