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Western Digital Debuts New SanDisk PRO-BLADE Modular SSD Ecosystem

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Under its SanDisk brand, Western Digital today introduced a new SanDisk Professional PRO-BLADE Modular SSD Ecosystem, which is aimed at creators who need fast portable storage devices that are capable of holding terabytes of data.

sandisk-pro-blade.jpg

The system includes the PRO-BLADE SSD mag, the PRO-BLADE Portable SSD enclosure, and the PRO-BLADE Desktop SSD enclosure. The PRO-BLADE SSD mag is an NVMe SSD mag that comes in sizes that include 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB, with prices ranging from $180 to $600. The PRO-BLADE SSD mags offer three meter drop protection and 4,000 lbs crush resistance.

SanDisk's Pro-BLADE Transport Portable USB-C SSD enclosure holds one of the PRO-BLADE mags for on-the-go usage. It supports read/write speeds of up to 2000MB/s over USB-C, and it's simple to swap between mags when using the enclosure with a USB-C compatible camera. The SSD enclosure is priced at $70, and there are also bundles that include one of the PRO-BLADE mags priced starting at $240.

For desktop workstations, SanDisk is also introducing the Thunderbolt 3 PRO-BLADE Station Desktop SSD enclosure, which is able to accommodate four PRO-BLADE SSD mags. As it has a 40Gb/s Thunderbolt interface, the PRO-BLADE Station supports faster transfer speeds than the portable SSD enclosure. According to SanDisk, the PRO-BLADE Station and PRO-BLADE SSDs allow for real-time 4K/8K/12K editing and super fast copying.

The PRO-BLADE SSDs and portable SSD enclosure will be available in June 2022, while the desktop enclosure is set to be introduced in the fall.

Western Digital also introduced faster speeds for the SanDisk Extreme Pro memory card lineup, with support for up to 200MB/s. Western Digital says that these are the fastest UHS-I SD and microSD memory cards in the world, with the updated cards set to ship in June, with pricing that starts at $20.

Article Link: Western Digital Debuts New SanDisk PRO-BLADE Modular SSD Ecosystem
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/05/09/sandisk-pro-blade-modular-ssd-ecosystem/
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It only makes sense to buy the portable one if you are also buying the desktop one, which isn’t ready yet. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the desktop one never gets released.
 
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HappyDude20 said:
Call me crazy but $600 for 4TB is a great deal no?
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Depends on specifically WHICH are used. WD 4TB m.2 are retailing for less that on Amazon & B&H right now and probably can be found by shopping around for even less.

If one is willing to go with PNY brand, I see 4TB m.2 for south of $500 on a few sites.

But again, there's more to it than just 4TB and "lowest price": speed for example which varies pricing from < $500 to up into the $1000 level for 4TB.
 
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HappyDude20 said:
Call me crazy but $600 for 4TB is a great deal no?
Click to expand...

It's a decent price but not the best for that capacity. SSD prices have been falling so rapidly you can perform two price comparisons on a drive only 15 days apart and see it fell in price a few percent and this has been going on for over a year now.

There is an overabundance of NAND producing facilities because these factories are planned years ahead of their completion and so it's largely a bet on the future (3-6 years ahead) of where the market will be when they make these investments.

From my research as an investor it seems that NAND flash production facilities and RAM facilities are similar enough that during the design phase of the buildings is usually when they make the determination of which way to go and if they need to they can retool to make one type of chip or the other but that takes more money and time (millions of dollars + months).
 
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On the desktop version, why not thunderbolt 4 instead of 3? It would be the “go to” in video editing. No thunderbolt 4 enclosures out there at all.

Update: sorry, it is thunderbolt 4. Will definitely look at it when released.
 
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I just saw a SankDisk portable PRO SSD 4TB going for $449 and has 2000 read/write speeds
Also saw SanDisk portable SSD 4TB going for $349 and has 1000 read/write speeds

I feel like I'd personally go for the portable option instead of this one that's advertised here on MR.

Then again I kept searching within B&H and saw they have 4TB desktop external HDD for as low as $199, but there's no way I'll ever go back to HDDs.

I currently have a Samsung T7 and I love it.
 
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I would like to see a fast 8 TB NVMe external storage in the $800 price range or lower. Ever since Apple started shipping Macs with 8 TB, I have been very jealous of having that on my Macs for my virtual machines.
 
"Up to 4 TB" kills the whole thing for me and instantly makes this dated.

There are 8T NVMe drives now and 16 are coming. This device is a real bummer.
 
Analog Kid said:
I’ve got a Sandisk 2000MB/s drive, and get half that because it requires USB-C 3.2 2x2… USB has made this all clear as mud. 16” M1 MBP doesn’t appear to support it.
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I guess you didn't read the fine print. There's no Mac that supports that protocol.
 
have to check that out when I’m in the market either late this or early next year, pricing will be down by then too
 
Be sure that you read a review about a WD SSD before buying one. Recently WD secretly replaced components with some that perform significantly worse on a few SSDs.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Depends on specifically WHICH are used. WD 4TB m.2 are retailing for less that on Amazon & B&H right now and probably can be found by shopping around for even less.

If one is willing to go with PNY brand, I see 4TB m.2 for south of $500 on a few sites.

But again, there's more to it than just 4TB and "lowest price": speed for example which varies pricing from < $500 to up into the $1000 level for 4TB.
Click to expand...
Looks like keeping the drives cool to maintain long sustainable speed is the key goal


THe Rig for the Transport unit looks nice to showcase it potentially being used in real world. Seems like SanDisk sort of wants to compete with RED here? Just not sure how either compres I don’t work in that industry still learning.
loby said:
On the desktop version, why not thunderbolt 4 instead of 3? It would be the “go to” in video editing. No thunderbolt 4 enclosures out there at all.

Update: sorry, it is thunderbolt 4. Will definitely look at it when released.
Click to expand...
Rep from SanDisk Professional in above video stated TB3. ISNT THE SPEES EXACLTY THE SAME BETWEEN TB3&4, which the only difference is licensing costs and longer cables available on TB4?


My only worry is they call this an ecosystem so wondering if the Mags have proprietary connectivity on them snd how long will SanDisk support this product or how long will it scale or quickly be abandoned when and if TB5 debuts with double thr speeds? Would TB5 theoretically have but another new connector other than USB-C (maybe a micro USB-C?)

Oh bummer RAID isn’t possible due to the nature of hotswapping?
 
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MacRumors said:
Western Digital also introduced faster speeds for the SanDisk Extreme Pro memory card lineup, with support for up to 200MB/s. Western Digital says that these are the fastest UHS-I SD and microSD memory cards in the world, with the updated cards set to ship in June, with pricing that starts at $20.
Click to expand...
That figures I just bought the current generation of Extreme Pro cards for my raspberry pis 🤣
 
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HappyDude20 said:
I just saw a SankDisk portable PRO SSD 4TB going for $449 and has 2000 read/write speeds
Also saw SanDisk portable SSD 4TB going for $349 and has 1000 read/write speeds
Click to expand...
Link please? I’ve been waiting for prices in that range!
 
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