When it comes to storage upgrades, balancing speed, capacity, and price is key. The WD Blue SN580 1TB is a budget-friendly PCIe 4.0 SSD, and after using it for both gaming and general use, heres how it holds up.

Performance | How Fast Is It Really?
WD advertises up to 4150 MB/s read speeds, but in real-world usage:

Sequential Read: ~4100 MB/s
Sequential Write: ~4000 MB/s
Random Read/Write (QD1): ~65K/95K IOPS
Game Load Times: Noticeably faster than SATA SSDs but slightly behind high-end PCIe 4.0 drives.
For a budget-tier Gen 4 SSD, its snappy in daily use, whether booting Windows, launching apps, or gaming. Game load times are nearly identical to high-end drives, making it a great choice for gamers on a budget.

Endurance & Reliability
TBW Rating: 600 TBW (solid for this class)
No DRAM Cache | uses HMB (Host Memory Buffer) instead.
Good thermal performance | stays below 65°C without a heatsink.
Despite lacking a DRAM cache, performance remains consistent thanks to TLC NAND and HMB support. Its ideal for general users, gamers, and light productivity workloads, though not the best choice for heavy 4K video editing or workstation use.