Powered by 3D NAND technology, the SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD delivers enhanced endurance and reliability, blazing sequential read speeds of up to 560MB/s [550MB/s: 250GB only] and sequential write speeds of up to 530MB/S2 [525MB/s: 250GB only] for no-wait boot-up, shorter application load times, and quicker data transfers). Get accelerated performance for better gaming and pro-level multitasking with graphics-intensive apps. How worth is buying this? Reveal more in SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 4TB internal SSD review.
Specification – SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 4TB internal SSD
- Interface: SATA Revision 3.0 (6Gb/s)
- Available capacities: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB
- Seq. Read (up to): 550MB/s, 560MB/s, 560MB/s, 560MB/s
- Seq. Write (up to): 525MB/s ,530MB/s, 530MB/s, 530MB/s
- Rnd. Read (up to): 95K IOPS, 95K IOPS, 95K IOPS, 95K IOPS
- Rnd. Write (up to): 81K IOPS, 84K IOPS, 84K IOPS, 84K IOPS
- TBW: 100, 200, 400, 500
- Dimensions: 2.75 x 3.96 x 0.28 in. (69.95 mm x 100.5 mm x 7.0 mm)
- Operating temperature: 32ºF to 158ºF (0ºC to 70 ºC)
- Shock Resistant up to 1500 G @ 0.5 m/sec
- Vibration: 5 gRMS, 10-2000 HZ / 4.9 gRMS, 7-800 HZ
- Warranty: Limited 3-year warranty
Price
The Ultra 3D is available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB (the size we tested), and 2TB capacities, which we saw online for about $100, $165, $285, and $550 respectively. That’s around 25 cents per GB in the highest capacity. The 250GB model is rated for 100TBW (TeraBytes Written) over the lifetime of the drive, the 500GB model for 200TBW, the 1TB version for 400TBW, and the 2TB version for 500TBW.
What is good in SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 4TB internal SSD?
SanDisk’s new SSD uses 3D NAND and nCache 2.0. It also features shock and vibration resistance for increased reliability. The SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD is managed through the company’s Dashboard, which gives users real-time visibility into how the drive is performing as well as cloning software, tools for disk analysis, and alerts for firmware updates. SanDisk quotes the Ultra 3D with up to 560MB/s and 530MB/s in sequential read and write speeds respectively (550MB/s and 525MB/s for the 250GB model) while random reads and writes throughput is expected to reach up to 95,000 IOPS and 84,000 IOPS, respectively.
SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 4TB internal SSD comparison
| SanDisk Ultra 3D and WD Blue 3D NAND Specifications | ||||
| Capacity | 250 GB | 500 GB | 1TB | 2TB |
| Controller | Marvell 88SS1074 | |||
| NAND | SanDisk 64-layer 3D TLC | |||
| Form Factor | 2.5″ 7mm M.2 2280 (WD Blue only) | |||
| Sequential Read | 550 MB/s | 560 MB/s | 560 MB/s | 560 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 525 MB/s | 530 MB/s | 530 MB/s | 530 MB/s |
| 4KB Random Read IOPS | 95k | 95k | 95k | 95k |
| 4KB Random Write IOPS | 81k | 84k | 84k | 84k |
| Idle Power (Slumber) | 56 mW | |||
| Idle Power (DevSlp) | 5-7 mW | 5-12 mW | ||
| Write Endurance | 100 TB | 200 TB | 400 TB | 500 TB |
SanDisk Ultra 3D NAND 4TB internal SSD review
Build
It has the usual smooth and refined black metal enclosure with white, black and red color scheme. As we mentioned above, SanDisk’s aluminium case is designed to resist shocks and vibrations to preserve data integrity.
Design
The Sandisk Ultra 3D comes in the standard SATA 6Gbps, 2.5-inch, 7mm-thick form factor that’s the norm for the category these days. Being only 7mm thick means it’s suitable for upgrading a number of mid-sized and desktop replacement laptops. (The closely related WD Blue 3D—Western Digital owns Sandisk—also ships in the M.2 form factor, if that’s what you need.).
