Right now SSD’s are are getting bigger, faster and cheaper, making them an easy decision in any new rig. However, their size is nowhere near that of current hard drives and while we have seen 4TB hard drives before, the WD4001FAEX from Western Digital offers decent performance and an impressive 5 year warranty, So let’s not waste time and take a look at the specs of the device.
| Specifications1 | |
| Model number |
WD4001FAEX |
| Interface |
SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Formatted capacity |
4,000,787 MB |
| User sectors per drive |
7,814,037,168 |
| SATA latching connector |
Yes |
| Form factor |
3.5-inch |
| RoHS compliant2 |
Yes |
| Performance | |
| Data transfer rate (max) Buffer to host
Host to/from drive (sustained) |
6 Gb/s 154 MB/s |
| Cache (MB) |
64 |
| Rotational speed (RPM) |
7200 |
| Reliability/Data Integrity | |
| Load/unload cycles3 |
300,000 |
| Non-recoverable read errors per bits read |
<1 in 1014 |
| Limited warranty (years)4 |
5 |
| Power Management | |
| Average power requirements (W) Read/Write
Idle Standby Sleep |
10.4 8.1 1.2 1.2 |
| Environmental Specifications5 | |
| Temperature (°C) Operating
Non-operating |
0 to 60 -40 to 70 |
| Shock (Gs)
Operating (2 ms, write) Operating (2 ms, read) Non-operating (2 ms) |
30 65 300 |
| Average acoustics (dBA)6
Idle mode Performance seek mode |
29 34 |
| Physical Dimensions | |
| Height (in./mm, max) |
1.028/25.4 |
| Length (in./mm, max) |
5.787/147 |
| Width (in./mm, ± .01 in.) |
4/101.6 |
| Weight (lb./kg, ± 10%) |
1.72/0.78 |
We can see from the specs the rated read/write speed is around 154MB/s. Since it’s the black series from Western Digital, decent performance is to be expected. The hard drive is built using five 800GB platters with 7200RPM. Now let’s jump over to some testing.
| Benchmark System Hardware | |
|---|---|
|
Intel 3960X |
|
Asus Rampage IV Extreme |
|
16GB G.Skill Ripjaw |
|
Kingston 240GB x2 RAID 0 |
|
Corsair 1200W |
ATTO Disk Benchmark
The first set of results we are going to take a look at is ATTO. This will run multiple benchmarks to test the sequential read/writes speeds of the drive. Here we simply take a screenshot of the results.
Western Digital didn’t lie when they said 154MB/s. Reaching a max write speed of 156MB/s and a max read speed of 152MB/s, both tests show the average read/write is in fact exactly 154MB/s. While these speeds aren’t on the high side when compared to the say the Velociraptor drives or remotely close to any SSD currently on the market. Seeing these speeds with 4TB capacity is impressive none the least. We forgot sometimes that 4TB at the moment is the highest capacity on a single hard disk available.
CrystialDiskMark 
Again..Western Digital really did some testing and the 154MB/s read/write speed is truly on the ball. Now that of course only applies to sequential read/write tests. The 512K speeds showed a typical result for a hard drive of this nature with a somewhat decent result. 4K however will always be on the low side for a hard drive benchmark.
HD Tune Pro
Using HD Tune Pro we can analyse the read/write speeds over time. This will give us a more accurate minimum/maximum read/write speed.
The read speed shows the Hard Drive never drops below 75MB/s throughout the test. The maximum hitting 148MB/s is similar throughout previous tests as well.
Nearly Identical results are seen for the write tests and again are similar to what we have seen throughout previous tests.
PCMark 7
Running the suite of tests on PCMark 7 is a great way to gather overall performance we can expect. Included are the results to the WD 1TB Velociraptor tests performance in the same test setup, this will show the different in performance between the drives and gives us a nice comparison to look at.
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ groupnames=”WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Windows Defender ” group1values=”1.87″ group2values=”2.71″ ]
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ title=”” groupnames=”WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Importing Images ” group1values=”9.29″ group2values=”10.83″ ]
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ title=”” groupnames=”WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Video Editing ” group1values=”19.32″ group2values=”20.66″ id=”id-here”]
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ title=”” groupnames=”WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Media Center ” group1values=”7.77″ group2values=”8.05″ ]
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ title=”” groupnames=” WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Adding Music ” group1values=”1.27″ group2values=”1.33″]
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ title=”” groupnames=” WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Starting Applications ” group1values=”4.10″ group2values=”4.67″ ]
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ title=”” groupnames=” WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”Gaming ” group1values=”5.63″ group2values=”8.09″]
[easychart type=”horizbar” height=”30″ title=”” groupnames=” WD 4TB Black, WD 1TB Velociraptor” groupcolors=”00CC00,0070C0,A3A3A3″ valuenames=”PC Mark 7 Score ” group1values=”2178″ group2values=”2573″]
The PC Mark results show a decent performing hard drive, while the 4TB Black WD4001FAEX doesn’t break any speed or performance records for a hard drive, the results are impressive for a hard drive of this capacity.
Conclusion
After multiple tests and benches it’s clear that while the WD4001FAEX doesn’t break any records or outshine other similar hard drives of this nature. It’s no doubt a solid performer and through our tests we have seen a reliable speed and the hard drive didn’t drop below 75MB/s in any tests, this is an important factor with a hard drive of this capacity. Another added bonus of the WD4001FAEX is the 5 year warranty that it comes with and that really says something about reliability.
These drives are easily marketed at enthusiasts or possibly SMB server use. Other uses include a NAS or HTPC setup as having decent speeds with a nice capacity is always good. We really can’t fault the WD4001FAEX as it peforms exactly as stated which is decent to say the least. Keep in mind that it’s only been just over a year since the first 4TB hard drive showed up and it’s still the highest capacity hard drive on the market, so getting these kind of results is impressive.
The WD4001FAEX 4TB drive easily get’s a gold award, but we can’t help but feel the 5 year warranty has a big part in that. As it stands, it’s nice to know that a big purchase like this is made to last and WD want to give you some peace of mind. 
A big thanks for Western Digital for sending out the WD4001FAEX drive for review.
