Western Digital makes fast and fat portable hard drives for gamers

Western Digital today announced five external drives for gamers. The new WD_Black brand comprises four disk drives, including two Xbox-specific offerings, and one SSD.

They are designed to be fat and fast. In its release blurb WD said the products were “dedicated to gamers who face the dreaded challenge of choosing which of their favourite games to sacrifice when they reach the storage capacity limit of their gaming station.”

First, the hard disk drives;

  • P10 – 2TB – 5TB with USB 3.2 Gen 1 port and 3-year warranty. Costs $90 for 2TB to $149.99 for 5TB.
  • P10 Xbox One- 3TB – 5TB – 2 months Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. Costs $110 for 3TB or $150 for 5TB.
  • D10 – 8TB – 7,200rpm and up to 250MB/sec, 3-year warranty and active cooling (fan). Costs $200
  • D10 Xbox One – 12TB – 7,200rpm – 3 months Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. Costs $300.

The P50 solid state drive has 2TB capacity and supports USB 3.2 gen 2×2 port with speeds up to 2000MB/sec and comes with a 5-year warranty.

The P10 Game Drive for Xbox One, D10 Game Drive and 10 for Xbox One are available this quarter. The P50 Game Drive is expected to be available in calendar Q4.

Internal disk drives

We’re puzzled about what actual disk drives are inside the P10 and D10 portable products.

Examining the dimensions of the P10 and D10 products shows that the D10 drives are physically larger and that there are two P10 sizes:

Going by their physical size and larger capacities the D10 drives are 3.5-inch format products as smaller 2.5-inch format products top out well before 8TB capacities. 

It looks like the P10 range is based on 2.5-inch format drives and the 4 and 5TB models have an extra platter or two. This is why their height is 8mm larger and they weigh 0.9kg more than the 2TB product.

The P10’s spin speed isn’t revealed. We’ve asked WD what specific drives are inside the P10 products and how fast they rotate.

WD told us by mail; “Our  WD_Black P10 2.5-inch gaming drives are 5400RPM class. The 2TB is 2-platter design (7mm) and 3, 4 and 5TB are a 5-platter design (15 mm).”