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Up bright and early this morning to put the finishing touches on what has been a whirlwind of SSD reviews over the past few weeks. In less than 48 hours, I’ll be setting the keyboard aside for a month as I embark on a coast-to-coast-to-coast motorcycle journey across North America in under three weeks, Atlantic to Pacific and back again.
The ride supports an incredible cause: raising awareness of PTSD and promoting mental wellness among Military and First Responder Veterans. We recently shared a post about the event, and while it may seem unusual to mention a motorcycle ride in an SSD review, there is a fitting connection.
Nothing stops this ride. More than 130 “full pull” riders will face whatever the road throws at us, and that kind of endurance reminds me of the SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 8TB 8100 Gen5 SSD. Rated for an exceptional 4,800TBW and backed by a five-year limited warranty, it is designed to withstand demanding workloads year after year. And with respect to speed, the GX Pro 8100 is one of the fastest… which again ties into my given nickname of ‘Ticket Master’. We don’t discuss this any further.
Like the 8100, our group pushes forward through the unexpected. The photo above was taken during our 2024 tour, on what became Halifax’s wettest single day on record, as torrential rain failed to slow the ride. If you’d like to learn more about this incredible journey, visit The Rolling Barrage website, or follow along through any of my social media channels. This will be my fourth ride across Canada, and once again, every mile is for a cause that truly matters. You can even donate to a great cause here as TRB has included a ‘Sponsor-a-Rider’ fundraising opportunity to help us along if you would like to take part!
As a quick refresher, we previously reviewed this SSD in its 2TB configuration when it was marketed as the SanDisk WD_Black SN8100, prior to the split between SanDisk and Western Digital. Aside from the rebranding, performance and specifications remain virtually unchanged. The difference today is that our Test Bench is home to the impressive 8TB model, a capacity that has become increasingly uncommon as NAND prices continue to rise.
The SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 8100 is a PCIe 5.0 (Gen5) x4 NVMe SSD built around the latest NVMe 2.0 specification. It is available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB capacities. One noteworthy design feature is that the 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models are all single-sided, while the 8TB version utilizes a double-sided PCB to accommodate its significantly higher NAND density.
Performance specifications are variable with the 8TB version speaking to 14.9GB/s read and 13.2GB/s write with up to 2200K read and 2400K write IOPS. The 8100 has TCG Opal 2.02 encryption as a security feature and this SSD is based on a 2280 form factor, meaning it measures 22mm wide by 80mm long and weighs under 10g. The 1TB version drops just a bit to 11GB/s write and 1.6 million IOPS random read and a full list of specs are shown here:
At the heart of the 8100 is a SanDisk branded Silicon Motion SM2508 8-channel NVMe SSD controller along with four pieces of SanDisk 218-layer BiCS 8 TLC CBA 3D NAND flash memory. Two of these pieces are situated on either side of the 8TB version SSD, along with one piece of DDR4 DRAM buffer.
It is rather pertinent to again note that the 1, 2 and 4TB versions of the 8100 are single sided with an average active read power rating of 6.5w and write up to 7w. This is rather important as it demonstrates that the SN8100 is a relatively cool SSD that could be considered for laptops.
Pricing of the SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 8100 8TB SSD… has gone up immensely since our original article where we quoted that 2TB version at $279.99 on Amazon. Let’s be honest; you won’t be finding prices like that ever again. Right now on Amazon that 2TB 8100 is listed at $549.99 and that is with a 12% discount!
If you are looking at the 8TB version we are testing today, that is listed at $2149 if you are in the USA. Where things really get scary is if you are buying in Canada, as we are a Canada-based website. Right now on Amazon Canada the SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 8100 Gen5 8TB SSD is listed at a whopping $5799.99. We simply had to take a screen shot as many would never believe this! The 8100 is digital gold!
Enough of pricing, let’s get to some performance testing…