UserBenchmark: WD Black (2012) vs (2016)

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WDWD4004FZWX

BUY • $174

WDWD4001FAEX

BUY • $323

BenchYourHDD

Real World Speed

Performance profile from 14,001 user samples

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9,888 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 113% 3.5TB free
Worst Bench: 68% 3.5TB free

Poor: 68% Great: 113%

SPEED RANK: 12^th / 1015

4,113 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 93% 3TB free
Worst Bench: 49% 3.5TB free

Poor: 49% Great: 93%

SPEED RANK: 113^th / 1015


Effective Speed Effective HDD Speed		92.4 %	Faster effective speed. +25%		74.1 %


Read Avg. Sequential Read Speed	161 MB/s	Faster read speed. +22%	132 MB/s
Write Avg. Sequential Write Speed	165 MB/s	Much faster write speed. +33%	124 MB/s
4K Read Avg. 4K Random Read Speed	0.97 MB/s	Faster random read. +24%	0.78 MB/s
4K Write Avg. 4K Random Write Speed	4.99 MB/s	Much faster random write. +58%	3.16 MB/s
Mixed Avg. Sequential Mixed IO Speed	73.5 MB/s		86.1 MB/s	Faster mixed IO speed. +17%
4K Mixed Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed	0.68 MB/s		0.96 MB/s	Much faster random mixed IO. +41%
SusWrite Avg. Sustained Write Speed	160 MB/s	Faster sustained write speed. +28%	125 MB/s


Read Peak Sequential Read Speed	199 MB/s	Faster peak read speed. +18%	169 MB/s
Write Peak Sequential Write Speed	200 MB/s	Faster peak write speed. +29%	155 MB/s
4K Read Peak 4K Random Read Speed	1.1 MB/s	Faster peak random read. +10%	1 MB/s
4K Write Peak 4K Random Write Speed	6.3 MB/s	Much faster peak random write. +70%	3.7 MB/s
Mixed Peak Sequential Mixed IO Speed	84.3 MB/s		108 MB/s	Faster peak mixed IO speed. +28%
4K Mixed Peak 4K Random Mixed IO Speed	0.9 MB/s		1.1 MB/s	Faster peak random mixed IO. +22%
SusWrite Peak Sequential Sustained Write 60s Average	199 MB/s	Faster peak sustained write speed. +25%	159 MB/s

Market Share

Based on 53,300,895 HDDs tested

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Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0.05 %	Hugely higher market share. +400%	0.01 %
Value Value For Money	42.5 %	Hugely better value. +132%	18.3 %
User Rating UBM User Rating	53 %	+2%	52 %
Price Price (score)	$174	Much cheaper. +46%	$323


Age Newest		94 Months	Much more recent. +31%		137 Months


Capacity Capacity			4TB			4TB

I don't understand the pricing on this drive, on the face of it, it looks seriously overpriced. Although the Black has a marginal speed advantage compared to a 3TB Barracuda, one 4TB Caviar Black costs more than two 3TB Barracudas! I have only seen benchmarks from 3 user samples for the 4TB 2012 Black so I will re-visit this recap over the coming months by which time I should have a better sample size. Additional samples may indicate far better performance than I have seen so far. ^{[Aug '13 HDrivePro]}

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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]

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CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-13600K $273	Nvidia RTX 4060 $300	Crucial MX500 250GB $40
Intel Core i5-12400F $134	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-12600K $186	Nvidia RTX 4070 $409	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $39	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $40	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $35	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $43	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $51	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16