Last updated at 13/05/2026 22:37:46
WD Black AN1500 WDS200T1X0L PCIe Gen 3.0 x8 2TB SSD
Free delivery between Fri – Wed
Western Digital AN1500 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 SSD
7-day returns
originally posted on westerndigital.com
I got one of these at Microcenter in Columbus, OH for my Mac Pro 5,1 and it works flawlessly. If I had a wish list for this, I’d say crank up future versions to full 16x support, as older PCIe v2.1 systems like the Mac Pro 5,1 wind up dealing with some bandwidth limitations at 8x (you get about 1/2 of this drive’s full potential since it’s meant for PCIe v3 and later). Regardless, even in PCIe v2 I’m still getting sequential reads around 3000 MB/s and writes around 2000 MB/s - roughly 10-12x faster than SATA II SSD performance, so it truly is a night and day upgrade and is a bootable OS drive in the Mac Pro 5,1 once on firmware 144.0.0.0.An off the shelf high quality 16x capable non-bifurcation compatible NVMe PCIe riser card enclosure with fan like this one and ... MoreI got one of these at Microcenter in Columbus, OH for my Mac Pro 5,1 and it works flawlessly. If I had a wish list for this, I’d say crank up future versions to full 16x support, as older PCIe v2.1 systems like the Mac Pro 5,1 wind up dealing with some bandwidth limitations at 8x (you get about 1/2 of this drive’s full potential since it’s meant for PCIe v3 and later). Regardless, even in PCIe v2 I’m still getting sequential reads around 3000 MB/s and writes around 2000 MB/s - roughly 10-12x faster than SATA II SSD performance, so it truly is a night and day upgrade and is a bootable OS drive in the Mac Pro 5,1 once on firmware 144.0.0.0.An off the shelf high quality 16x capable non-bifurcation compatible NVMe PCIe riser card enclosure with fan like this one and pair of 1 TB NVMe cards would easily cost $400-$500, so the 1 TB AN1500 is a great value at $299 even with the performance hit on the Mac Pro 5,1. I can always move the drive to a PCIe v3 system like the Mac Pro 7,1 later if desired).
originally posted on westerndigital.com
I am giving three stars because I feel the product is 5-star hardware and the customer experience was one-star. WD advertised and marketed this AGGRESSIVELY, implying that it was a universal fit for any PCI-express slot. Quote from their website: "This plug and play, bootable add-in-card simply connects into your PCIe® expansion slot, requiring no external power or cables. Primed with an enterprise grade RAID controller to run your entire operating system while you game."Ok, what they don't tell you is you MUST check to make sure your motherboard is on the compatibility list. I just bought a brand-new, high-end, name-brand gaming PC, and it is not 100% compatible. Sometimes this drive shows up, and other times it just...won't.So I will pull it back out and put ... MoreI am giving three stars because I feel the product is 5-star hardware and the customer experience was one-star. WD advertised and marketed this AGGRESSIVELY, implying that it was a universal fit for any PCI-express slot. Quote from their website: "This plug and play, bootable add-in-card simply connects into your PCIe® expansion slot, requiring no external power or cables. Primed with an enterprise grade RAID controller to run your entire operating system while you game."Ok, what they don't tell you is you MUST check to make sure your motherboard is on the compatibility list. I just bought a brand-new, high-end, name-brand gaming PC, and it is not 100% compatible. Sometimes this drive shows up, and other times it just...won't.So I will pull it back out and put it into the next computer I build, which I will make sure the mobo is compatible before I buy it.My fault for not checking compatibility? At least half my fault. Remember, this is what was advertised to me:"This plug and play, bootable add-in-card simply connects into your PCIe® expansion slot, requiring no external power or cables. Primed with an enterprise grade RAID controller to run your entire operating system while you game."I didn't see *any* fine print about compatibility until I started Googling to find out why the drive showed up intermittently. :/
originally posted on westerndigital.com
I'm going to agree with most of the other reviews on here. It's clearly quality the moment you take it out of the box. The heatsink is definitely needed and is not just for looks. The installation process was easy. It's slim so can fit in even a mid tower case with other stuff already stuffed inside.It was already preinitialized as well so it was as simple as plug and play. I used HWMonitor to monitor the temps as well as the WD dashboard and then used CrystalMark to run some sequences on it. The speed were as advertised but the heat is a pretty hot thing.For reference, I have a 3900x, 2070 and 4 other SSDs in the system, 2 of them being Gen.4 NVMes which should in theory run hotter than the AN1500.The whole system was pretty cool. 3900x was around the 30s, ... MoreI'm going to agree with most of the other reviews on here. It's clearly quality the moment you take it out of the box. The heatsink is definitely needed and is not just for looks. The installation process was easy. It's slim so can fit in even a mid tower case with other stuff already stuffed inside.It was already preinitialized as well so it was as simple as plug and play. I used HWMonitor to monitor the temps as well as the WD dashboard and then used CrystalMark to run some sequences on it. The speed were as advertised but the heat is a pretty hot thing.For reference, I have a 3900x, 2070 and 4 other SSDs in the system, 2 of them being Gen.4 NVMes which should in theory run hotter than the AN1500.The whole system was pretty cool. 3900x was around the 30s, 2070 in the 20s and all my other SSDs including the Gen.4 NVMes were around 30-40.Without any load, the AN1500 idles for me around 62-65 and underload while transferring video files onto it, it starts to reach 69-72. I read from another review website that they contacted WD and WD replied saying throttling occurs around 70 to prevent long term damage.So it basically idles right underneath the throttling mark and basic usage such as transferring video files pushes it past the throttling mark. I don't know how much it gets throttled but that kinda stinks that the whole thing runs this hot.I would've been fine paying a bit more for them to implement a better cooler even if that meant a size increase to keep this thing cooler. I dont understand why it runs so hot. My 2 Gen.4 NVMEs, are just installed with the default X570-E Strix board with the basic cooling pad.You figured Gen.3 NVMe would run way cooler with its own dedicated big heatsink.
