Shane Downing likes more performance in his performance products.
The WD Black is supposed to be the pinnacle of consumer hard drives and resides above the WD Blue in WD’s product stack, but things aren’t always what they seem. That can be particularly true with storage products with differing types of componentry but the same name. For instance, the 8TB WD Black here comes with less DRAM cache and a lower sustained transfer speed than another version of the drive that has the exact same 8TB WD Black naming, sticker and branding — the model number is the only way to tell the difference between the two.
Our 8TB WD Black also has a smaller DRAM cache and a lower sustained transfer speed than Seagate’s top-end FireCuda, so it’s not expected to go toe-to-toe with the competing flagship. However, it is still part of WD’s Black line-up, which has a reputation as a highperformance brand, and current pricing price puts it in the FireCuda’s crosshairs. That’s not to mention the “Gaming” branding in the Black’s product description, which exposes it to competition from far faster SSDs.
However, while the faster Seagate FireCuda only comes in 4TB and 8TB flavours, the WD Black does offer a wider range of capacities, including 10TB, which works in its favour. Still, WD also needs to distance this from its own WD Blue HDD line, which is a tough drive to beat in terms of bang for your buck.
At all costs
The 8TB WD Black hard drive costs £285, or about 35 pence a GB, which is almost £80 more than the 8TB Seagate FireCuda at the time of review. Pricing for consumer hard drives has been volatile, and the FireCuda was much cheaper when we reviewed it, but the closer price now makes this more of a competition.
The WD8002FZWX 8TB Black uses CMR technology at 7,200rpm but with a smaller 128MB cache and a sustained transfer rate of just 238MB/s compared to the FireCuda’s 260MB/s. The Black does have a WD8001FZBX version with a 256MB cache and better performance at up to 263MB/s, but that model is more difficult to find and generally more expensive.
The WD Black is available in various capacities, from 500GB to 10TB, making it more flexible than the 4TB/ 8TB FireCuda. Both come with a five-year warranty but Seagate includes a three-year data recovery service.
This particular Black has the same 128MB cache as the WD Blue, but the Blue’s paltry two-year warranty is a big drawback. Also worth consideration is the price di
