As long as people are taking photographs, building up their music libraries, and torrenting the latest episode of Game of Thrones, there will be a need for storage. In fact, high demand for large capacities at a low price has made the industry rather competitive — and that’s a good thing for the consumer.
Today, SanDisk unveiled the latest iteration of its Z410 series of solid state drives, an entry-level option targeted toward enterprise and OEM customers. The biggest addition to the new line is a 480GB version of the drive, introduced as a response to the ever-increasing need for more storage.
The 480GB drive joins the 240GB and 120GB models, all of which are SATA drives with a 2.5-inch form factor. All three come with a three-year warranty, which is admittedly a step down from the five-year warranty that SanDisk offers for some of its premium Z400s drives.
However, in terms of performance, the Z410 series can certainly compete with the Z400s line. The Z410 has a sequential read speed of 535 MB/s, according to a report from AnandTech, which is in the same ballpark as the 546 MB/s speed recorded by the Z400s.
In terms of sequential write speeds, the Z410 actually outmatches the Z400s, with a rate of 445 MB/s in comparison to 342 MB/s. The two lines are very evenly matched when it comes to random read and write performance.
The biggest differentiator between the two lines is that some Z400s drives are available in the M.2 form factor. Of course, it’s also worth noting that the Z410 handily wins in terms of capacity, as the biggest Z400s drives top out at 256GB.
Given that the newly refreshed Z410 line is neck and neck with the capabilities of some sections of the Z400s range, it seems likely that the latter will be phased out in favor of the former, leaving only the drives that don’t step on the toes of this newly refreshed lineup.