| General | |
| Device Type | Solid state drive - internal |
| Capacity | 2 TB |
| Integrated Heatsink | Yes |
| Form Factor | PCIe card |
WD Black AN1500 WDS200T1X0L PCIe Gen 3.0 x8 2TB SSD
Free delivery between Fri – Wed
Western Digital AN1500 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 SSD
7-day returns
I got one of these at Microcenter in Columbus, OH for my Mac Pro 5,1 and it works flawlessly. If I had a wish list for this, I’d say crank up future versions to full 16x support, as older PCIe v2.1 systems like the Mac Pro 5,1 wind up dealing with some bandwidth limitations at 8x (you get about 1/2 of this drive’s full potential since it’s meant for PCIe v3 and later). Regardless, even in PCIe v2 I’m still getting sequential reads around 3000 MB/s and writes around 2000 MB/s - roughly 10-12x faster than SATA II SSD performance, so it truly is a night and day upgrade and is a bootable OS drive in the Mac Pro 5,1 once on firmware 144.0.0.0.An off the shelf high quality 16x capable non-bifurcation compatible NVMe PCIe riser card enclosure with fan like this one and ... MoreI got one of these at Microcenter in Columbus, OH for my Mac Pro 5,1 and it works flawlessly. If I had a wish list for this, I’d say crank up future versions to full 16x support, as older PCIe v2.1 systems like the Mac Pro 5,1 wind up dealing with some bandwidth limitations at 8x (you get about 1/2 of this drive’s full potential since it’s meant for PCIe v3 and later). Regardless, even in PCIe v2 I’m still getting sequential reads around 3000 MB/s and writes around 2000 MB/s - roughly 10-12x faster than SATA II SSD performance, so it truly is a night and day upgrade and is a bootable OS drive in the Mac Pro 5,1 once on firmware 144.0.0.0.An off the shelf high quality 16x capable non-bifurcation compatible NVMe PCIe riser card enclosure with fan like this one and pair of 1 TB NVMe cards would easily cost $400-$500, so the 1 TB AN1500 is a great value at $299 even with the performance hit on the Mac Pro 5,1. I can always move the drive to a PCIe v3 system like the Mac Pro 7,1 later if desired).
