Western Digital WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD Series Shipping [First WD SSD Promises ‘Ultimate Performance’, Employ WD’s New MLC Technology]

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Western Digital have announced that they have now commenced shipping what is their first foray into consumer-oriented solid state drives with the WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD billed as being ideally suited for ‘customers who demand the ultimate in performance’.

Western Digital’s Digital WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs, which come with SATA 3.0 interfaces and which offer capacities up to 256GB, utilise WD’s own, newly developed multi-level cell technology and offer both Windows 7 TRIM support and NCQ (Native Command Queuing) command support ensuring that the drives offer optimal performance characteristics over their lifespan – though WD’s press release fails to mention any info concerning MTBF.

Offering read and write speeds of 250MB/s and 170MB/s respectively – making them pretty average in terms of performance (it has to be said) compared to models offered by the likes of OCZ – have additionally undergone a purported 250,000 hours of testing which, WD states, was done to ‘ensure they meet the industry’s highest data integrity, reliability and compatibility standards’.

“The development of the WD SiliconEdge Blue product family leverages WD’s extensive experience in designing and manufacturing highly reliable storage products and the company’s worldwide sales and distribution network to accelerate SSD technology adoption by OEMs, technology enthusiasts, gamers and road warriors,” said Michael Hajeck, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s solid state storage business unit. “Customers who demand the ultimate in performance will find the WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs exceed all their requirements.”

The new WD SiliconEdge Blue SSDs come (specifically) in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities and will set you back just shy of $280, $530 and $1000 a pop.