Hard disk review wd caviar blue wd10ezex. Hard drives Western Digital latest generation. Western Digital Blue WD10EZRZ - All expectations are satisfied

No matter how fast the SSD disk was not, in modern realities, not all PC owners can afford to organize a disk subsystem using exclusively solid-state drives. On the way to this desire, the barrier becomes not only a higher cost disk space, but also a limited amount of SSD-drives. It is quite logical that conventional disks still do not lose their relevance. Several months ago we already tested hDD  of the Blue series from Western Digital, namely the WD10EALX model with a 1 TB volume, which differs from the one considered in this review with a smaller cache size, 32 against 64 MB, and the device principle. If the Western Digital WD10EALX consists of two plates with a capacity of 512 GB each, then the WD WD10EZEX uses one plate, which together with a lot of cache memory should positively affect the speed of operation. This we will check in our review.

As can be seen from the presented list of modifications, the tested version is the maximum in the line, both in space and in the number of caches. Another noteworthy fact is that all the Blue drives have a 7200 rpm spindle speed, and also that users can still purchase a drive with an outdated PATA interface if desired, while the amount of memory is limited to 320 GB, and the cache memory will be 8 MB. Also note that due to the use of one plate in the drive's design, instead of two in the WD10EALX, the test sample is easier by 250 grams. On the one hand, it is not a matter of principle for a desktop PC, but on the other hand it will be a nice bonus if you install the WD WD10EZEX in a "pocket" and will use it as a portable device.

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• Height 54 cm Width 16 cm Depth 7 cm Weight 44 kg.
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You make the choice of drives for advanced applications

  You are sure to find the perfect disk for your system. However, there are different classes hard disks.

Packing and equipment

The drive is supplied in a polyethylene antistatic bag, which is not only quite usual for hard drives, but also positively affects the final cost of the product.

Appearance of the device and its features

Standard for hard drives, all important information is on a small sticker located on the front of the drive. The reverse side, in addition to the control card with a sticker in the form of a QR code with service information, does not differ from the bulk of the hard drives.

On the back side of the drive, in addition to the SATA connector, there is an 8-pin jumper that, with the help of closing contacts, allows you to adjust the modes hard work  disk, with a full list of which you can read the guide on the website WD.

After formatting the disk file system  NTFS, as in the case of other drives with a declared capacity of 1 TB, the user is actually only "available" 931 GB of free space. The point is in the decimal translation of units of memory, which is a common marketing move.

Testing

To test the Western Digital Blue (WD10EZEX) drive, the following test stand was used:

As a result of testing, Western Digital Blue (WD10EZEX) showed very good results. In the HD Tune Pro 4.50 application, the performance of our test sample significantly exceeded that for the Western Digital WD10EALX, which is quite logical and easily explained by the differences between the two models mentioned above. It can also be noted that the WD10EZEX only slightly yielded to the faster WD VelociRaptor, whose rotation speed is 10,000 rpm.

In contrast to the above positive results, the test data of the average access speed from test packs HD Tune Pro 4.50 and EVEREST 5.50, based on which, the sample being tested today demonstrates far from the best result at 20.30 - 20.33 ms.

conclusions

After testing hard drive Western Digital Blue (WD10EZEX) we have very good impressions. The advantages of the WD10EZEX model over the previously discussed WD10EALX include not only more cache memory, but also a different drive device, which uses a single plate instead of two, which, as we see from the results of testing, significantly increased the speed of operation. Also a pleasant bonus for the WD WD10EZEX buyer is the relatively small weight of the device, which will make it more convenient to use it as a portable disk in a "pocket".

We would like to note again that thanks to the successful design and fast cache memory, the tested WD10EZEX only gave way to a hard drive for WD VelociRaptor enthusiasts with a spindle rotation speed of 10,000 rpm.

The only disappointment in the process of testing Western Digital Blue (WD10EZEX) was a long response time, about 20.30 ms, which is more than the models we tested previously.

In general, despite the lack found in the testing process, the hard drive Western Digital Blue (WD10EZEX) can rightly be called one of the most fast drives  volume of 1 TB.

Pluses:

affordable cost;

relatively low weight;

high (for hard disks) read / write speed.

Disadvantages:

great response time.

We express our gratitude to the representative office of Western Digital for the hard disk provided for testing.

We express our gratitude to the companies AMD, ASUS, Intel, Kingston  andSea Sonic  for the equipment provided for the test stand.

Despite the fact that SSD-drives are becoming more accessible, the average user still prefers classical hard disks. Yes, it's still a high price solid state drives. Of course, the limitation of rewriting cycles in SSD-drives is also alarming. In addition, of course, modern hard disks outperform solid-state drives by volume. And yet the main reason - hard drives though slow, but their speed is enough to perform daily tasks to the vast majority of users.

