In this review, I am going to rate the WD SSD 500GB. The review will be on four main criteria, and I will mention what I liked, and what I didn’t like about the product. Furthermore, I will also share my experience and how I got the product up and running.
This review is very detailed, so if you just need to upgrade MacBook Pro, just scroll down to “Upgrade”.
This review has been written on the day I had the product running. This review has not been sponsored by WD, and it is solely my own experience and tips I’d like to share.
Price:
No one can argue that this SSD is fairly priced. I can say it is definitely worth the investment. The value for money is just ridiculous.
Quality:
Even though this product will be stuck underneath the laptop case, but the plastic feels solid, and it came well packed.
Speed:
Using BlackMagic Disk Speed Utility, I got the result of 276.7 MB/s write and 504.6 MB/s read. Not quite the promised but good enough. Besides, since this is a 3rd party tool and not embedded in the operating system I don’t expect exact results.
Performance:
Generally, after replacing my drive, I found out that it made my mac at least 5-8 times faster. Moving large files is instant, starting applications and everything else is much quicker.
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Upgrade for MacBook Pro 13 inch ( Mid 2012 model - Non-Retina )
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I bought this SDD to upgrade my MacBook Pro 13 inch (Mid-2012 model). This Apple MacBook model is essentially the last model with the upgradable disk. Some other models are upgradable with M2 SSD. So, if your MacBook Pro is a mid-2012 or below, it is most likely upgradable.
For non-Apple devices, you need to look up your model and check if this SSD is suitable. Amazon offers a handy tool to do so. This guide will only help for Macs.
~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer:
I shall not be held responsible for any damages to the drives or loss of data as a result of your mistakes in the process. You are to do this upgrade at your responsibility, and you hold all the risks associated with the upgrade.
*It is however advised to backup your data ( mainly the most important ) and to watch other tutorials to have a better idea of the procedure. This is only a guide with the concept of the procedure and is LACKING SOME STEPS.
**Basic knowledge of how partitioning and how disk drives work may be important.
~~~~~~~~~~
Before anything, you need to decide the size of the disk. My original was a 500GB spinning drive (HDD), and I bought the 500GB SSD. If you decide that you need more storage, the OSX installation is skipped. Just keep in mind that this could be a major investment in your computer, so if you are left with something between 0-75 GB, you might want to consider getting a bigger sized drive.
Step 1: Restart your Mac and press (CMD + R) to enter recovery mode. Go to desk utility and check your currently installed drive (should appear under internal), check the Partition style. Mine showed APFS, but it may be another like Mac OS (Journaled).
Step 2: Take the new SSD drive and put it in an enclosure for USB connection. I used the AmazonBasics enclosure, the price and the quality are great. Plug it into the mac’s USB. The drive should appear under external.
Step 3: Erase the new drive and format with the format identical to the original drive. (CONFIRM THAT IT IS THE EXTERNAL DRIVE). You can give the new drive any name but try to go for something unique so you don’t confuse it with the current drive.
Step 4 A: If you chose an SSD with size larger than your current drive, you can just go back to the EXTERNAL drive in the disk utility and click restore. Then choose the current internal drive as the source. This will fully clone your old drive to the new drive.
Step 4 B: If you chose an SSD with size equivalent or smaller than your current drive ( note: You can’t cram 400GB of data into a 250 GB drive), you need to go back to the main recovery page and click on reinstall OS. It will ask you which drive to install into for this case choose the EXTERNAL ( whatever you named it). It will then reinstall the operating system. Next, It will then ask you if you want to get data from another drive just choose the current drive (INTERNAL). Tick everything to get a full copy (Trash is not copied).
Step 5: The time it takes usually takes a while depending on your data. After you confirm that the new drive is working fine, you can swap the drives. (You can find step-by-step tutorials on Youtube)
——————
Pros:
It is Excellent. That’s it.
Cons:
Not sure if I should consider this as a drawback but more of a ”would be
handy to have”. I think if WD supplied software to assist in the logistics of moving data, it would have been really fantastic. As an IT, I don’t trust free 3rd-party software, and if I went for paid software, it would cost high. Otherwise, there is absolutely none.
Overall:
I think this product is really great, it will give life to ancient computers, and I totally recommend it. You can buy it without hesitation.
