WD Black WD10S21X 1TB 5400 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5″ Solid State Hybrid Drive

Pros: I really can’t say anything bad about these wonderful little drives since I paid $0.06 per Gb. I have 2 of them running in a RAID1 config off of a dedicated RAID controller card for mass storage of all my photos, in my desktop. I have had zero issues setting them up. Windows 7 recognized them immediately. Yes, I understand the concern of the reviewer above me but the “useless” classification should really be applied to his ability to do proper research because if he had done it accordingly, he would have found out that these are SSHD’s supported by a SATA hinting protocol versus them operating like a conventional SSHD. So this means the operating system tells the drives which data gets accessed most frequently. It is not the fastest protocol and takes a while before it runs at its optimum speed but for what I need these drives, they are perfectly fine.
In addition to that the Silicon Image 3132 RAID controller I have them hooked up to supports write cashing so that gave me a further boost to my RAID config. Also for storage, mainly sequential writing, I don’t need the fastest RPM. Quite the contrary, a little slower is better to insure data integrity.
They run silent, reasonably cool so what more do you want for this price. Too bad that people go online to leave inappropriate reviews, bashing a product without any kind of merit.

Cons: No cons

Pros: 1 TB

Cons: Slow, requires WD SSHD software to access flash memory on drive, WD SSHD software does not recognize drive as SSHD so cannot be installed

Overall Review: I purchased this drive to replace an SSD that was constantly running out of space. I figured an SSHD would be a good compromise between speed and cost. After cloning my previous drive to the WD SSHD and booting up, I noticed incredibly long boots and loading, as well as unacceptably slow performance. I learned that WD SSHDs, unlike Seagate SSHDs, require software to access/unlock the SSD flash memory on the drives, and that without this software, WD SSHD drives are no better than old school hard drives. I downloaded WD’s SSHD software, but it does not recognize my drive as an SSHD, so I paid for an almost useless drive, and I could have purchased a 2TB drive for the same price. WD’s tech support was completely unhelpful in getting the WD SSHD software to install, suggesting that the hard drive might not be plugged in. I may be done with Western Digital after this fiasco.

Pros: It works as a standard 1tb hard drive, and it is a little faster than the super thick 1tb drive I got back from WD for an RMA of an older 500gb.

Cons: Does NOT function as an SSHD.

WD Boost (requirement to get SSD Cache to function) will NOT install because it doesn’t recognize this drive as being an SSHD.

This drive requires software to use SSD Cache instead of it being built into the firmware like everyone else.

Incredibly long amount of time between e-mail responses from Western Digital Support. 3 days for each response! All they did was give me useless information that I already knew by looking around online.

Overall Review: I’m dissatisfied with it’s inability to perform as expected, and lack of support from Western Digital. WD Boost is a requirement to make the SSD Cache that’s built into it function, since WD is the only company that uses software instead of firmware for their SSHD drives. Unfortunately, WD Boost does not detect this drive as being an SSHD, and it won’t install, therefore it’s not using the SSD Cache. This makes the drive pretty much the same as any other drive. I’ve emailed WD, they didn’t help.

Basically, WD has absolutely no idea how to handle SSD’s, which is why they don’t have any. They need to get on the ball or they won’t be around at all in about 10-15 years.

Pros: doesn’t take the driver it needs

Cons: i shoulda got a different drive

Overall Review: do research