The WD Se is an enterprise class drive designed for use in a NAS or data warehouse. Unlike the Enterprise Xe, which focuses on maximum data throughput, the focus of the Se is on balanced performance, power consumption and reliability. We only have one sample for this drive at present so for now we can't draw any robust conclusions. Based on the data we do have, in terms of value for money the WD Se lands in the middle of the (scarce) 4TB pack, besting the (2012) 4TB black by just 3.4%. From a performance perspective, with both peak and average read/writes coming in at 137/136 MB/s it's hard to tell at this point because we don't know whether to take those figures as peak or average. As averages they are very strong and as peak figures they are relatively weak. We will update this summary when we have more data. In the mean time the Seagate Desktop HDD1.5 remains our 4TB pick. [Jan '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.