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The FAEX WD Black (2010) is nearly four years old and has been replaced by the WD Black FZEX (2013). Comparing the FAEX and FZEX models shows that the newer FZEX model is around 11% faster on average. The main performance improvements are in the area of sequential writes where the newer FZEX is 30% faster (148 vs 114 MB/s). As a new purchase, the FAEX would have to come at a significant discount to the newer FZEX in order to make it worth considering. The FAEX has a reasonably well-rounded performance profile with above average 4K speeds but it's overpriced and lags the group leaders in terms of value for money. [Nov '12HDrivePro]
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.