Western Digital

WD Blue SA510

SATA 2.5" · SATA 6 Gbps · SM2259H/Milpitas

SATA 2.5" 2022 5-year warranty 250 GB – 4 TB
Western Digital WD Blue SA510
Specs & Capacities

Specifications

General specifications
InterfaceSATA 6 Gbps
ControllerSM2259H/Milpitas
NAND TypeKioxia BiCS5 (112L TLC)
Warranty5 years
250 GB specifications
Seq Read555 MB/s
Seq Write440 MB/s
Rand Read80,000 IOPS
Rand Write78,000 IOPS
Endurance100 TBW
Part NumberWDS250G3B0A
Editor Notes

Overview

The Western Digital WD Blue SA510 is a SATA III solid-state drive aimed at the mainstream market. Launched on May 31, 2022, the SA510 occupies the mainstream segment of Western Digital's SSD portfolio, positioned between the entry-level WD Green series and the performance-oriented WD Black series. It competes with other value-oriented SATA SSDs such as the Crucial MX500, and Kingston KC600. It also comes in two different form factors – 2.5" and M.2 – but the specifications are otherwise identical.

Controller and Cache

Othan dual form factors, the WD Blue SA510 also comes with different controllers depending on capacity. Models up to 1TB are equipped with the proprietary SDC1 (A101-000125) "Milpitas" controller, a cost-effective DRAM-less design, whereas the 2TB model uses the Silicon Motion SM2259H controller, which includes DRAM cache support for improved performance consistency at higher capacities. Both controllers support the SATA III 6 Gbps interface and provide full compatibility with the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) standard.

NAND Flash Memory

Like many other SSDs from Western Digital and SanDisk, the SA510 employs 112-layer 3D TLC (Triple-Level Cell) BiCS5 NAND flash memory manufactured by Kioxia. This generation of NAND provides improved density and performance compared to earlier planar NAND designs, while maintaining competitive pricing. It's important to note that Western Digital has shipped the SA510 with multiple NAND configurations over its production run, which may result in slight performance variations – even between units with the same capacity.

Power Consumption

As an entry-level SSD, the WD Blue SA510 offers low power and is therefore suitable for older, SATA-based laptops. The max active power consumption is 2W for the 256 GB and 512 GB capacities, and 3W for the larger capacities. It also features modern power management features including Device Sleep (DEVSLP) for ultra-low power states during system hibernation.

Technical Specifications

WD Blue SA510 Product Brief (PDF) - Official Western Digital datasheet

The SA510 offers broad compatibility with legacy systems through its SATA III interface, which is backward compatible with SATA II and SATA I connections. Note, however, that the M.2 2280 SATA version is not compatible with modern PCIe/NVMe M.2.