Western Digital has long been known as one of the top names in storage solutions and their latest offering, the WD Black 6TB hard drive, should continue that trend as it offers 6TB of space, speed, and capacity to any PC user looking to add more storage to their system. This review will give you all the information you need to make an informed decision about this new drive if it’s right for your system or not.
Western Digital Black 6TB Review
- Introduction
- Features
- Design and build quality
- Testing – real-world performance
- Conclusion
Introduction
Western Digital is a veteran hard drive manufacturer which has been around for quite some time. Established in 1970, WD is one of today’s largest providers of internal and external storage devices. The company boasts a large portfolio of personal and business-oriented hard drives including reliable business-grade solutions such as RAID solutions, SSDs (Solid State Drives), NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives, etc.
Features
The Western Digital 6TB model packs more than twice as much capacity in comparison to a 3TB model. In terms of price, though, it’s only slightly more expensive. In fact, you can purchase a 6TB hard drive for roughly $130 less than a 4TB drive at some retailers. It’s also worth mentioning that Western Digital is currently selling its 6 TB hard drives for less than ever before with promotional pricing from select sellers dropping them as low as $159 on Amazon.
Design and build quality
This isn’t just a WD drive but a Western Digital Black Series drive – and while they are pretty much identical in terms of performance, you do get an extra sense of reassurance with that badge. The shell looks sleek and smart with a black gloss finish, it has sturdy handles on either side to make it easy to pick up and move around. On top is an activity light that flashes blue when data is being written or read and glows solid blue when idle.
Testing – real-world performance
In terms of real-world performance, I used a 4K video file in AVI format to stress test a 2TB Western Digital Black HDD. (Note: even if you don’t plan on storing 4K video, it is a good idea to buy an HDD that can handle such high capacity files in order to ensure compatibility with new software and hardware.) The footage was taken at 8K resolution and then converted down to 1080p, meaning that every file was approximately 1GB in size.
Conclusion
The Western Digital WD60EFRX is a great drive for anyone who needs space and reliability, not to mention a stellar price. Although I can’t speak about how fast it will be next year, I know one thing: it’s fast enough now. If you need storage that’s going to stand up to years of use with no problems, get yourself a Western Digital Black 6TB HDD today. You won’t regret it.
