The WD Blue EALX (2010) is sold as an all round desktop drive. This model is nearly four years old now and can't compete against the newer competition. WD superseded this drive in 2012 with the EZEX. Comparing the EALX and EZEX reveals that the newer EZEX drive is approximately 30% faster yet both drives still retail for almost the same price. With average sequential read/write speeds of 109/97 MB/s the EALX lags the group leaders by 40%. Average small file 4K performance clocks in at 0.67/1.85 MB/s which is again around 40% slower than the top ten group leaders. With an effective speed of just 102 MB/s the 2010 WD Blue lags its peers by 34%. There are both cheaper and faster alternatives available elsewhere. [Mar '14HDrivePro]
This is the most recent version (2013 FZEX) of Western Digital's best performing consumer storage drive, its predecessor was the WD1002FAEX which is now four years old. With average sequential read/write speeds of 150 MB/s this version outperforms its predecessor by a whopping 50%. Small file random 4K speeds have remained broadly unchanged with average read/write rates of 0.9/2.19 MB/s. Overall the 2013 WD Black has a very good performance profile and it also represents reasonable value for money, at least in the 1TB category. There are some good alternatives to the 2013 Black including the 2012 Blue. Looking at the 2013 Black vs 2012 Blue shows that both drives have similar performance. Power consumption (6.8/6.1 Watts active/idle) and noise levels (29.5 dBA) are also identical making it a tough call between the two. There is however, as always, better value amongst the larger capacities. [Feb '14HDrivePro]
We calculate effective speed which measures performance for typical consumers. Effective speed is adjusted by current cost per GB to yield value for money. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top HDDs. [HDrivePro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.