WD Blue (WD40E31X) 4TB PC SSHD Review

WD phased out its Green series drives. But at the same time, WD Blue series now has a desktop SSHD drive lineup. This is the WD4031X Blue drive with 4TB drive storage capacity. This drive uses 8GB MLC NAND and a 64MB Cache.

As per WD, this drive uses a set of algorithms which tracks data usage and prioritizes part of the data which is frequently used using the 8GB NAND. One of such uses (as WD highlighted) is for gaming. With this algorithm and the 8GB NAND, it would provide lesser loading times compared to traditional hard drives. With a much larger capacity and value still towards mechanical drives (for now), gamers can keep a large amount of games stored away in the drive.

Fair enough.

SSHD concept isn’t something new. Both Seagate and WD have released its own variants in 2.5” and 3.5” form factors.

Specifications	4 TB
Hard Drive Type	WD Blue SSHD
Model Number	WD40E31X
Interface	SATA 6 GB/s
Formatted Capacity	4 TB
Form Factor	3.5-inch
Advanced Format (AF)	Yes
ROHS Compliant	Yes
Performance
Data transfer rate (max)
Buffer to host	6 GB/s
Host to/from drive (sustained)	150 MB/s
NAND Type	MLC
NAND Size (GB)	8
Cache (MB)	64
Reliability/Data Integrity
Load/unload cycles	300,000
Non-recoverable read errors per bits read	<1 in 10¹⁴
Limited warranty (years)	3
Power Management
Spinup (Max) 12VDC ±10% (A, peak)	2.8
Spinup (Max) 5VDC ±10% (A, peak)	1
Spinup (Max) (W)	38.6
Average power requirements (W)
Read/Write	6
Idle	4.75
Standby and Sleep	0.57
Environmental Specifications
Operating
Non-operating	0 to 60
Shock (Gs)	-40 to 70
Operating (2 ms, read/write)	30
Non-operating (2 ms)	350
Acoustics (dBA)
Idle	25
Seek (average)	26
Physical Dimensions
Height (in./mm, max)	1.028/25.4
Length (in./mm, max)	5.787/147
Width (in./mm, ± .01 in.)	4/101.6
Weight (lb./kg, ± 10%)	0.99/0.45

This is a 5400RPM drive and you get a usable space of 3.63TB. The operating temperature ratings is up to 60 degrees Celsius. This is good considering it can be used in mini-ITX systems even with restricted airflow and even in gaming consoles that have 3.5” bay internally- like the PlayStation 4.

There’s a thin foam between the drive and the PCB to dampen any vibration in between when in use. There’s a small thermal pad on one of the chips on the PCB.