Ports
Most of today’s high-end 2.5-inch SSDs make use of a specific interface, SATA 3.0 (also called “6Gbps SATA”), to achieve maximum speed versus older, but still common, SATA 2 ports, which top out at 300MB per second. We test all our SSDs on a SATA 3.0-equipped test-bed PC to show their full performance abilities. To get the most speed possible from modern drives, you’ll need a system with SATA 3.0 capability, as well.
Will this work with a PS4?
Yes it will work and only really worth it for PS4 Pro users (Still need to conform to 2.5 standard with less than 95mm thick) since game developers are now using the “Boost Mode” feature (50% faster performance) to rapidly accelerate data transfers. ScanDisk has had the longest in industry and for the value and price you can not beat it.
1. The PS4 Pro made right decision to support 2.5 SATA III SSD, since their are no moving parts-nearly indestructible, and no heat.
2. All 2.5 SATA III mechanical hard drives will FAIL eventaully (I had two Seagate SATA III fail over 4 years each on the PS4-PS4 Pro).
3. This provides read speeds up to 560MB/s and write speeds up to 530MB/s for a PS4 Pro which has data transfer rates of 220MB/s.
Speed
The high-capacity models provide 560/530 MB/s of sequential read/write throughput, while the 250GB model drops 550/525 MB/s. Random performance weighs in at 95,000/84,000 read/write IOPS for most models, but the 250GB drops to 81,000 write IOPS.
Controller
SanDisk Ultra 3D Nand 4TB internal SSD tapped the Marvell 88SS1074 4-channel controller with low-density parity check (LDPC) error correction. This is the same controller WD used in the older Blue SSD that began shipping in 2016. Crucial also uses the controller in the MX300. The controller has yet to impress us with the products we’ve tested, but that may change today. BiCS will only come in TLC flavors for consumer SSDs, but it may be able to take up the slack and allow the 88SS1074 to spread its wings.
SanDisk Ultra 3D Nand 4TB internal SSD Performance review
The new flash/controller combination saturates the SATA 6Gbps AHCI connection. That allows these TLC SSDs to act much more like MLC-based products. However, BiCS-powered NVMe SSDs will still encounter a slight performance drop-off because the PCIe 3.0 x4 connection increases the performance ceiling, which exposes the performance decline after lengthy periods of write activity.
We’ve tested the Marvell 88SS1074 4-channel controller with planar NAND and Micron’s 384Gbit 3D NAND, but we came away unimpressed. You can even see two of the results in these charts with the original WD Blue and Crucial MX300. The charts show some of the better TLC (and a sole MLC) products available today. We’ve tested SSDs with lower 80% read results (around 120 MB/s).
The new Blue 3D and Ultra 3D stand out from the group of the best TLC-based SSDs. The drives even outperform the 850 Pro 1TB in the sequential steady-state test. Samsung designed the Pro series to address this type of workload.
SATA bus has a maximum bandwidth cap of 600MB per second, the fastest drive we tested in this lot hit only 500MB per second, and the SanDisk Ultra 3D wasn’t too far behind that. It’s interesting that the SanDisk drive is just a tiny bit ahead of the other new entry in the 64-layer 3D TLC NAND drive race, Intel’s SSD 545s drive. This shows that in this test, the flash made by Intel is quite close in performance made by the joint Toshiba/SanDisk fab. Overall, this is a pretty competitive result from the SanDisk 3D drive, placing it adjacent to the Samsung SSD 850 EVO, which also uses 3D TLC NAND.
SanDisk Ultra 3D Nand 4TB internal SSD customer review
The Price Is Right for SSD
I bought this for an Atomos SSD recorder and it works great! But pretty much any modern SSD would do the trick for high data-rate (200mbps+) video recording because 200 megabits/sec is only 25 megaBytes/sec. SSD write speeds exceed 200 megaBytes/sec. The big benefit of SSD is the transfer speed moving video to a drive for editing. It’s blazing fast compared to the fastest SD cards.
If I needed an SSD for a computer OS drive, I’d get the Crucial MX500 instead for better overall performance for about the same price. Overall, though, I think this is very good SSD.
Mediafluent, ADORAMA
Editor’s recommendations
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- G-Technology 10TB G-Drive USB-C review – can you store 4K video?
- G-Technology vs Western Digital – are they good for photos?
- WD – My Passport wireless SSD 1TB external hard drive – black review