Other products you may consider (That I've been also considering, but haven't tried) :
Sandisk Ultra
Kingston A400
There is a newer version of this item:
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From the manufacturer
WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD
Enhanced reliability
You’re able to work longer before recharging your laptop while sequential read speeds up to 560MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 530MB/s give the speed you want for your most demanding computing applications. You can confidently upgrade your system to the WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD.
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Step Up Beyond SATA
Western Digital is setting the pace by providing a range of performance NVMe SSDs. You get the quality and confidence of the Western Digital brand plus the cutting-edge speed of today’s NVMe.
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WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD
Step up performance four times over our high-end SATA SSDs with a superior NVMe solution for high-performance and mainstream PCs. The WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD will give your system the boost you need.
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WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD
The WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD delivers top-tier performance for gaming. With speeds up to 3,470MB/s, the WD Black SSD rivals some of the best performing drives to help give gamers a competitive edge.
-
WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD with Heatsink
The WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD with heatsink is designed to help keep your drive running at peak performance for longer periods. Its sleek design helps your drive maintain optimal levels of performance.
 WD Blue 3D NAND SATA SSD |  WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD |  WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD |  WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD | |
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Customer Reviews
|
3,983
|
39,424
|
9,282
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17,680
|
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Price
| $184.44 | $50.00 | — | $301.00 |
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Ideal For
| PC enthusiasts, creative pros | Creative pros, media | Gamers, hardware enthusiasts | Gamers, hardware enthusiasts |
|
Form Factor
| SATA 2.5”/7mm & M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
|
Interface
| SATA III 6 Gb/s | PCIe Gen3 8 Gb/s up to 2 lanes | PCIe Gen3 8 Gb/s up to 4 lanes | PCIe Gen3 8 Gb/s up to 4 lanes |
|
Sequential Read Speed
| up to 560 MB/s | up to 2,400 MB/s | up to 3,470 MB/s | up to 3,470 MB/s |
|
Sequential Write Speed
| up to 530 MB/s | up to 1,950 MB/s | up to 3,000 MB/s | up to 3,000 MB/s |
|
TBW
| up to 600TBW (4TB) | up to 600TBW | up to 600TBW | up to 600TBW |
|
Highest Capacity Available
| 4TB | 1TB | 2TB | 2TB |
Videos
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Western Digital 500GB WD Blue 3D NAND Internal PC SSD
Mementeros
Reviews with images
You don't need to buy a new PC. Works with Win7
You can damn sure install windows 7!!! Don't let anyone fool you!!! You just can't clone. You have to do a fresh install of windows 7 and it works fine. WD SSD's have TRIM support, amungst other things. It pretty much means you can run win 7 off of their SSD's. I've had it installed for over a month and so far so good. Pc used for video and audio editing/recording. Also used for gaming.. I have an hp p-1010 desktop that I bought in 2011 for 800$ brand new. I upgraded to an AMD Phenom X6 1065T six core 2.9ghz, A 2gb EVGA Nvidia GeForce gtx 750 Ti and 4x8gb RAM sticks.It's a great pc, I've rarely had a problem, if at all and if so it was probably my fault. It runs smoothly to this day, Startup time is about 2 minutes and the HDD I have now (500gb WD) runs very slow at only 50 some mgbs read/write. But It runs mostly any game as of 2016 anything newer usually maxes out my system but will still run it. I just don't like maxing out my system for hours while I play a game.Anyway I decided to finally upgrade.Bought the 500gb Solid State Drive to run my OS only. And I bought the 1tb for installating games/programs. I am extremely happy I did! Startup time is now about 10 seconds and my read/write speeds are significantly higher, 250mbps and could be more if my motherboard was 6gb sata. I'm not sure what mine is. Running windows 7 ultimate, the os uses all of my 32gb RAM and runs much more lighter than win 10. 10 runs heavy, at idle its around 15 to 25% while 7 runs around 5% at idle. At first I Installed windows 10 fresh because of everything I read about 7 not being able to run on an ssd. È8i%^+awww 7 ess 6 0îűInstallation of the ssd was very easy. I didn't want to switch to windows 10 but I did. And HATED it!!!! And you can't turn off windows update, which killed me lol so I did more research and found out that you actually can run win 7 on an ssd as long as said ssd supports TRIM.Still, an insane improvement. Almost instant navigation. Programs open in 2 Seconds. And my gaming experience is significantly higher, I can max out my graphics settings while gaming and it looks awesome.
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