Release date: Q4 2010.

Real World Speed
Performance profile from 1,514,042 user samples
1,481,431 User Benchmarks
Best Bench: 108% 914GB free
Worst Bench: 51% 554GB free (System drive)
Poor: 51% Great: 108%
SPEED RANK: 66th / 1015
32,611 User Benchmarks
Best Bench: 73% 2TB free
Worst Bench: 34% 746GB free (System drive)
Poor: 34% Great: 73%
SPEED RANK: 235th / 1015
Effective Speed
Effective HDD Speed
83.6 % Much faster effective speed.
56.1 %
Avg. Sequential Read Speed
156 MB/s Much faster read speed.
102 MB/s
Avg. Sequential Write Speed
141 MB/s Much faster write speed.
97.3 MB/s
4K Read
Avg. 4K Random Read Speed
1.17 MB/s Much faster random read.
0.79 MB/s
4K Write
Avg. 4K Random Write Speed
2.41 MB/s Faster random write.
1.98 MB/s
Avg. Sequential Mixed IO Speed
86.7 MB/s Faster mixed IO speed.
70.4 MB/s
4K Mixed
Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed
1.06 MB/s Faster random mixed IO.
0.85 MB/s
Avg. Sustained Write Speed
135 MB/s Much faster sustained write speed.
92.9 MB/s
Peak Sequential Read Speed
202 MB/s Much faster peak read speed.
133 MB/s
Peak Sequential Write Speed
178 MB/s Much faster peak write speed.
126 MB/s
4K Read
Peak 4K Random Read Speed
1.5 MB/s Faster peak random read.
1.3 MB/s
4K Write
Peak 4K Random Write Speed
3 MB/s Faster peak random write.
2.4 MB/s
Peak Sequential Mixed IO Speed
113 MB/s Faster peak mixed IO speed.
96 MB/s
4K Mixed
Peak 4K Random Mixed IO Speed
1.2 MB/s Faster peak random mixed IO.
1 MB/s
Peak Sequential Sustained Write 60s Average
181 MB/s Much faster peak sustained write speed.
126 MB/s
Market Share
Based on 22,990,628 HDDs tested.
Market Share
Market Share (trailing 30 days)
11.2 % Insanely higher market share.
0.2 %
Value For Money
41.8 % Hugely better value.
22.9 %
User Rating
UBM User Rating
88 % Much more popular.
53 %
Price (score)
$40 Cheaper.
91 Months More recent.
111 Months



The WD Blue EALX (2010) is sold as an all round desktop drive. This model is nearly four years old now and can't compete against the newer competition. WD superseded this drive in 2012 with the EZEX. Comparing the EALX and EZEX reveals that the newer EZEX drive is approximately 30% faster yet both drives still retail for almost the same price. With average sequential read/write speeds of 109/97 MB/s the EALX lags the group leaders by 40%. Average small file 4K performance clocks in at 0.67/1.85 MB/s which is again around 40% slower than the top ten group leaders. With an effective speed of just 102 MB/s the 2010 WD Blue lags its peers by 34%. There are both cheaper and faster alternatives available elsewhere. [Mar '14 HDrivePro]


Hard Drive Rankings (Price vs Performance) January 2020 HDD Rankings.



Group Test Results



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