WD Black D10 Game Drive for Xbox 12TB Review

TweakTown's Rating: 91%

The Bottom Line

With the D10 for Xbox, WD has built a class leading high capacity solution for those that are tired of uninstalling games to save space!

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Western Digital is coming on strong in the second half of 2019, offering first its P10 portable game drive in several capacities and now the D10. We have the larger WD_Black D10 for Xbox that has a top capacity of 12TB. Read on as we take a look.

For the longest time, Seagate had the "Game Drive" market captured with its portable and desktop solutions. Now with the entry of the P10, D10, and later this year, the P50, WD is fighting back with capacity and performance.

The D10 for Xbox takes the crown for the highest capacity solution offering 12TB in a 3.5" desktop drive form factor. It's also not too shabby in performance either, boasting a solid 240 MB/s read and write speed. WD says the 12TB D10 can hold up to 300 games. Value-added features include three months of Game Pass Ultimate, which gives you Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass access on PC and Xbox.

MSRP of the 12TB WD_BLACK D10 comes in at $299.99 with a three-year warranty.

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Packaging for the D10 clearly outlines the Xbox partnership with a black and green color scheme. Capacity and performance are listed top right.

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The back goes into more with contents and warranty.

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Unboxing, we find the D10 with a power adapter and USB 3.0 cable.

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The backside offers two ports for charging controllers and the input for data. At the top, we have a cooling fan for the internal drive.

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WD did not skimp on the D10, offering up a HGST Ultrastar DC HC520 for this solution.

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Factory formatting is setup NTFS, ready for Xbox. Useable capacity sits at 10.9TB.

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Running a quick few benches with the D10, we reach 244 MB/s read and 244 MB/s write.

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Looking a little closer at file sizes, the D10 does best with 64k and greater reaching its full 230 MB/s read and write.

I applaud WD for jumping in full on with its "Game Drive" lineup as the first two solutions have been fantastic in both design and functionality. Build quality appears to be quite good on the D10 platform, too, with a plastic chassis cutout for airflow and edgy design.

Performance is class-leading for the D10, with the 12TB Xbox model easily topping 240 MB/s read and write in our testing. For comparison, this is 70 MB/s quicker than the Seagate Game Drive Hub.

Into pricing, WD is looking pretty strong, with its 12TB Xbox offering coming in at $299.99. Taking into consideration the drive used, I must say this is a solid option for backup Xbox users or not.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair VIII Formula X570 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 3600 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H60 (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Carbide 275R (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)