WD Black P50 Game Drive Portable SSD Review: USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Speed WD’s Black P50 Game Drive offers up 20 Gbps of portable USB performance for gamers. They aren’t nearly as portable or durable as this one, but they get the job done. The product that we are reviewing today is the Western Digital P50 Game Drive, which is a portable external SSD that comes in 500GB/1TB/2TB capacities. The WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD is a visually striking, no-compromises repository for massive game files, though you'll need a PC with rare USB … We experienced no such issues during testing with the P50, however. The WD Black P50’s transfer speeds were dead slow when I ran AS SSD’s copy benchmark over USB-A as well. Measuring 4.65 x 2.44 x 0.55-inches and weighing just over 4 ounces, this drive is small. All of the other drives have sequential read and write speeds that are roughly half this amount, around 1,000MBps, indicating PCI Express internals on USB 3.2 Gen 2. This part of our WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD review focuses on the SSD’s design and functions. It’s all metal and has the WD_Black text in a very rugged looking font. Disclosure: Western Digital provided a P50 drive for evaluation but had no input into this review. This is the highest score that we have ever seen on a portable SSD from any drive … Sometimes referred to as “20GBps USB” ports, these are few and far between. We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. The P50's drive internals employ the PCI Express bus and support NVMe, which makes it similar to the company’s internal SSDs aimed at gamers and power users, like the WD Black SN750. The 1TB drive I evaluated has a $249.99 sticker, which seems pretty reasonable, but you can drop that to under $180 with the 500GB version. Setup with a PC is plug-and-play simple, although advanced users can download additional utilities like the WD Drive Utilities app and WD Security app to set passwords, check the drive’s health, and perform other maintenance tasks. Western Digital says it is shock-resistant and backs it with a 5-year limited warranty. The P50’s case is rugged, with a forged aluminum cover that’s clearly made to take some punishment. The WD Black P50 1TB Game Drive topped out at 2070 MB/s read and 2050 MB/s write on the sequential test! This design is not only visually pleasing, it also adds to the durability of the drive for those that take in on the go. Now you might be thinking to yourselves what’s so special about this drive? The WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD is a visually striking, no-compromises repository for massive game files, though you'll need a PC with rare USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 support to harness its speeds to the fullest. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. By Sean Webster 01 November 2020 The Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch measures 0.3 by 3.3 by 2.2 inches by comparison. It has a very Military grade look to it. Besides looking like a loot container your avatar might snarf up and add to an inventory box, the P50 offers a shock-resistant enclosure and blazing-fast transfer speeds, thanks to … As you can see from the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test results, the P50 bounces down to this speed when it’s connected to a Mac or other system that doesn’t have a Gen 2x2 port. It should offer impressive performance on the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X when they are released as well. The top of the drive has the WD_BLACK branding as well as the name of the drive. For design, WD uses a flair of creativity. The first such drive we tested, the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD, proved unstable when transferring data over this interface, and frequently needed to revert back to the slower 10GBps speed (via a software toggle). Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for WD_Black 2TB P50 Game Drive Portable External SSD, Portable External Hard Drive Compatible with Playstation, Xbox, PC, & Mac, Up to 2,000 MB/s - WDBA3S0020BBK-WESN at Amazon.com. The first measure is subjective, but I think that WD pulls off the proposition quite nicely. Read WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD Review The P10’s branding is consistent with the shipping-container theme, with a stylized font and a layout that evokes a utilitarian label of contents. (The latest version of the SanDisk Extreme Pro does now have a Gen 2x2 version, but we haven’t reviewed it yet.). However, we got a read speed of 908.2 MB/s and a write speed of 916.2 MB/s. And speaking of size, it is quite compact. The WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD uses NVMe technology and a USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2) interface for a compact form factor and blistering speeds. The drives come in capacities ranging from 500GB to 2TB and claims of up to 2GB/s. It’s nice that WD includes both types of cables, which means that no adapters will be required for connecting to PCs or game consoles. Required fields are marked *. Except for the Seagate, none of these drives supports Gen 2x2 speeds. But the added heft could help the drive better survive occasional drops and bumps unscathed. The drive is bulky for an SSD, measuring 0.55 by 4.7 by 2.4 inches (HWD). I thought the gaming experience would be slow and painful but instead, even at half the speed (on a USB 3.2 Gen2), the drive performs really well and even faster than running it from the usual 2.5″ SSD on SATA 3Gbps interface. It took one minute and 10 seconds for the game to launch. He got his start in technology journalism by reviewing the latest hard drives, keyboards, and much more for PCMag's sister site, Computer Shopper. We then installed it on the WD Black P50 external SSD and plugged that into the Playstation. It gives off a somewhat military feel to it which is great. The WD Black posted excellent times on our in-house folder transfer test. It has a Type-C port and uses USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps) … The WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD also offers fast, external storage for gaming laptops. The P50 takes its design cues from a shipping container, something that’s clearly in vogue right now. WD includes a generous five-year warranty with the P50, which is the longest period we typically see for external drives. Terms of use. The drive is a small, thick, black rectangle with ribbed sides and prominent hex screws in each corner. As a freelancer, he's written on topics as diverse as Borneo's rain forests, Middle Eastern airlines, and big data's role in presidential elections. A graduate of Middlebury College, Tom also has a master's journalism degree from New York University. The results are not far from the rated maximum, and only the Gen 2x2-capable FireCuda comes close to 2,000MBps. But compared to the WD My Passport SSD which has a USB 3.1 10Gb/s interface and read speed of up to 540MB/s, the performance for the P50 SSD is more than twice as fast. