Get into the game fast with WD_BLACK’s blisteringly powerful SN770 NVMe SSD, purpose-built with the gaming community in mind.
Gamers, possibly more than anyone, know the pain of limited storage. There is nothing worse than reaching 97% on your game download, only for your computer or console to throw up the good old "insufficient space" warning. This often leads to a mad scramble as you try to delete other games to make room. Sometimes, these are games you don't even want to remove from your device; it just becomes a necessity.
Likewise, nobody wants to deal with slow load times; we all want to get in on the action that little bit quicker.
Enter Western Digital® with its superb WD_BLACK™ SN770 NVMe™ SSD [1]. This isn't just any SSD, though. As with all WD_BLACK solutions, Western Digital has designed this drive specifically for gaming, so if you're suffering serious storage woes, read on to find out how the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD can improve your gaming experience.
To briefly explain, the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD is a solid state drive, or SSD. Unlike an HDD (hard disk drive), an SSD contains no moving parts, instead relying on flash memory to store your data. The result is a drive that can not only read and write data faster but is also more reliable thanks to the lack of moving components. An HDD, by contrast, contains a rotating disk (hence the "disk" in its name) and a moving arm, which are both prone to wear and accidental damage.
The SSD works with any computer with an M.2 (M-key) port that accepts the M.2 2280 form factor. You can buy several versions of the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD; 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB [2], and these are available now from the Western Digital store.
So, you can start to see the benefits of the WD SN770 NVMe SSD straight away. Let's check out how this dynamo drive can improve your gaming experience.
There are numerous reasons why the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD is an excellent candidate for your next gaming PC storage upgrade.
The WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD boasts some seriously impressive transfer speeds. Thanks to its PCIe® Gen4 interface, the drive is capable of delivering speeds of up to 5,150 MB/s [3]. As you can imagine, this is pretty fast, and you'll almost certainly notice the difference in terms of load times when you run games. This is the beauty of an SSD and one major advantage it has over your standard HDD.
And you really will notice the difference. An SSD can decrease game load times substantially, sometimes by several minutes, depending on the size of the game you're loading. This means you can get into the game much faster than with an HDD. Install your games on a WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD and you'll be in the thick of it before you know it.
With a WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD inside your gaming rig, you can enjoy a much faster booting experience when it comes to your chosen OS, if you install your OS. If you've ever compared the boot times of a PC or laptop with an SSD, versus the same with an HDD, you'll know what we mean. In almost all cases, a device fitted with an SSD will boot up and be ready for action in a fraction of the time of a computer running an HDD.
Add this fact to the above lightning-fast load speeds, and you'll be back in the game before you even put hand to mouse.
Are you a fan of sandbox—or open world—games? If you are, and you are playing from an HDD or an old SSD, you might notice that things like terrain take a while to load. This can particularly be the case where a game is procedurally generating the environment it places your character in, and so your computer needs to make more calculations.
For example, if trees suddenly appear out of nowhere in ahead of you, or you suddenly find you've run straight into a rocky outcrop you can't pass, simply because it hadn't loaded properly in the distance, and thus you didn't see it, then it is probably time to upgrade to an SSD to render that gaming environment much faster. The WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD is just the ticket in such a situation.
Given that an HDD has moving parts, it is going to suffer from hardware fatigue after a while. While that magnetic platter spins furiously inside the drive and the head reads the zeros and ones that form the basis of your game, those moving parts will naturally suffer from wear and tear. In the end, this means your drive will fail. If you play games using an HDD regularly, you're speeding up the process. This will cost you more in the long run.
By contrast, thanks to the lack of moving parts in an SSD, your device isn't going to suffer from that same wear and tear. Thus, you'll often find that an SSD will need replacing significantly less frequently than an HDD. Given that gaming rigs are expensive enough as it is, it makes sense to install an SSD and make that saving in the long run.
By extension, a lack of moving parts means less noise, which means using an SSD contributes to a quieter PC. This means less distraction from sounds outside your game.
OK, so an SSD is still an electronic device at the end of the day, so it is still prone to some wear and tear under certain conditions. However, SSDs like the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD are incredibly reliable, as illustrated by the 5-year warranty offered with each drive [4].
In general, you'll find that SSDs have historically shown themselves to be the more reliable option when it comes to storage, and this is no different when it comes to storing game data. Nobody wants their save data wiped by a failed drive; this is less likely to happen with an SSD.
An SSD offers better physical security when it comes to your game save data. If you've spent thousands of hours on playthroughs, there'll be nothing worse than an accident wiping your save from existence. Because it is an SSD, and nothing inside it moves, you can game on, safe in the knowledge that your saves are preserved in a secure place.
Save your playthrough on an SSD, and it becomes the guardian of your saved data. They can cope well with knocks and bumps, for example, so even something like knocking your gaming laptop off the sofa is less likely to spell permadeath for your playthrough.
Games these days take up lots of space on your device. No sooner have you downloaded a game are you suddenly flung into a maelstrom of updates, patches, and who knows what else, and the file size balloons out of all proportion. Given that you can buy the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD in capacities up to 2 TB2, you should have enough space for your OS and a whole load of your favorite titles, with room to add new releases as they hit the digital storefronts.
Plus, with the impressive read/write speeds the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD boasts, you can be sure that everything stored on your SSD will load swiftly, even if you max out your storage.
As you can see, there are many reasons why an SSD like the WD_BLACK SN770 NVMe SSD can help make the whole gaming experience that little bit better for you. Gaming is fun, sure, but it is even more fun when you can get into the action quicker, and your games run smoother as a result of upgrading to an SSD.
[1] Available on Windows operating system only.
[2] 1GB = 1 billion bytes, 1TB = 1 trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less depending on operating environment.
[3] As used for transfer rate, 1 MB/s = 1 million bytes per second. Based on internal testing; performance may vary depending upon host device, usage conditions, drive capacity, and other factors.
[4] 5 years or Max Endurance (TBW) limit, whichever occurs first. See support.wdc.com for region-specific warranty details.
Western Digital, the Western Digital logo, and WD_BLACK are registered trademarks or trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. The NVMe word mark is a trademark of NVM Express, Inc. PCIe is a registered trademark of PCI-SIG in the United States and/or other countries. Product specifications subject to change without notice. Pictures shown may vary from actual products.
© 2022 Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Western Digital Technologies, Inc. is the seller of record and licensee in the Americas of SanDisk® products.
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Ste is the Partnership manager, Junior Gaming Editor, and a contributing writer here at MUO. He is passionate about a wide variety of technology, from games consoles, personal and home audio, through to smartphones and wellness devices.
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