I am giving three stars because I feel the product is 5-star hardware and the customer experience was one-star. WD advertised and marketed this AGGRESSIVELY, implying that it was a universal fit for any PCI-express slot. Quote from their website: "This plug and play, bootable add-in-card simply connects into your PCIe® expansion slot, requiring no external power or cables. Primed with an enterprise grade RAID controller to run your entire operating system while you game."Ok, what they don't tell you is you MUST check to make sure your motherboard is on the compatibility list. I just bought a brand-new, high-end, name-brand gaming PC, and it is not 100% compatible. Sometimes this drive shows up, and other times it just...won't.So I will pull it back out and put ... MoreI am giving three stars because I feel the product is 5-star hardware and the customer experience was one-star. WD advertised and marketed this AGGRESSIVELY, implying that it was a universal fit for any PCI-express slot. Quote from their website: "This plug and play, bootable add-in-card simply connects into your PCIe® expansion slot, requiring no external power or cables. Primed with an enterprise grade RAID controller to run your entire operating system while you game."Ok, what they don't tell you is you MUST check to make sure your motherboard is on the compatibility list. I just bought a brand-new, high-end, name-brand gaming PC, and it is not 100% compatible. Sometimes this drive shows up, and other times it just...won't.So I will pull it back out and put it into the next computer I build, which I will make sure the mobo is compatible before I buy it.My fault for not checking compatibility? At least half my fault. Remember, this is what was advertised to me:"This plug and play, bootable add-in-card simply connects into your PCIe® expansion slot, requiring no external power or cables. Primed with an enterprise grade RAID controller to run your entire operating system while you game."I didn't see *any* fine print about compatibility until I started Googling to find out why the drive showed up intermittently. :/
I'm going to agree with most of the other reviews on here. It's clearly quality the moment you take it out of the box. The heatsink is definitely needed and is not just for looks. The installation process was easy. It's slim so can fit in even a mid tower case with other stuff already stuffed inside.It was already preinitialized as well so it was as simple as plug and play. I used HWMonitor to monitor the temps as well as the WD dashboard and then used CrystalMark to run some sequences on it. The speed were as advertised but the heat is a pretty hot thing.For reference, I have a 3900x, 2070 and 4 other SSDs in the system, 2 of them being Gen.4 NVMes which should in theory run hotter than the AN1500.The whole system was pretty cool. 3900x was around the 30s, ... MoreI'm going to agree with most of the other reviews on here. It's clearly quality the moment you take it out of the box. The heatsink is definitely needed and is not just for looks. The installation process was easy. It's slim so can fit in even a mid tower case with other stuff already stuffed inside.It was already preinitialized as well so it was as simple as plug and play. I used HWMonitor to monitor the temps as well as the WD dashboard and then used CrystalMark to run some sequences on it. The speed were as advertised but the heat is a pretty hot thing.For reference, I have a 3900x, 2070 and 4 other SSDs in the system, 2 of them being Gen.4 NVMes which should in theory run hotter than the AN1500.The whole system was pretty cool. 3900x was around the 30s, 2070 in the 20s and all my other SSDs including the Gen.4 NVMes were around 30-40.Without any load, the AN1500 idles for me around 62-65 and underload while transferring video files onto it, it starts to reach 69-72. I read from another review website that they contacted WD and WD replied saying throttling occurs around 70 to prevent long term damage.So it basically idles right underneath the throttling mark and basic usage such as transferring video files pushes it past the throttling mark. I don't know how much it gets throttled but that kinda stinks that the whole thing runs this hot.I would've been fine paying a bit more for them to implement a better cooler even if that meant a size increase to keep this thing cooler. I dont understand why it runs so hot. My 2 Gen.4 NVMEs, are just installed with the default X570-E Strix board with the basic cooling pad.You figured Gen.3 NVMe would run way cooler with its own dedicated big heatsink.
The SSD is actually really fast. However one thing I will point out is that it gets hot in short time. My cooling system is above average but it was still very hot. I recommend having a great cooling system for this SSD. I’m not sure if I would buy this at it’s current price but it’s a decent product. I can see this item being great under specific conditions but they aren’t conditions I need. I’d still recommend the Samsung EVO SSDs to people, they are cheaper and easier to use for the average PC user.
Pretty straight forward installation with no problems. I had to adjust other cards to have it fit in the right spot. It “connects into your PCIe® expansion slot, requiring no external power or cables“ I would say that this drive is very fast and quiet. As a precaution keep in mind that it runs hot, so you will need something to keep it cooled.When in doubt check to make sure your motherboard is on the compatibility list: https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/internal-drives/wd-black-ssd/compatibility-list-wd-black-an1500.pdf?_ga=2.189156139.1440139839.1634305239-17877757.1634305239I am happy with it so far! I use the machine for gaming and working from home. For reference, I am a beginner level user.
I recently got one from the micro center; the design is, so industry looking yet with a well diffused RGB lighting on the light. The speed is fantastic, and many people complained about the temps. It runs around 60 on my PC. I believe the reason normal nvme runs cooler is they throttle the speed a lot, I tested both nvme and this SSD in my system, and the speed dropped on regular nvme SSD installed on the motherboard just after 20 secs of transferring data, but their no drop from this WD add-in card at all. Highly recommend.
I am using this in my Asus Rampage IV Extreme x79 motherboard as a game drive. I have noticed a perceivable difference when loading into games. It seems to run hot in my system, although that may be my fault since I have installed it in pci slot 3, between two 2080 Ti in SLI. I have a Noctua industrial 140mm fan ducted straight to the pci expansion, but this add in card cools down much slower than my graphics cards. It is normal for it to reach temps of 75 C while gaming or running benchmarks. The graphics cards cool relatively quickly while this add in card comes back to stasis ~ 68 C in about 10 mins. This places it outside its recommended operating temp, which strikes me as odd with so much airflow. My graphics cards will report temps below 50 within 1.5 minutes ... MoreI am using this in my Asus Rampage IV Extreme x79 motherboard as a game drive. I have noticed a perceivable difference when loading into games. It seems to run hot in my system, although that may be my fault since I have installed it in pci slot 3, between two 2080 Ti in SLI. I have a Noctua industrial 140mm fan ducted straight to the pci expansion, but this add in card cools down much slower than my graphics cards. It is normal for it to reach temps of 75 C while gaming or running benchmarks. The graphics cards cool relatively quickly while this add in card comes back to stasis ~ 68 C in about 10 mins. This places it outside its recommended operating temp, which strikes me as odd with so much airflow. My graphics cards will report temps below 50 within 1.5 minutes of max temps of 75. I am still within my return period, so I'm not sure how I feel about checking out the internals of this drive to make sure the casing is in contact with the thermal transfer pads. It is as fast as they advertise.
