Available with an impressive 256 MB of DRAM cache on higher capacity models, the WD_BLACK HDD is performance-optimized so you can spend more time gaming and less time loading. Credit is provided by Novuna Personal Finance, a trading style of Mitsubishi HC Capital (UK) PLC, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Predictive loading is an algorithm designed to detect upcoming low queue depth, sequential workloads - particularly the read workloads prevalent in many games. This purpose-built gaming drive comes in capacities of 1TB to 4TB 2, with an optional heatsink on the 1TB and 2TB drives to help sustain top-end performance for more consistent gameplay.

WD_BLACK™ Best HDD Performance Desktop Gaming Hard Drive

In addition to PCs and Macs, the P10 is also compatible with the Sony PlayStation 4 and the Microsoft Xbox One. Switching to our 8K 70/30 mixed workload, we measure performance from a low load of 2T/2Q (QD4 effective) up to 16T/16Q (QD256 effective). The WD_BLACK Dashboard monitors the health of your drive, control of RGB lighting and exclusively on the SN850X, Game Mode 2.Comparing the sequential performance of each hard drive in a 128K sequential workload, the new WD Black once again led the pack with speeds measuring 186. The WD_BLACK SSD Dashboard gives you the ability to optimize performance by enabling the gaming mode feature. Its score of 1,896 on the trace-based PCMark 7 storage subtest is also about what we expect from external hard drives. Ocuk Limited trading as Overclockers UK is a credit broker, not a lender, and is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

WD_BLACK 4TB SN750 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive WD_BLACK 4TB SN750 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive

Capacity, temperature, life remaining and even the interface link speeds are shown on the status page, while a live performance analysis chart and other tools are located in the other panels. With USB Type-C connectors becoming more prevalent, the omission of a USB-C cable is an unfortunate oversight on WD’s part. These dimensions are relatively standard for portable drives, and they’re much smaller and lighter than external hard drives built around 3.The rest of the comparables faired very well, as they were all around the same latency throughout the range. Western Digital’s updated Black line showed dominance over the market for the highest-capacity hard drives, providing top-in-class performance in all categories. The SN850 also did relatively well in our Phison I/O+ firmware preview, performing quite consistently. The SN850's Gaming Mode worked by disabling lower power states, ensuring the drive would be more responsive.

WD Black SN850X SSD Review: Back in Black (Updated) WD Black SN850X SSD Review: Back in Black (Updated)

The new WD_Black SN850P NVMe SSD is an officially-licensed PS5 accessory and has been designed with Sony’s current-gen console in mind. This allows things like the controller, RAM, and motor driver to dispense heat into the body, which acts as a large heat sink. This means you shouldn’t actually load games directly from the P10, but instead transfer game files to and from your PC’s internal drive when you’re ready to play them. The prior 4TB model, WD4001FAEX, was a big step up at the time as it doubled the capacity of the 2TB Caviar Black and topped throughput by 12%.The WD_BLACK Gaming Hard Drive features a dual-core processor that offers twice the processing capability as a single-core processor to maximize drive performance for geting into the game faster.