In our original SN750 review, we firmly established the drive’s credentials while challenging the other big players in this segment, however we were excited to see what kind of difference adding a heatsink could make to an NVMe drives performance. NVMe drives are relatively new, and the first few years saw incredibly hot drives with hugely inconvenient throttling being applied, nonetheless, in 2018 and 2019, those issues seemed to be a thing of the past, with drives offering their full speed in almost all scenarios, with only the harshest of use cases pushing a drive to throttle.
First off, we’d like to explain our testing procedure; we tested both drives in each test three separate times, this gives us an average which can help rule out small problems such as Windows searching for updates. We even re-installed and tested the original drive that we reviewed back in February to ensure our results were correct.
Our graphs, despite some tests being incredibly short, show that the heatsink helps to boost performance. While it’s only marginal, it is evident and the results are repeatable. Moreover, the biggest difference we found, and this truly shocked us, was the 23°C peak drive temperature difference. We tested with the case side on and fans set to “normal”, so airflow was ample but not extreme. We believe the heatsink would be most useful in cases with limited airflow or space.
Also, on a much more subjective note, there’s the appearance of the drive with the EKWB heatsink. We think it looks fantastic with the black and silver contrasting; it’s certainly much more appealing than the typical sticker you get on most other drives.
Picking the EKWB heatsink version over the standard adds between £15 - £25, depending on your chosen capacity. To keep things consistent, the price rise should’ve been the same across the board, but when you’re laying out £500/$500 on an NVMe drive, a few pounds/dollars won’t break the bank, though having said that, you would hope that the decreased operating temperature of the drive would help promote longevity, adding value.
If you were interested in a WD Black SN750 before, you certainly should be now. The heatsink marginally improves performance but drastically drops temperatures, all while looking excellent!
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
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First off, we’d like to explain our testing procedure; we tested both drives in each test three separate times, this gives us an average which can help rule out small problems such as Windows searching for updates. We even re-installed and tested the original drive that we reviewed back in February to ensure our results were correct.
Our graphs, despite some tests being incredibly short, show that the heatsink helps to boost performance. While it’s only marginal, it is evident and the results are repeatable. Moreover, the biggest difference we found, and this truly shocked us, was the 23°C peak drive temperature difference. We tested with the case side on and fans set to “normal”, so airflow was ample but not extreme. We believe the heatsink would be most useful in cases with limited airflow or space.
Also, on a much more subjective note, there’s the appearance of the drive with the EKWB heatsink. We think it looks fantastic with the black and silver contrasting; it’s certainly much more appealing than the typical sticker you get on most other drives.
Picking the EKWB heatsink version over the standard adds between £15 - £25, depending on your chosen capacity. To keep things consistent, the price rise should’ve been the same across the board, but when you’re laying out £500/$500 on an NVMe drive, a few pounds/dollars won’t break the bank, though having said that, you would hope that the decreased operating temperature of the drive would help promote longevity, adding value.
If you were interested in a WD Black SN750 before, you certainly should be now. The heatsink marginally improves performance but drastically drops temperatures, all while looking excellent!
Pros
+ Even better performance
+ Gorgeous heatsink
+ Over 20°C temperature drop
+ WD SSD Dashboard gives a good overview of the drive
+ Gaming Mode
Neutral
+- Won’t fit into drive slots with pre-fitted M.2 heatsink
Cons
- Where’s the 96-layer NAND?
- Costly
+ Even better performance
+ Gorgeous heatsink
+ Over 20°C temperature drop
+ WD SSD Dashboard gives a good overview of the drive
+ Gaming Mode
Neutral
+- Won’t fit into drive slots with pre-fitted M.2 heatsink
Cons
- Where’s the 96-layer NAND?
- Costly
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Join in with the discussions on Discord
