The Western Digital PC SN730 is an OEM solid-state drive (SSD) manufactured by Western Digital, launched in 2019. It’s an updated variant of the PC SN720 with newer 96-layer 3D NAND technology while maintaining similar performance characteristics to the retail WD Black SN750. The drive is designed primarily for OEM system integrators and is commonly found in high-performance laptops and pre-built desktop systems. It is also used in the WD Black AN1500 PCIe 3.0 x8 add-in card (AIC) SSD, in a RAID 0 configuration (two drives)
In terms of market positioning, the SN730 occupied the high-performance consumer OEM space, as an OEM equivalent to the retail WD Black SN750. Examples would include gaming systems and workstations. The drive competed with other OEM solutions such as the Toshiba XG6 and Samsung PM981, though it generally offers better performance characteristics.
Technical Specifications
| WD PC SN730 | 256GB | 512GB | 1TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model Number | SDBPNTY-256G | SDBPNTY-512G | SDBPNTY-1T00 |
| Interface | PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe v1.3 | PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe v1.3 | PCIe Gen3 x4, NVMe v1.3 |
| Sequential Read (MB/s) | 3,150 | 3,400 | 3,400 |
| Sequential Write (MB/s) | 2,100 | 2,700 | 3,100 |
| Random Read (4K IOPS) | 270K | 460K | 550K |
| Random Write (4K IOPS) | 280K | 400K | 550K |
| Endurance (TBW) | 200 | 300 | 400 |
| Active Power (mW) | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Low Power PS3 (mW) | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| Sleep PS4 (mW) | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Peak Power (A) | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.3 |
| Controller | WD 20-82-00705-A2 (Triton MP28) | WD 20-82-00705-A2 (Triton MP28) | WD 20-82-00705-A2 (Triton MP28) |
| NAND Type | 96-layer BiCS4 TLC | 96-layer BiCS4 TLC | 96-layer BiCS4 TLC |
| DRAM Cache | 256 MB DDR4 | 512 MB DDR4 | 1024 MB DDR4 |
| Endurance Rating | 200 TBW | 300 TBW | 400 TBW |
| Warranty | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years |
Performance varies significantly across capacity points due to differences in die parallelism and interleaving. The 1TB model delivers the highest performance with sequential reads up to 3,400 MB/s and sequential writes up to 3,100 MB/s. Random performance reaches up to 550K IOPS for both 4K random reads and writes at the 1TB capacity. The drive maintains consistent post-cache performance, with sustained write speeds reported to remain above 1 GB/s even after the SLC cache is exhausted.
Controller
Western Digital’s in-house “Triton MP28” controller (20-82-00705-A2) is an 8-channel controller featuring a tri-core architecture with Cortex-R5 cores, where one core manages host operations, one handles read operations, and one processes write operations. It is a revised variant of the one used in the SN750, optimized for the newer 96-layer BiCS4 flash memory. The controller includes hardware LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check) error correction tailored for Western Digital’s 3D NAND implementation.
Cache
The PC SN730 uses a DRAM cache and Western Digital’s nCache 3.0 technology, meaning a dynamic pseudo-SLC cache that writes incoming data directly to SLC (single-level cell) blocks for improved burst performance. During idle periods, the controller relocates this data from SLC to TLC storage. The SLC cache size is variable and depends on the drive’s capacity and current usage. No specific cache sizes have been publicly documented by Western Digital.
NAND Type and Specifications
SanDisk (Western Digital’s former subsidiary) and Kioxia manufactures NAND under a joint venture, and the SN730 uses 96-layer BiCS4 (Bit Cost Scaling 4th generation) 3D TLC NAND flash memory, This memory is an upgrade from the 64-layer BiCS3 flash used in the original SN720/SN750 drives. BiCS4 flash operates at bus speeds between 667 to 800 MT/s, compared to 400 to 533 MT/s for the older BiCS3 technology, resulting in improved density and efficiency. It however features less die interleaving compared to the 64-layer variant, which can affect sustained write performance in some scenarios.
Power Consumption
Unlike the implementation in the AN1500, the SN730 itself supports extreme low-power sleep modes, making it highly suitable for mobile use where battery life is critical.
- Low Power Mode (PS3): 30 mW
- Sleep Mode (PS4): 3.5 mW
Professional Reviews
N/A (OEM product)
Listed in Notebookcheck’s hardware database
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