Western Digital WD5003AZEX Black 500 GB Performance Hard Drive

I've had many makes of hard drive over the years but seem to migrate towards Western Digital as a preference. They are generally quiet and reliable, certainly I have never had one fail and indeed one I own is now a grand 9 years old and still going strong (obviously no sensitive data stored on it any more!)I replaced a "Blue Caviar" drive with this item which is the faster "Black". It features double the processing power on the built-in controller and is consequently much quicker to grab and write data. An added bonus is that it also runs more coolly. The previous "Blue" ran at an average 29-30c whereas the "Black" is running at about 26c. Over time too much heat kills electronics so this is good.In operation the drive is as quiet as the "Blue" and once up to operating speed can rarely be heard. My personal advice would be to use some kind of rubber washer mountings in your case just to insulate the drive further. It doesn't need it but will benefit from it.The only bad thing about this purchase was the packaging. It wasn't the lovely foam-padded box in the product photos. Mine came in an OEM cardboard box - no Amazon outer at all - held in place within the box by two rigid plastic inserts. Luckily the drive doesn't seem to have suffered but it caused me great concern when it arrived. I would happily pay just a little more for the Amazon card outer of old or for some of that foam.

Can't beat WD Blacks, never had one fail. Purchased for a retro computer a week ago with no issues so far. Buy with confidence.

The disk drive seems much faster than my (crashed) drive.The price was very reasonable,it has a 5 year guarantee and it arrived ahead of suggested date.Too early to say how reliable it is going to be but other reviews have been favourable.The only slight hiccup was getting it registered on the WD website (not amazon's fault).

Drive is perfectly fast, runs quietly and I have had no problems with it. I've seen a lot of reviews from people receiving dead or faulty drives but mine works just fine.

Just from the weight of the drive i could tell it was going to be good quality, felt very solid and sturdy. Should last a good few years! performs very well too - not as well as an SSD, but for the price this is definitely the way to go. I'd rather spend a little more on a drive tha'll last years, so this is perfect

Ordered well in advance of use then found the drive was dead so I was too late to send back.

I chose this hard drive because it scored very highly on benchmarks. I was not disappointed. I'm running Windows 7 with an average amount of programmes on start-up. My pc boots to a use-able desktop in 14 seconds.One problem, the packaging needs some attention. It came in a box no bigger than the hdd itself with no additional packaging to cushion it from knocks. It could have been so easily rendered useless during transit.

Early days but worked perfectly from the box. Quiet and quick. Good price for a quality disc with 5 years warranty. I will update if problems.

Kurz zum Anfang: Versand super! Sonntag Abend bestellt und Dienstag mittag war sie da. Und was ich sehr begrüße: Die Verpackung. In den Karton hätten bestimmt 10 Festpaltten reingepasst aber war komplett mit Luftkissen ausgefüllt um die eine Platte zu schützen. Also so wünsch ich mir das für immer :-)Zur Platte selbst: Ich hab die Platte jetzt 2 Tage im Einsatz und bin bis jetzt begeistert! Sie ist soweit super leise ausser beim starten des PC's. Da hört man sie nur ganz kurz anlaufen. Aber sonst höre ich wirklich nichts von ihr im Betrieb.Auf der Platte habe ich mein Windows und Spiele installiert (Gaming-PC) und ich bin von der Geschwindigkeit begeistert für eine HDD. Sie kommt nicht an eine SSD ran aber trotzdem recht flott :-) Für mich super! Da ich zu geizig bin für eine SSD und nicht soviel Wert auf Ladezeiten im Spiel lege ist sie perfekt für mich! Also es lohnt sich die knapp 60€ auszugeben und keine für 40-50€ zu kaufen. Ich erinnere daran das ich sie erst zwei Tage benutze! Sollte ich etwas negatives bemerken teile ich es sofort mit aber bis jetzt kann ich nur sagen: PC-Freunde, ihr könnt mit ruhigen Gewissen zugreifen!

WD Is always my favorite HDD going back years!, this not only has amazing transfer speeds thanks to the SATA III (6 Gb/s Speeds) technology-but also the WD Cavier BLACK EDITION 500GB with an amazing super fast 64MB Cache makes this the BEST HDD (Leaving SSD's Out Of This) in the market today! Coming in many ranges from the 500GB to the 1TB+ (BLUE & BLACK 64 MB CACHE DRIVES) his is by far the best choice for any PC ENTHUSIAST / GAMER for their Backup Storage & Installs of their GAMES in the market today! (( OF COURSE THIS IS ONLY BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE WITH WD PRODUCTS, & HOW I FEEL THE OVERALL QUALITY, DURABILITY & TECHNOLOGY THEY'VE IMPLIMENTED INTO THEIR HIGH LINE DRIVES OR ANY DRIVE I'VE OWNED FOR THAT MATTER AND TOO COMPARED TO THE MANY OTHER BRANDS, I.e SEAGATE, IVE NEVER HAD WD HDD FAIL DUE TO THE AMOUNT OF USE AND STRESS I PUT ON MY DRIVES DUE TO GAMING, ETC. IN THE LONG RUN THE FAIL RATE IS SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN ALL OTHER BRANDS IVE USED IN TERMS OF THEIR LONGEVITY & LIFESPAN)) - Also keep in mind even the lower end 320GB 16MB Cache BLUE models, even GREEN are all just great products regardless., It simply depends on how you use your HDD's (For me simply for Backing UP & Even INSTALL OF MY GAMES ON THE BLUE/BLACK 64 MB CACHE MODELS, But even the lower end models are still my choice for backup,,media, cloning, image backups and more.) - They come typically in a 8-16, 32,64MB Cache in this CAVIAR Models & in Many Ranges of DRIVE SIZES, the GREEN, BLUE & BLACK Models but yet all reliable and some!. So if your needing a DRIVE that's highly dependable, easy to work with and has a whole lot of WD Programs then WD should be the @1 Choice / Consideration for your HDD Needs Overall! I typically get the 350-500 (NEW) GB Base Models like these for backups, but even better is the the amazing quality their BLUE/BLACK 64MB Cache Models I use that too are at GREAT Prices and just PERFECT for all your GAMING related needs in conjunction with a good SSD drive to install your OS too, Simply put for the quality, durability, and range of Drive options it simply boils down for me to the PRICE to PERFORMANCE Value FACTOR when going with my WD HDD's.. Ill continue to be a loyal customer of WD Products for all my Drive needs (SSD is a different story) - I also must mention the expedited and fast shipping that AMAZON always delivers on. Thanx again and I hope this is helpful for anyone looking for Hard Drive options.Jason C (UTAH)

Good

Cumple las funciones de manera correcta. Tiene 5 años de garantía fundamental. He comprado este disco mientras me tramitaban la garantía desde WD. Lo había comprado en 2012 y ahora tengo disco duro nuevo.Totalmente recomendable

Really good drive. Bought alongside a new SSD to use as my storage drive. I could have gotten away with a slower drive for my purpose but I prefer the best. Spend the extra few bucks if you go the HDD route and just get this, you won't regret it. It's lightning fast for a HDD and very quiet.To put it in comparison, it's lightening fast compared to the 6 year old Seagate HDD I just replaced (starting to slow down and die) ... but still nowhere near the speed of my new WD Blue SSD.