{"id":998481,"date":"2026-01-09T02:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/WmVhorDLZ2ccXMparxbRSC"},"modified":"2026-01-09T02:37:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:37:23","slug":"wd-black-sn770m-1-tb-nvme-ssd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wd-black-sn770m-1-tb-nvme-ssd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"WD Black SN770M 1 TB NVMe SSD review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PC gaming has always had a bit of a tenuous history when it comes to the portability of its endeavors. The fact is that for the longest time those same chips that powered our high-end gaming desktops were just too hungry to be baked into a handheld gaming console. Flash forward to the launch of the Steam Deck though, (sorry Elgato), and at last we finally have an absolute armada of new handhelds entering the fray. All of them priced aggressively, kitted out with enough top-tier hardware to make for an engaging and enjoyable gaming experience on the move. But, there\u2019s a caveat, as there often is, and it comes in the form of storage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of those things right? If you don\u2019t have enough of it in your gaming PC, it sucks. You\u2019re constantly battling, deleting, re-downloading, perpetually anxious about your new games failing on the install. Manufacturers being the way they are, typically don\u2019t include large drives in their handhelds either. That\u2019s where Western Digital\u2019s WD_Black SN770M 1TB comes into the picture.<\/p>\n

It was perhaps unsurprising given the success and flurry of handhelds making their way into the arena, that we also wouldn\u2019t be greeted with an arsenal of SSDs to back them up. After all a number of us may have mistakenly held back the cash and picked up a cheaper 512GB or worse still 256GB Steam Deck on launch, and well with a few installs, likely saw that little red bar demand you delete some of your hard earned games before installing more.<\/p>\n

But you know all that, it\u2019s been some time since the Steam Deck first launched, (in fact the Steam Deck OLED\u2019<\/a>s landed since then, albeit still with a PCIe 3.0 SSD) so the better question is, now that time has passed and there\u2019s an array of these M.2 2230 drives out there in the wild, is Western Digital\u2019s legendary black line, particularly in the form of its SN770M 1TB, still as competitive as it was before?<\/p>\n

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SN770M specs<\/div>\n
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\"A<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Future)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Capacity:<\/strong> 1TB
Interface:<\/strong> PCIe 4.0 x4
Memory controller:<\/strong> Sandisk 20-82-10081-A1
Flash memory:<\/strong> Kioxia 112-layer TLC NAND
Rated performance:<\/strong> 5,150 MB\/s sustained read, 5,150 MB\/s sustained write
Endurance:<\/strong> 600 TBW
Warranty:<\/strong> Five years
Price:<\/strong> $110<\/a> | \u00a3110<\/a> | AU$153<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Well that\u2019s what I\u2019m here to both test and answer for you.<\/p>\n

As with most of these small form factor drives, there\u2019s an interesting combination of hardware at play here. Unlike the bevy of PCIe 5.0 drives that all feature the same Phison E26 controller combined with Micron\u2019s 232-layer TLC NAND, the SN770M packs one of Sandisk\u2019s (a subsidiary of WD) 20-82-10081-A1 controllers combined with some really slick TLC NAND Flash.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s DRAM less, there\u2019s no cache here or anything of that ilk, but that\u2019s all we really know about it. Although at first glance it might seem curious that WD has broken away from what it did with its WD Black SN770 full-sized drive (going with Toshiba\u2019s 112-layer BiCS5 TLC) and instead utilizing Kioxia\u2019s 112-layer, this is purely a branding exercise as Kioxia is part of Toshiba as a whole.<\/p>\n