Western Digital's new WD Black D50 Game Dock adds multiple peripheral ports to Thunderbolt 3 notebook computers, as well as (optionally) more storage using a built-in fast NVMe SSD.
WD Black D50 Game Dock
The WD Black D50 Game Dock connects to a notebook computer via a Thunderbolt 3 cable and provides two USB 3.1 Type-A (for a mouse and keyboard) and USB-C ports, an Ethernet port, a DisplayPort 1.4 output for connecting an external monitor with up to 5K at 60 Hz refresh rate, and another Thunderbolt 3 port for daisy-chaining additional Thunderbolt 3 devices.
Thunderbolt can also supply the connected laptop with up to 87W of power. The Dock can also be purchased with a 2,500 MB/s (read speed) fast 1 TB or 3,000 MB/s fast 2 TB NVMe SSD.
For gamers, a customizable RGB lighting is built into the dock and is controlled by WD Black Dashboard software (Windows only). A wide range of colors and 13 LED effects are available. The Dashboard also allows you to monitor the state of the drive and activate a low-power gaming mode.
WD Black D50 Game Dock interfaces
The WD Black D50 Game Dock is scheduled to ship soon and comes with a 5-year warranty. It costs about 457 Euro in the 1 TB version and 616 Euro in the 2 TB version - without SSD the price is about 297 Euro (it's not clear if an NVMe SSD can be retrofitted to this model).
WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD
Also new is the WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD with read speeds of up to 7,000 and one and write speeds of up to 5,300MB/s (1TB model) which uses the WD Black G2 controller, which is optimized for 'reducing program and file load times by transferring faster than the previous model thanks to its new cache technology3.
WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD
In addition, the new NVMe SSD offers improved speed with low queue depth. The SSD will also be available in an RGB-capable heatsink version that reduces speed reduction through thermal throttling.
The WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD without heatsink will be available with 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacity at prices starting at around 140 Euro from the end of October 2020. The model with heatsink is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2021.
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