Yes, WD Passport GO SSD's Are Shuckable!

ChineseElectronics on 26/03/2021 - 19:55
Last edited 26/03/2021 - 20:01 by 1 other user

Hi all, i bought a WD Passport GO 500GB SSD for $49 from Officeworks as part of a recent deal. I immediately cracked it open and inside was a Sandisk SSD Plus 500GB OEM M.2 (M-Key) SSD. It has no label on the drive whatsoever so definitely an OEM drive, only found the model by checking crystaldiskinfo.

Beware that the M.2 SSD itself is adhered strongly to it's daughterboard so to remove it from the daughterboard i slipped a credit card to separate the adhesive from the drive. Be careful though.

All in all, looks to be a pretty good deal for a SSD this size if you want an internal M.2 drive ASAP and don't want to wait on slow Auspost delivery.

Computing Portable SSD Western Digital

Comments

  • ChineseElectronics on 26/03/2021 - 20:03
    +10

    Image of the drive: https://ibb.co/B2H8LtH
    CrystalDiskInfo screenshot: https://ibb.co/7ys3rDm

    • wombok2 on 26/03/2021 - 20:29

      Thanks are you able to post 1GB CrystalDiskMark results please?

      Thanks

      • ChineseElectronics on 26/03/2021 - 20:41
        +2

        https://ibb.co/GCqXkXx

        There's a screenshot for you, tested using my old gaming PC using USB3.
        Not sure if better speeds are possible when using the drive internally but yeah that's what i got in it's original enclosure.

        • King Tightarse on 26/03/2021 - 21:02

          Weren't people suggesting the enclose was the bottleneck in the original thread?
          I would love to see the speeds possible without it

          • ChineseElectronics on 26/03/2021 - 21:04

            @King Tightarse: I'll get a quick and dirty windows install installed onto this drive through the use of a Lenovo Ideapad 3 laptop (with a 10th gen i3) so you'll have an idea of speeds inside of a PC.

            • King Tightarse on 26/03/2021 - 21:05

              @ChineseElectronics: That would be excellent!

              • ChineseElectronics on 26/03/2021 - 21:35
                +7

                @King Tightarse: Screenshot of the speeds with the SSD installed in the Ideapad:
                https://ibb.co/JB7HRT8

                Definitely an improvement, yes the enclosure is a bottleneck, still a SATA M.2 SSD at the end of the day but can't really complain.

                • King Tightarse on 26/03/2021 - 22:09
                  +1

                  @ChineseElectronics: Thanks so much for doing that - looks like a massive improvement in sequential speeds.
                  I suppose the USB3 was the bottleneck

                • Clear on 26/03/2021 - 23:09

                  @ChineseElectronics: Do you have a pic of the board itself in the enclosure? It would be good to identify the chipset used as that's likely the culprit for being bottlenecked.

                  It's a common issue for portable NVMe enclosures.

                  • ChineseElectronics on 27/03/2021 - 09:53

                    @Clear: Looks to be an Asmedia ASM1151W chipset

                    • Clear on 27/03/2021 - 22:26

                      @ChineseElectronics: That's interesting. In terms of these chipsets Asmedia sit in the middle with JMicron being the worst and Realtek being the best.

                      ASM1151W seems to be commonly used by WD in their My Book external hard drives and looks to be an older model, as the ASM1153 is more common. I would say that's what's causing the bottleneck, especially since it's being used in HDDs.

                • AustriaBargain on 27/03/2021 - 04:39

                  @ChineseElectronics: May be M.2, but don't you want nvme if you need speed?

                  • ChineseElectronics on 27/03/2021 - 09:50

                    @AustriaBargain: Me personally i couldn't care for an NVME SSD anyway as i'm installing this (with the use of an M.2 to SATA adaptor into a 2009 macbook pro where the drive will be bottlenecked by SATA2 anyway.

        • wombok2 on 26/03/2021 - 22:11
          +1

          Thank you so much

  • King Tightarse on 26/03/2021 - 20:22

    Hey thanks for the info - was it hard to crack open and could you re-use the enclosure again or do you have to break it open?

    • ChineseElectronics on 26/03/2021 - 20:31
      +2

      The trick to cracking it open is to press in hard on the rubber corners (on the bottom side where the USB cable is located). Once you've loosened all four corners the top comes off relatively easily without breaking and yes you could reuse this enclosure, it takes any standard M.2 M Key SSD that's 2280 size.

      • jooyeumi on 29/03/2021 - 02:46

        It doesn't work for me. Could you upload YouTube video?

  • mmd on 27/03/2021 - 01:26

    Is sandisk owned by WD? or vice versa.
    How much is it normally?
    I had a bad experience with the sandisk ssd ultra 2 in the past but wondering whether to upgrade to m.2 or not.

    • Twix on 27/03/2021 - 12:43
      +1

      WD purchased SanDisk in 2016 and the drive is normally about $70. What drive you are using now?

      • mmd on 27/03/2021 - 16:44

        samsung 860 ssd.
        m2 slot would have been nice

  • badonde on 28/03/2021 - 15:49

    Is this SanDisk ssd plus m2 available anywhere else? I only see sata sad drives.
    Or do those just have an m2 drive inside?

    • badonde on 28/03/2021 - 15:49

      Curious if the 2tb is also an m2 SanDisk plus or maybe a wd drive

  • toobzy on 29/03/2021 - 00:39

    del

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