Western Digital unveiled a brand-new line-up of drives catering to console and PC gamers at Gamescom this week. Capacity and speed are the name of the game as the company revealed three new external drives to join the SN750 NVMe SSD in the all-new WD_Black series.
I was able to sit down with WD before the announcement to pick their brain about what these new drives bring to the table. In their research, they discovered (and put into an infographic) that, as games have gotten increasingly larger, gamers were often having to delete other games or programs they may not have been done with. This was especially true in the console space where many gamers are limited to 500GB or 1TB, which can quickly become filled. Likewise, many of the external drives were frustratingly slow. PC gamers weren’t far off when taken as a whole, save for the fact that their storage needs were often even higher.
Enter the new WD_Black series. It’s Western Digital’s new gaming-centric series of products and we’ve already seen the aforementioned SN750, which we were impressed by for the price. Joining it are the new P10, P50, and D10 Game Drives.
- WD_Black P10 Game Drive ($89.99 - $149.99, 2-5TB capacities):
- HDD with up to 5TB holds up to 125 games
- Portable form factor with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port
- High-performance to optimize the console or PC gaming experience
- Three-year limited warranty
- WD_Black P50 Game (Pricing TBA):
- SSD featuring a first-to-industry USB 3.2 gen 2x2 port for a game drive with speeds up to 2000 MB/s
- Up to 2TB of additional storage to keep cherished games and save new ones
- Five-year limited warranty
- WD_Black D10 Game Drive ($199.99, 8TB):
- HDD comes with up to 8TB capacity holds up to 200 games
In partnership with Microsoft, WD also announced two additional Xbox-themed drives that come with free subscriptions to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which also carries over to PC.
- WD_Black D10 Game Drive for Xbox One ($299.95, 12TB):
- HDD comes with up to 12TB to save and grow an Xbox One gaming collection holds up to 300 games
- Included for free with purchase is a three-month membership of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
- Speeds up to 250MB/s* and rated at 7200RPM with active cooling technology
- Three-year limited warranty
- WD_Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One Drive ($109.99 - $149.99, 3-5TB capacities):
- HDD with up to 5TB holds up to 125 games
- Two-month membership of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate included with purchase, giving access to 100+ game titles on Xbox One and PC, as well as Xbox Gold Live
- High-performance to help optimize the Xbox One gaming experience
- Three-year limited warranty
*Pricing added to quotes by MMORPG.com
There are a few unique features and design decisions that do make these stand out from other external drives. The most visible is that each use aluminum in their enclosures for heat dispersion and a unique style. This is especially important for the P50, which connects an NVMe to a SuperSpeed USB and assuredly generates a good amount of heat. Others we’ve used, like the small Orico NVMe Enclosure, didn’t have the surface area to dissipate that heat energy enough and were too hot to touch after benchmarking. Here, the larger surface area looks very likely to help that issue and, just as importantly, act as a deterrent to thermal throttling.
The D10 also adds a pair of 7.5W USB charging ports for juicing up your cell phone or charging a controller and is made to be positioned vertically or horizontally to easily integrate into your setup.
Both versions of the P10 and D10 are planned to release this quarter while the P50 is targeted for a Q4 sale date. Find them at your favorite e-tailer, retailer, or at the WD Store.
