If SSDs take the advantage over hard drives in the majority of cases, there is one area where they are (a little) behind: capacity. While 3.5-inch hard drives reach 24TB, consumer SSDs rarely exceed 4TB. But Western Digital (via its subsidiary Sandisk) has just launched an 8 TB model, which joins the Samsung 870 QVO.
The Desk Drive SSD can surprise you with its capacity (8 TB, therefore) but also with two other points. First, this SSD is not very portable: it measures 99mm x 99mm x 40mm and weighs 268 grams. What’s more, it requires an external power supply which is not USB-C but uses a classic socket barrel, like many (old) accessories. Secondly, although it offers a high capacity, it is not the fastest external SSD: it only has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection at 10 Gb/s, which in practice allows speeds of around of 1 GB/s (a little less on Apple Silicon Macs). This is a surprising point: many SSDs accept USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gb/s, which Apple does not support), USB4 (40 Gb/s) or Thunderbolt (40 Gb/s ).
The first tests show that its capacity coupled with a relatively low maximum flow rate allows at least one thing: constant performance. Although the capacity of the pseudo-SLC cache is not known, it is visibly high. Still, the SSD only targets those who really need a large capacity: both its price (€785) and its flaws (external power supply, limited connectivity) make it unattractive for an average user.
