WD recently released three new fast storage devices under their WD_BLACK gaming brand. It includes the company’s first PCIe Gen4 SSD – the WD Black SN850; the WD Black AN1500 NVMe SSD Add-in-Card that is fully bootable; and a Thunderbolt 3-powered NVMe SSD gaming dock – the WD Black D50. In this article, let’s discuss the AN1500 AIC first.
WD_Black AN1500 NVMe SSD (RAID) AIC – Features and Specs
Don’t have enough M.2 slots for additional NVMe M.2 drives? Well, this is where the WD Black AN1500 AIC comes in. As its name suggests, it is an add-in-card, meaning you install this storage device on a vacant PCIe slot on the motherboard.
The WD Black AN1500 is a bootable plug and play NVMe SSD and is said to be one of the fastest PCIe Gen3 x8 solutions on the market. There are two NVMe SSDs inside the AN1500 and are configured to run in RAID0. It’s the reason why it’s able to achieve sequential read speeds of up to 6500 MB/s and up to 4,100MB/s of sequential write speed.
Only the 2TB and 4TB capacities are configured to run in RAID0 since both variants have two M.2 NVMe SSDs inside them. The 1TB variant only has 1 M.2 NVMe SSD inside. So, it’s not possible to run it at any RAID configuration. Although, I’m not sure if the 1TB can also reach up to 6,500MB/s of sequential read speed.
The WD Black AN1500 shares a common design and theme as with all the current WD Black family – a rugged industrial look, with an all-Black color them and ribbed surface. It also has RGB lighting on the sides to give it a flare; well, what is a gaming product without RGB lighting, right?
According to WD, the RGB lighting with 13 LED pattern effects is programmable via the WD_black Dashboard software. And the AN1500 was also engineered to minimize thermal throttling with the integrated heatsink.
The Add-in-card measures 6.93″ in length, 2.83″ in width is about 0.51″ in thickness. It weighs around 0.21 Kg, and it is also said to be backward compatible with PCIe Gen3 x2 / x1, PCIe Gen2 x4 / x2 / x1. Although, it’s recommended to install it on the faster PCIe slot to achieve maximum possible speed. Also, your system must be running on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.
WD Black AN1500 Pricing and Availability
The WD Black AN1500 NVMe SSD AIC is now available for purchase at select (e)-retailers. The AN1500 comes with the following manufacturer’s suggested retail prices: the 1TB capacity has a retail price of $299.99; the 2TB comes in at $549.99, and the 4TB retails for $999.99. WD is also offering a limited 5-year warranty for this product. For the latest pricing and availability, kindly check out the link(s) below.
WD Black AN1500 NVMe SSD AIC available at:
For US: available on Amazon.com here or Newegg.com here
