REVIEW: WD Black P10 HD is the storage solution made for hardcore gamers

After the exponential growth of the digital games market, the lack of storage again plagued the Gamers on call who take advantage of those seasonal discounts to increase their game library. With that in mind, the Western Digital released the compact HD external WD Black P10 to expand your storage capabilities Xbox One, Playstation 4 ou PC.

On consoles, however, it doesn't matter if the user prefers to purchase their games on physical or digital media, since installing the game on the internal storage is mandatory and often makes the user have to delete a game to make room for a new game. new.

However, what is the biggest advantage of acquiring the WD Black P10 da Western Digital instead of a HD “common” external? We received the model 2 TB for testing and you can find the answer in our full review. 

Design

O WD Black P10 has a sober design in matte black with reliefs that refer to a container, something very industrial to fit the style premium gamer that is proposed. The upper part of the housing is made of metal and brings robustness to the product, in addition to contributing to the internal temperature control of the HD. The lower part of the carcass is made of a very resistant plastic that aligns itself with the rest of the product in a very organic way.

The product has dimensions of 4.65 x 3.46 x 0.5 cm, which shows to be much more compact and thin than the competitor HD Expansion, Seagate, for example. O WD Black P10 fits in any pocket without disturbing, as it only weighs 140 grams. 

O HD da Western Digital has only one entry Micro-B pattern of hard drives external for connection and a LED white which indicates when there is some reading and writing activity taking place on the product. O LED it is not very strong and blinks in a dimmed and simple way, not disturbing in darker environments.

The only accessory that comes with the product in the package is the cable. Micro-B all with USB-A that has 40 cm of lenght. The size is big enough to put it down in a safe place near your console or PC. In addition, the product comes with manuals that show how to connect the WD Black P10 simply and quickly.

What is needed is the inclusion of a connector or an extra cable that has the connection USB-C. As it is a product compatible with notebooks from Apple , users of a MacBook Pro last will not be able to use the product without an extra connector due to the absence of a port USB-A pattern.

Performance

O WD Black P10 de 2 TB has a transfer rate of 140 MB / s and operates at a speed of RPM 5.400. O HD does not need an external power source, being powered by the cable itself USB.

Even if it's a product gamer, HD can be used to store any file, as it is compatible with the Desktops. Factory formatting is exFAT, which allows you to store from small documents to gigantic video files.

However, the WD Black P10 is not made for those looking to store their files safely, as it lacks the file encryption. As it is a product gamer, the company's choice not to include the feature is justified, as current consoles do not have any method of reading and writing encrypted files. O HD da Western Digital it is not recommended for those who want to store more sensitive data.

To talk about more technical performance data, we use the benchmark tool CrystalDiskMark to test read/write speed in MB/s. We also timed the opening time of games against a HD "common" Elements out of 2 TB, also from WesternDigital. See the results:

CrystalDiskMark – Read and Write

The test with the tool CrystalDiskMark uses sequential and random data of different sizes in different transfer modes. Here the software tests the HD in situations closer to reality to determine their reading and writing power. As seen in the graph, the WD Black P10 performs significantly better than the HD Elements de 2 TB.

Speaking of numbers, the WD Black P10 reached an average of 137 MB / s of reading against the 122 MB / s do Elements. In writing, an average of 131 MB / s was achieved against the 103 MB / s of the most common HD. These results show that the P10 easily reach the 140 MB / s promised by the manufacturer and proves to be superior to a HD common external in terms of speed.

Game loading tests

In this test, we put to the test its real purpose as a HD Gamer, timing the opening speed of some games to their splash screen. These tests were performed on the PC with the games installed on the WD Black P10.

As seen in the graphic above, the game Overwatch it took 36,46 seconds to get to your home screen, while the Elements de 2 TB it took 40,87 seconds. already in the game The Witcher 3, P10 it took 21,17 seconds and Elements 24,38 seconds.

The results are not so different and the difference in the opening of the games between the HDs was in the average of the 4 seconds, the gain is minimal compared to a product non-gamer.

In the test above, we timed the opening time of games against a SSD NVMe da Kingston, model A2000 de 1 TB. We emphasize that it is unfair to make such a comparison since, due to technical limitations of the disc and needle mechanism found in the P10, the times will be quite different.

As can be seen in the graph, the game's loading time Overwatch it was just 14,65 seconds, which is very fast compared to 36,46 seconds do P10. Already The Witcher 3 loaded in just 9.23 secondsAnd P10 more than 10 seconds apart with 21,17 seconds.

Conclusion

O WD Black P10 da Western Digital performs as expected for a HD external made for Gamers. Its results are very close to what the company promises, being a product that will meet all your storage and portability needs.

Altogether, the product has been tested by 1 week as the primary storage device for a PC Gamer and, in addition to the games mentioned in the tests above, we also run Resident Evil 2 Remake, Dead By Daylight e Quantum Break with great performance, without gagging and crashes. how greedy Gamers here in the newsroom, we can say that the HD surprised because it is a great solution for those who want to transport their games between stations without having to download them again, just needing to log in to the store where the game was purchased.

However, in an era where SSDs are being increasingly democratized and becoming essential parts for Gamers more hardcore in PC, it is difficult to think whether the WD Black P10, costing 580,00 BRL in the model of 2 TB, will be the user's first choice to save and run their games, as most gamers value speed over portability.

However, it is worth mentioning that console players who purchase the WD Black P10 they won't be making a bad choice. In addition to the look that matches the designs of the 8th generation, the solution aligns with the performance of the consoles' internal storages.

O WD Black P10 can be found at official website da Western Digital in Brazil.

WD Black P10 Technical Specifications