The WD Black P10 game drive is for your game collection, but why should gamers have all the cool-looking stuff.
The WD Black P10 Game drive is a SATA 6, portable USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) interface, 2.5” external hard disk in a clever facsimile of a black shipping container.
We reviewed the WD Black P50 External SSD here giving it 4.7/5, so we have similar hopes for the WD Black P10 – of course, its SATA 6 so it won’t be nearly as fast.
WD Black P10 Game Drive
- Website here
- Price: 2/4/5TB $158/248/258 (from 5-8 cents a GB)
- There is also a WD Black P10 for Xbox One 3/5TB $228/278.
- Compatible with Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 Pro/4 or Xbox One
- Warranty: 3-year limited
- Country of manufacture: Thailand and Malaysia
- Western Digital Corporation is an American computer SSD and HDD drive manufacturer
First, look
We have commented on the P50 shipping container look and this similar. But instead of the SSD’s metal (for a heatsink), this HDD container is plastic.
It is in the traditional shape of an external HDD (118 x 88 x 12.8/20.8mm) and uses a USB-A to micro-B (micro-USB plus extra data channels).
I am not a gamer, but I understand that a typical game needs 36GB storage, so a large external drive makes sense.
Speed
The USB interface is 3.2 Gen 1, so it is capable of 5Gbps (625MBps). But as USB is half-duplex WD only claims 140MBps.
Inside is a WD Blue WD40NMZW-59GX6S1 – a 5400rpm with a USB-SATA6 (6Gbps) interface. The 4TB tested has 128MB cache which means that it should not get too congested with smaller files, but it and the interface will choke on larger file transfers. That is fine as gamers generally don’t copy large files more than once.
In our tests, it performs well at 133/127MBps sequential read/write and very well on smaller file random read/writes, but it is not a drive for large file copying like video editing.
Still, we managed to average 50MBps for a 50GB copy of 1000 files.
GadgetGuy’s take – it’s the size that counts on the WD Black P10 game drive
It offers no more speed or performance than the SATA6 WD My Passport, so you are paying a premium for the WD Black packaging and its ‘cool factor’.
If you want speed, then a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) like the Samsung T7 or SanDisk Extreme Pro (also WD) will give you closer to 1Gbps read/write if you have the right PC. Of course, these will cost closer to 40-50 cents a GB.
USB 3.x is full duplex.