What the NAS 800 is
Tom's Hardware describes the NAS 800 as a specialized variant of the Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 8100, which used to be the WD Black SN8100. The review calls that parent drive one of the best on the market. The NAS version is the "WD Red" counterpart, tuned for home and small-business servers.
Sandisk's own materials position it differently. Sandisk says it is engineered for caching, storage tiering, or primary storage in all-flash NAS systems. The company also says it is tested for compatibility with many leading NAS systems supporting M.2 2280. The brands behind that claim are not named in the material I could see.
The lineup at a glance
The family has four capacities. The review's specification table lists them as follows.
| Capacity | Seq. write | Random write | Endurance | Price at review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 960GB | 11,000 MB/s | 800K IOPS | 1,750 TBW | $387.99 |
| 1.92TB | 13,200 MB/s | 1.5M IOPS | 3,500 TBW | $699.99 |
| 3.84TB | 13,100 MB/s | 2.0M IOPS | 7,000 TBW | $1,374.99 |
| 7.68TB | 13,000 MB/s | 2.1M IOPS | 14,000 TBW | $2,749.99 |
Every capacity is rated for 14,900 MB/s sequential reads. Sandisk's data sheet lists that 14,900/13,200 MB/s read/write pair for the 1.92TB model. These are manufacturer maximums, not promises for real NAS transfers.
The reviewed 1.92TB drive is not the fastest in the family for random I/O. Sandisk's headline random figure of 2.3M/2M IOPS belongs to the 3.84TB model. The 1.92TB is rated at 2.3M random read and 1.5M random write.
Why the capacities look odd
The capacity numbers are 960GB, 1.92TB, 3.84TB and 7.68TB, not the usual 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB. The review explains that the drives reserve extra spare flash as overprovisioning, which improves endurance. The extra spare area gives the controller more room to spread writes and clean up blocks. That reduces wear and helps sustain performance.
Endurance is the selling point
The 1.92TB model is rated at 3,500 TBW under a five-year warranty. The review says that works out to roughly one full drive write per day over the warranty period. The arithmetic supports this:
- 3,500TB over five years is about 700TB per year.
- That is roughly 1.9TB per day, or about one drive-capacity write per day.
- This is a ratio derived from the published ratings. It is not a guarantee about any particular workload.
The review notes that the top 7.68TB model is rated up to 14PBW. Proportionally, that is almost three times the normal figure for consumer drives. One outlet's launch coverage noted the 1.92TB rating is 25% higher than the 960GB drive's 1,750 TBW.
Check the warranty terms before relying on this. The Sandisk material supplied for this review describes the warranty as five years or the maximum endurance limit, whichever comes first. A heavily written drive can therefore exhaust its coverage early. Sandisk also states that the TBW ratings are calculated with a JEDEC client workload and vary by capacity.
Price: the real catch
The review lists Sandisk's store prices at the time of writing: $387.99, $699.99, $1,374.99 and $2,749.99. Tom's Hardware says that is roughly 45% to 65% above street prices for the WD Black SN8100. Against the same hardware sold as the Optimus GX Pro 8100, the premium is 27% to 29%. It attributes the cost mostly to the TBW rating rather than the NAS tuning.
Those prices have moved over time. Sandisk announced launch pricing starting at $309.99 for the NAS 800. That launch pricing was $309.99 for 960GB, $559.99 for 1.92TB and $1,099.99 for 3.84TB. Later coverage reported $387 for 960GB, $699 for 1.92TB, $1,374 for 3.84TB and $2,749 for 7.68TB. Treat any figure here as a snapshot. Check current listings before buying.
Hardware details from the review
Tom's Hardware inspected the drive and reports the following:
- Controller: Silicon Motion SM2508, an eight-channel PCIe 5.0 design.
- DRAM: a 2GB LPDDR4 package, which the review says suits a NAS drive better than the 1GB on Sandisk's gaming-oriented Optimus GX Pro 850P.
- NAND: 218-layer BiCS8 TLC flash.
- Layout: the 1.92TB is single-sided. Only the 7.68TB is double-sided, which could matter for some cooling arrangements.
- Power: the reviewer lists a 7.52W active draw. That sits above the 6.5W/6.4W averages Sandisk quotes. The review expects it to run cooler in practice because of its small pSLC cache.
These component identifications come from the review's teardown. Sandisk's data sheet confirms only TLC 3D NAND, DRAM and an SLC cache. It does not name the controller or the NAND layer count.
The review's verdict praises the high TBW rating, strong sustained write performance and excellent 4KB random QD1 latencies. Its listed drawbacks are the high price and below-average power efficiency. The review pages with the benchmark charts were not available to me, so I can't give specific test results.
Software and Windows users
Sandisk Dashboard is the drive's toolbox, successor to WD Dashboard. It shows SMART and health data, enables optional features and checks for firmware updates. Sandisk also bundles an OEM version of Acronis True Image for backups and cloning. Sandisk's documentation says the Acronis download requires an eligible purchase and may require registration, with redemption open through the end of 2029.
Practical checks before buying
- Confirm the slot: make sure your NAS or PC has an M.2 2280 slot. Many NAS bays are limited to PCIe 3.0 or fewer lanes, and the drive will run at the host's speed.
- Check the network: a 14,900 MB/s drive is wasted behind a 1GbE or 2.5GbE link. The network, not the SSD, will be the bottleneck.
- Estimate your write volume: if you write far less than a drive's capacity per day, a cheaper drive may last just as long.
- Plan for heat: compact NAS enclosures can throttle PCIe 5.0 drives. The 7.68TB model's double-sided layout may matter here.
- Compare against the parent drive: if you don't need the NAS-oriented endurance rating, the Optimus GX Pro 8100 costs less.
Bottom line
The NAS 800 is a top-tier drive with a high price. If you run databases, virtual machines or heavy media workloads, it makes sense to pay for the higher TBW rating. For a home NAS that mostly serves reads, you are paying for headroom you won't use.