Today we will talk about the representative of hard drives - the Caviar Blue model from Western Digital with a capacity of 1 TB. All internal hard drives produced by Western Digital are highlighted in the Blue, Green, Black and the relatively recent Red series. Previously, the word Caviar was added before the name of the line, but now the manufacturer decided to abandon it, although the name of the tested hard disk still contains the prefix Caviar, since it was made before the innovations came into effect.

The Blue range is positioned by the manufacturer as everyday drives for use in desktops, industrial systems and external storage devices, and thus it is not recommended to use them for creation of RAID-arrays. Representatives of the lineup come with both a SATA 6 Gbps interface (versions from 250 GB to 1 TB) and old PATA (from 80 to 320 GB), while for all products of the line the characteristic rotation speed is 7200 rpm.

We got a version for testing   Western Digital Caviar BlueWD10EALX  1 TB and with 32 MB of cache. Although the volume of this version and the maximum for the current line, among the WD Blue range there is also a terabyte disk with 64 MB of cache memory, which has slightly different characteristics. In detail with the entire line of WD Blue can be found in the specifications provided by the manufacturer on the site Western Digital.

Specification

The main advantage of the drive is a considerable amount of storage space and the use of a high-speed SATA 6 Gb / s interface (which is not quite known as SATA 3.0). If 1 TB is too small, the acquisition will be WD Green, the maximum amount of which is 3 TB. If the user plans to often copy large volumes of small files for the size of the files, the best version will be a version with 64 MB of cache. The hard disk being tested is the heaviest of the line, but considering that it will be applied in the usual the system unit, it is unlikely that the mass will have any meaning for the end user.

The Western Digital Caviar Blue package consists of a polyethylene antistatic bag, since the rejection of the cardboard box is accompanied by a decrease in the price of the final product.

Most of the necessary information (name, volume, cache memory, power and manufacturer) is printed on the hard disk case, the more detailed specification is given above.

The whole "stuffing" is inside the case. Outside, only the board controlling the operation of the disk is made. It contains the SATA data and power connectors, all other components and connectors are on the underside of the board to avoid damage.

The jumper, which has 8 contacts, allows you to adjust the modes of operation of the hard disk. So, when 5 and 6 pins are closed (numbering is indicated on the front side), the hard disk goes into SATA 3 Gb / s mode. All possible jumper jumper configurations can be found in the manual on the WD website.

On the back and sides of the case there are two silver-colored seals - so that the pressure inside the drive coincides with the surrounding, while ensuring the tightness of the hard drive.

By default, the disk is formatted as nTFS partition. The total capacity of the drive is 931 GB (1 000 202 039 296 B). This discrepancy with the indicated size of 1 TB is associated with a decimal transfer of memory units, which is a widespread marketing move.

Testing

Comparison of the speed characteristics of a hard disk with solid-state drives can hardly be called expedient. The graphs show that the higher cost of SSDs is accompanied by a noticeably higher performance. Solid-state drives provide a short access time unattainable for hard disks, as well as a greater speed of reading and writing data. Another advantage of SSD-drives is a constant reading speed, unlike hard disks, where it is high at the beginning of the disk, and then constantly decreases.

As for the drive itself, the speed of WD Caviar Blue is the same as specified in the specification. The access speed of 13 ms is quite small for a hard disk, and a small workload of the processor allows you to use the drive on not very productive computers. Performance is higher than in mobile solutions, at the same time much lower than that of solid state drives, but with low material costs, a rather large disk space is obtained.

conclusions

Acquaintance with WD Caviar Blue (WD10EALX) allowed us to compare the performance of a classic hard drive not only with the nearest competitor, but also with solid-state drives. SSDs, despite the still high price, are gaining an increasing share of the market, on which hard disks have been out of competition for a long time. But, given the pace of development of the IT industry, as well as a clear advantage of solid-state drives over hard disks, the replacement of the latter remains only a matter of time.

If you compare WD Blue with other models of the company, then it is traditionally faster than the Green models and slower than the Black models. The performance of the tested hard drive is significantly higher than the 2.5-inch solution due to more cache memory and higher disk rotation speed.

WD Caviar Blue (WD10EALX) is a fairly quiet hard drive, completely suitable for daily work. If 1 TB of volume is not enough, then you can pay attention to the rulers Green and Black, where the maximum capacity of the drive can be respectively 3 and 2 TB. The tested drive should be perceived as a compromise solution between the representatives of the above-mentioned rulers, and, in our opinion, the most optimal, but still we recommend choosing the drive based on the needs.

Benefits:

• low cost of 1 GB of available capacity;
• support for SATA 6 GB / s.

We express our gratitude to the representative office of the companyWestern Digital  for the hard drive provided for testing.

We express our gratitude to the companiesAMD, ASUS,Intel, Kingston and Sea Sonic for the equipment provided for the test stand.