With peak sequential read/write speeds of 140 and averages of 120 MB/s the 3TB WD Red is around 25% slower than the group leaders. If the Red is used in a NAS (Network Attached Storage), that won't make much difference because the vast majority of home networks still operate at Fast Ethernet (~10 MB/s), even users with faster Gigabit (~100 MB/s) networks will be limited by their network bandwidth before the drive. I could assume that any of our drives are for use in a NAS but that of course doesn't excuse sub-par performance because they could equally be used in a desktop. It's true that the power consumption (4.4W) on the Red is lower than average (6W) but the performance hit isn't justified. Even assuming continuous usage, those extra couple of watts for something like the Seagate Baracuda 7200.14 amount to a few pounds a year at most. At £133 this dive is both overpriced and offers sub-optimal performance. [Feb '14HDrivePro]
The ST1000DX001 is a Solid State Hard Drive (SSHD). There is 8GB of MLC NAND flash built into this model which helps facilitate better performance than a purely mechanical drive. The peak sequential read /write speeds of 190 MB/s are around 10% higher than average for a mechanical drive, but no where near typical SSD speeds. We have seen peak 4k write speeds as high as 5.72 MB/s, which is very impressive and to date the highest 4k read speed is 1.24 MB/s which is less impressive but still above average for a top end mechanical drive. The performance increases attributable to the NAND flash are primarily noticeable in the area of small file performance and the Seagate offers only marginally better sequential performance than other mechanical 1TB hard drives. Overall the ST1000DX001 is a very solid performer and bests the group average by 30%. The larger 2TB version (ST2000DX001) has similar performance but represents even better value for money. [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.