This is the latest version of Western Digital's mid-range Blue drive. At only one year of age this drive is relatively new and the performance figures reflect this. With maximum sequential speeds of 180 MB/s (both read and write) the Blue is amongst the faster drives currently available and in terms of real world performance it beats its predecessor the 2010 Blue (WD10EALS) by around 18%. The 2012 Blue has a single 1TB platter which combined with its 7200 rotation speed allows for above average performance across the board. In terms of value for money a larger capacity drive will nearly always be a better choice but within the 1TB category as a system drive, the 2012 Blue is a very reasonable, if not the best, option. [Jan '14HDrivePro]
The Samsung Spinpoint F3 is over four years old and one of the oldest drives that we have included in our group tests. The reason for its inclusion is that it was once one of the best hard drives available and we have seen more user benchmarks for this drive than any other. The price of this drive has fluctuated significantly over its epic four year life span and current prices do not reflect the great value for money that this drive once represented. In today's market the F3 struggles to keep up with the group leaders both in terms of performance and price. With an effective speed rating of 116 MB/s the F3 is one of the slowest 1TB drives in our group test. There are clearly newer and better alternatives available at this time. [Jan '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.