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. With read speeds of up to 2000MB/s2 and up to 2TB1 of storage, you’ll spend less time waiting to get back in the game and more time actually playing your game collection. The WD_Black P50 Game Drive 2TB SSD is an extremely impressive unit. Furthermore, the drive is compatible with Windows 10, MacOS 10.11+, PlayStation 4/Pro and the Xbox One/X. As the boys pointed out that doesn’t do anything about the (censored) frame rate of Marvel’s Avengers on the PS4, but cutting down on the waiting by such a high degree makes all games more enjoyable. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Starting with its style aesthetics, the P50 is similar to past WD Black products sporting a hardened-case exterior. Your email address will not be published. It is a portable, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 2×2 lane interface with a WD Black PCIe NVMe SSD … The WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD is a visually striking, no-compromises repository for massive game files, though you'll need a PC with rare USB … The P50’s design evokes an ammo box, … Brad Moon. That interface is seriously slowing down the SSD. Your email address will not be published. As an Amazon Associate, I earn affiliate fees from qualifying purchases. Since you can now pick up high-quality external SSDs for less than 15 cents per gigabyte, the P50’s list prices might initially give you pause. In the P50’s box, you’ll find a USB Type-C to Type-C cable, a USB Type-C to Type-A cable, and the Quick Install Guide. Like most warranties, it applies to the drive itself, but it won’t cover data recovery if your drive malfunctions. This is definitely not reversible to the point it will be able to go through warranty as there was a thermal sponge thing that is impossible to not rip when removing the nvme from its enclosure. The best part of the P50’s physical design is that its uniqueness looks intentional, similar to the way that LaCie's rugged drives have embraced the industrial-chic aesthetic. And its lightning-fast performance is going to make those crushing launch and cut scene loading moments a lot more tolerable. We review products independently, ... the WD Black P10 Game Drive can serve as a simple, stylish repository for your massive game library at a reasonable price. Since the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface is so new, and so infrequently found on PCs, there are still a few kinks to be worked out. The WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD is a visually striking, no-compromises repository for massive game files, though you'll need a PC with rare USB … Western Digital takes this route with the WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD ($191.99 for 1TB). Comment. In addition to PCs and Macs, the P50 is also compatible with the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One. This drive is capable of read speeds up to 2000MB/s. Tom is PCMag's San Francisco-based news reporter. We installed Marvel’s Avengers on a PS4’s internal hard drive and launched it. Western Digital takes this route with the WD Black P50 Game Drive SSD ($191.99 for 1TB). 8.6.1 The P50 is rated for maximum read speeds of 2,000MBps, but in order to achieve that, the PC you’re connecting it to needs to have a spare USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port with a USB-C style connector. This is opposed to many other ruggedized drives, some of which have MIL-SPEC certifications but lack any features that could be described as stylish. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. And remember, this is is plugged into the Playstation 4’s Type-A USB 3.0/3.1 generation 1 ports. Review – ‘Teen Titans: Beast Boy’ – Garfield’s Growth Spurt, Kickstarter Tabletop Alert: ‘Galaxy Hunters’ Adds ‘New Ways to Hunt’ Expansion, Relive ‘Chuck’ With the Original Television Soundtrack, ‘#UpsideDownChallenge Game’ Literally Challenges Your Perception. Otherwise, you're paying for a drive with cool aesthetics that's "just" fast. Launching the game from the external drive took 32 seconds—less than half the time! The WD_Black P50 adds extra games to users Xbox One consoles, PlayStation 4s, or PC Gaming computing. Share Share Tweet Email. So far so good, but I’ve had HDD-based gaming drives that offer mass storage. That sounds fast, but you don’t realize just how fast that is until you see it in action. The WD Black P50 Game Drive Portable SSD is available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities and is built specifically for gamers, however buyer beware, this is not compatible with the just released PS5. As the name states, the WD_Black P50 is a portable NVMe SSD that gamers can use to store part of their game library on for potentially faster loading times than the internal hard drive in their console or PC. It’s immediately apparent from the results of the Crystal DiskMark sequential read and write tests that the P50 is in rare company. My review unit had a capacity of 1TB, which means you can significantly expand a game console or PC’s game library. It offers great speeds and delivers on all its promises. The branding is consistent with the shipping-container theme, with a stylized font and a layout that evokes a utilitarian label of contents. By Eric Switzer Aug 29, 2020. The 4moms rockaRoo provides the front to back gliding motion that babies love, in a com... [More]. A recent gaming PC or laptop with a motherboard that can take full advantage of the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface will really scream. The WD_Black P50 Game Drive SSD promised read speeds of up to 2000 MB/s. Game files are taking up more space than ever, but you can avoid picking and choosing which games you can play with this handy little drive. That’s where WD’s Black P50 Game Drive portable SSD comes into play. Many new desktops and laptops currently support the slower USB 3.2 Gen 2 standard, which has a maximum speed of 10GBps. That is an excruciating wait. The WD Black P50 is a bit overkill for a game drive since game consoles, so far, only feature USB 3.2 Gen 2 or slower — it’s likely that next-gen console will support the 2×2 standard, however. The value proposition of the WD Black P50 for PC users comes wholly down to whether you have access to a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port on your gaming rig. 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