Load up times are faster, nothing dramatic. Definitely worth half it's price. My asus tuf z590 doesn't have any issues with it, I did have to mess around with a few settings to get the mobo to read it as a bootable hard drive. It gets hot, my case has amazing airflow and doesn't effect my gpu temps. Rbg looks cool, like some decent corsair ram rgb. Would I purchase again? NO. The Samsung 970 evo plus is just as good. If it were cheaper like $300 then yes, go for it.
This drive matches it's performance ratings and is very fast under heavy loads and/or large file transfers. For the simple things like booting and single threaded jobs a Samsung 970 EVO plus is still slightly faster. However, when you have a larger que depth this drive outshines pretty much everything else, including most PCIe gen 4 NVME SSDs. One thing to keep in mind is that this drive requires 8 PCIe gen 3 lanes for full speed. This can impact the performance of high end graphics cards on motherboards with limited PCIe lane availability. Also, it looks cool :-)
Wow after I installed the internal gaming drive and downloaded the WD-Black dashboard software to customize my gaming experience for a quicker, faster and smoother adventure, I’m impressed and what a big difference compared to what I had before using the drive. Now, the read speed is 6500 megabytes per second. Right now, I also have a 1TB of storage which is great for me right now. The installation was easy and required no extra external power or cables. I’m also able to keep several games because of the SSD Add-in-Card that allows me to save up to 4TB of data. Through the WD-Black Dashboard (Windows only) various colors and thirteen LED pattern effects in the RGB lighting control can enhance my gaming station.
| General | |
| Device Type | Solid state drive - internal |
| Capacity | 2 TB |
| Integrated Heatsink | Yes |
| Form Factor | PCIe card |
Customisable RGB lighting with 13 LED pattern effects programmable with our WD BLACK Dashboard, or seamlessly integrate with motherboards from major brands (Windows only), Engineered to minimise thermal throttling with integrated heatsink technology. Downloadable WD BLACK Dashboard software to customise and control your gaming experience. Bootable and easytoinstall RAID0 solution using PCIe slot. Up to 4TB capacity to store your games. PCIe Gen3 technology to provide access to incredible read/write speeds up to 6500/4100MB/s.
Customisable RGB lighting with 13 LED pattern effects programmable with our WD BLACK Dashboard, or seamlessly integrate with motherboards from major brands (Windows only), Engineered to minimise thermal throttling with integrated heatsink technology. Downloadable WD BLACK Dashboard software to customise and control your gaming experience. Bootable and easytoinstall RAID0 solution using PCIe slot. Up to 4TB capacity to store your games. PCIe Gen3 technology to provide access to incredible read/write speeds up to 6500/4100MB/s.
in 2 offers
The lowest price for WD Black AN1500 2TB RGB NVMe SSD Add-in-Card right now is $580.05 at eSaitech, compared across 2 retailers.
The all-time low was $580.05 on 13 May 2026. That's the lowest price we've ever tracked — a great time to buy.
Prices last updated 13 May 2026.
WD Black AN1500 2TB RGB NVMe SSD Add-in-Card
Customisable RGB lighting with 13 LED pattern effects programmable with our WD BLACK Dashboard, or seamlessly integrate with motherboards from major brands (Windows only), Engineered to minimise thermal throttling with integrated heatsink technology. Downloadable WD BLACK Dashboard software to customise and control your gaming experience. Bootable and easytoinstall RAID0 solution using PCIe slot. Up to 4TB capacity to store your games. PCIe Gen3 technology to provide access to incredible read/write speeds up to 6500/4100MB/s.
Customisable RGB lighting with 13 LED pattern effects programmable with our WD BLACK Dashboard, or seamlessly integrate with motherboards from major brands (Windows only), Engineered to minimise thermal throttling with integrated heatsink technology. Downloadable WD BLACK Dashboard software to customise and control your gaming experience. Bootable and easytoinstall RAID0 solution using PCIe slot. Up to 4TB capacity to store your games. PCIe Gen3 technology to provide access to incredible read/write speeds up to 6500/4100MB/s.
