WD Black is considered the pinnacle of consumer hard drives, WD blue It’s part of WD’s product stack, but things aren’t always what they seem. This is especially true for storage products that have the same name despite the different types of components. For example, the 8TB WD Black we have for review has less DRAM cache and lower sustained transfer speeds than another version of the drive with the exact same 8TB WD Black name, sticker and branding. The model number is the only way he can tell the difference between the two drives.
Our 8TB WD Black also has a smaller DRAM cache and slower sustained transfer speeds than Seagate’s top-end FireCuda, so we wouldn’t expect it to keep up with competing flagships. However, it is still part of WD’s Black lineup, which has a well-established reputation as a high-performance brand, and is targeted by FireCuda at its current pricing. Not to mention the prominent ‘Gaming’ branding on Black’s product description, this drive is in competition with his faster SSDs.
However, the faster Seagate FireCuda only comes in 4TB and 8TB flavors, while the WD Black offers a wide range of capacities, including a 10TB option, which works in its favor. Still, WD should also keep this drive out of his WD Blue HDD product line in-house. This is a hard drive to beat in terms of value for money.
Let’s see how the black stacks up.
specification
| product | Western Digital Black HDD |
| capacity | 8TB |
| model # | WD8002FZWX |
| Pricing | $174.99 |
| Cost per TB | $21.87 |
| interface | SATA 6Gb/s |
| form factor | 3.5 inches |
| technology | CMR |
| number of revolutions | 7200 |
| Sustained transfer speed | Up to 238MB/s |
| cache | 128MB |
| operating power | 8.7W |
| noise | 34dBA |
| Workload rate limit | N/A |
| MTBF | N/A |
| guarantee | 5 years |
The 8TB WD Black hard drive costs $174.99, or about 22 cents per GB, nearly $15 less than the hard drive. 8TB Seagate FireCuda at review. Prices for consumer hard drives are volatile, so it’s worth waiting for the right price. The FireCuda was pretty cheap when I reviewed it recently, but now the price is close to that, making it more competitive.
The WD8002FZWX 8TB Black uses CMR technology at 7200 RPM, but with a smaller cache of 128 MB and a sustained transfer rate of just 238 MB/s, compared to Seagate FireCuda’s 260 MB/s.
Black has a WD8001FZBX version with 256MB cache and good performance up to 263 MB/s, but this model is hard to find and generally expensive.
WD Black is available in different capacities from 500GB to 10TB, making it much more flexible than the 4TB/8TB FireCuda. Both drives come with a 5-year warranty, but Seagate includes his 3-year data recovery service.
The black has the same 128MB cache as the WD Blue, but the Blue’s tiny 2-year warranty is a major drawback when weighing the two drives. The price difference is also worth considering. Blue is currently $60 cheaper for 8 TB capacity. If you’re just looking for extra space, it’s probably not worth the premium and avoiding the BarraCuda’s slow SMR technology is an easy decision.
Software and accessories
the same as, WD blue HDD, Black works with WD downloadable applications. This includes WD Edition of Acronis True Image for imaging and cloning, and Western Digital Dashboard to help monitor and update status. This is comparable to what Seagate offers in hard drives.
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WD Black has a basic and stoic appearance, and black coloring is applied to part of the label to differentiate the branding from WD Blue. Black is intended for the high-performance line of consumer hard drives, while blue is more entry-level. In this case the main difference is the spindle rate. 8TB Blue 5640 RPM versus Black 7200 RPM. As a result, Blue has higher latency and lower sustained transfer speeds, but also consumes less power and noise.
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