WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review

WD expands its portable lineup with a new XBOX-themed member of the famed WD Black line of solid state storage offerings.

Published
Manufacturer: Western Digital (WDBAMF0010BBW-WESN)
2 minutes & 47 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 88%
TweakTown award

The Bottom Line

XBOX themed storage expansion and a 30 day game pass are just what the console doctor ordered.

Introduction & Drive Details

When something from Western Digital is designated WD Black, it tells you the product is held to WD's highest performance standards. On our bench today, we have the newest member of the WD Black family, the WD Black D30. This is a portable SSD capable of delivering up to 900 MB/s sequential throughput.

The device has at its heart a WD SN550E NVMe SSD. The SN550E is a DRAMless PCIE Gen 4 SSD with a four-channel NVMe controller in front of a BiCS 4 TLC flash array. The drive is capable of over 2000 MB/s throughput but is, of course, throughput limited by its USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface to roughly 900 MB/s, again depending upon host device capabilities.

The WD Black D30 portable SSD is available in two options. One is a standard PC portable device, and the other is an XBOX-themed version of the same. The XBOX version is what we have to show you today. It is differentiated from the standard PC version by its color scheme and its Included 1-month membership of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with access to 100+ games on consoles and PC, plus online console multiplayer.

Enclosure Details

WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 01
WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 02

The WD Black D30 1TB XBOX edition is retailing for around $170 or $20 more than the 1TB PC variant, meaning that that "free pass" is actually costing you $20.

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As you can see from the box, it comes with a stand to hold it vertical if that is your desire. The enclosure itself is all plastic and features a single USB Type-C port. Included with the D30 is a USB Type-C to A cable.

Jon's Test System Specifications - Intel NUC 11 Pro

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Note: For USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 SSDs, we test on our Z590 system set to match our Intel NUC 11 specs (4.8GHz, 8-threads, DDR4 3200, balanced power plan).

Buy at Amazon

WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$99.99$101.39$104.99
* Prices last scanned on 3/18/2024 at 10:14 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, ATTO & Blackmagic

CrystalDiskMark

WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 11
WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 12WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 13

Our CDM testing confirms WD's stated throughput of up to 900 MB/s. Sequential writes are fairly stout, as is QD1 random performance. Not bad at all, considering this is USB Type-A limited.

ATTO

WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 14
WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 15WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 16

The D30 1TB is serving up exactly what we are looking for when we run ATTO. Full speed at 128KB transfers and a good consistent pattern that doesn't show any hiccups along the way. Excellent.

Blackmagic

WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 17
WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 18WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 19

Blackmagic shows the D30 to be a capable device up to 2160p 30 fps if you should choose to employ it for video production duties.

Real-World Testing: PCMark 10 & Transfer Rates

PCMark 10 Data Drive Benchmark

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PCMark 10 provides real-world type performance data that closely simulates actual user experience. The D30 delivers as expected for a DRAMless solution.

Transfer Rates

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We brutalize our test subjects with our extremely hard-to-swallow 100GB data block. This data block is the same one we use for our internal SSD testing and is composed of more than 62K files. This test exposes the weakness of DRAMless SSDs when dealing with a huge chunk of data. The P50 has onboard DRAM, and the D30 is DRAMless. However, we don't really see this as much of a problem if the D30 is used for game storage, as waiting an extra few minutes for a large transfer is typically an infrequent occurrence.

Read performance is something that we do care about all the time, and the D30 delivers quite respectably here. This is where we want it, and this is where the D30 steps up to the plate. Nice.

Final Thoughts

The WD Black D30 1TB has, in our opinion, shown itself to be a competent performer. The design of the drive is attractive in appearance, although a bit on the thick side. The D30 is perfectly suited for its role as a portable gaming drive due to its excellent read performance, which exceeds that of your XBOX USB throughput. The 1TB WD Black D30 performs well enough to earn a coveted TweakTown Award.

WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD Review 27

Pros

  • Sequential Speeds
  • Portability
  • 3-year warranty

Cons

  • Oversized Plastic Enclosure
Photo of product for sale

Performance

90%

Quality

85%

Features

90%

Value

85%

Overall

88%

The Bottom Line

XBOX themed storage expansion and a 30 day game pass are just what the console doctor ordered.

TweakTown award
88%

WD Black D30 XBOX Edition 1TB Portable SSD

TodayYesterday7 days ago30 days ago
$99.99$101.39$104.99
* Prices last scanned on 3/18/2024 at 10:14 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Jon joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new storage products. Jon became a computer enthusiast when Windows XP launched. He was into water cooling and benching ATI video cards with modded drivers. Jon has been building computers for others for more than 10 years. Jon became a storage enthusiast the day he first booted an Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD. Look for Jon to bring consumer SSD reviews into the spotlight.

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