Western Digital 500GB WD Blue SN550 NVMe Internal SSD - Gen3 x4 PCIe 8Gb/s, M.2 2280, 3D NAND, Up to 2,400 MB/s - WDS500G2B0C

You have to jump through all sorts of hoops using the included clone software if you are using a USB enclosure. Need a 3 bay laptop to get the software to work. Extremely complicated and contorted work around. WD has to know that most people use USB enclosures to clone drives for laptops. So why is there no Acronis software that works directly with a USB? Unless you plan on buying software to clone for a laptop, or are cloning internally, dont get this ssd.

Very slow boot for a NVME. Speed is similar to my very old sata ssd. No instructions or clone software for the average user like myself. Only paperwork was warranty paperwork. I had to google for an hour and use a 3rd party clone software to clone my windows and backups. Horrible experience. WD for its size, skimped out on the cloning software. You cant assume people want to reformat and start from scratch. Also, you cant assume all customers are PC mechanics. I want to return it badly. I wanted to support an American company in WD. I see why Samsung just came in and became #1 immediately.

It was a major upgrade for my gaming laptop that originally came with a 250gb m. 2 ssd.. Was easy to install and performs flawlessly

Unplug you old drive when it finishes cloning, let Windows boot (might need to change BIOS boot choice), shutdown, plug old one back in, reformat for storage. Flight Sim 2020 on old WD Blue took 2 minutes to load. Takes seconds now.

Fast and pretty 1tb storage solution. Perfect for gaming or as a boot drive.

Easy install, just as described. great item.

Hard to give a rating, only because this NVME SSD doesnt work in my laptop.

Its a nice budget NVMe. It may not be the fastest. And it has no SLC cache controller, (Its uses a WD specific controller that does not use SLC cache). But for ease of use, and the price, this is a tough drive to beat. Id but it again.

Pretty high price for a 500gb card, especially with slower speeds than other brands.

Installed the 500 gb model in an external enclosure to use like a fast high capacity USB flash drive, connected by cable whenever I want to use it. No complaints regarding performance. I used the TDBT enclosure found on Amazon for $24. It comes with 2 cables----one to connect to a standard USB type A port. The other connects to a USB type C port. WD Dashboard tool sees the drive OK, but does not display all features--I cant read temps or SMART data from the Dashboard. Not a big deal as I can read them with other software I have. Backup times for 360 GB of random data (95,000 files) from an internal Intel 660p NVMe SSD to this drive in the enclosure via standard drag and drop: via A port; about 22 minutes, about 990 GB per hour. via C port; about 21 minutes; about 1045 GB per hour--about 5% faster than the A port. Crystal Disk Mark reports that the overall speeds are 40 to 50% faster on the C port. Maybe true in a benchmark, but I realized only the 5% difference noted in my real-world use case. This 500 GB model has a TBW of 300. Ive written over 1 TB already in my tests. Temps never rose above 58. Idling temps in an 81 degree Fahrenheit room (27 C) are in the 43 to 48 range. The TDBT enclosure comes with optional thermal tape to apply directly to the drive to reduce temps. I did NOT use the tape, but I understand it should reduce temps by at least 5 degrees. Id probably use the tape if I had this drive connected constantly.....but I dont do that. The enclosure is designed well with a lot of heatsink area, so temps arent likely to be an issue for you. I had major problems getting it to work well on the C port, which I solved by changing to the most recent chipset driver INF file available at my motherboard manufacturers web site. But thats a Windows/motherboard issue, not the fault of WD. Until I made that change, the drive would disappear randomly or copy very slowly to the C port. The A port connection always worked well.