Page 10 - Conclusion
When it comes to hard drives, Western Digital and Seagate has been great competitors in the last little while. In fact, in the end of my Seagate Desktop SSHD ST4000DX001 4TB review a few months ago, I have alluded to the Western Digital Blue SSHD WD40E31X 4TB, and guess what? Here we are today with both drives in our hands, with performance data collected for both hybrid drives. Based on the benchmark results, it is hard to define a clear winner. In uncached mode, Seagate's entry delivered better linear performance for better results in synthetic benchmarks compared to Western Digital's SSHD. Furthermore, its higher spindle speed -- 5900RPM versus WD Blue's 5400RPM -- gave it a slight advantage in PassMark PerformanceTest's advanced workload simulations. Seagate's HDD small file transfer rate is some of the best in the industry, and the ST4000DX001 was no exception. However, when it comes down to real world desktop workload tests, Western Digital's Blue SSHD WD40E31X 4TB started to flex its muscles. Not only did it hold its own against the Seagate Desktop SSHD in uncached mode, when caching kicked in, it either matched or considerably outperformed the Seagate in every test. Simply put, the ST4000DX001 is a better raw desktop drive, but the WD40E31X is a better SSHD. The WD40E31X is also about 20% more power efficient than the ST4000DX001, which is significant. My only complaint, like I have said in my Seagate Desktop SSHD review, is having 8GB of flash memory for a 4TB drive is a bit stingy in 2015. A cache miss means your SSHD is no better than a regular HDD. Retailing for $175 at press time, the Western Digital Blue SSHD is $25 more than its direct competitor from Seagate. But if power consumption is important to you, and you want something that performs better as an SSHD in regular desktop workloads, then the WD40E31X is the drive to buy.
Western Digital provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH:Renewal Award
Since April 30, 2007, Number Ratings have been dropped for all CPUs, motherboards, RAM, SSD/HDDs, and graphics cards. This is to ensure the most appropriate ratings are reflected without the inherent limits of using numbers. Everything else will continue using the Number Rating System.
More information in our Review Focus.
The Western Digital Blue SSHD WD40E31X 4TB is a power efficient solid state hybrid drive that delivers great performance in regular desktop usage.
Do you have any comments or questions about the Western Digital Blue SSHD WD40E31X 4TB? Drop by our Forums. Registration is free, and it only takes a minute!
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 8.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark 7
10. Conclusion
