Advertisement

Our review

The cost of the WD Black D30 is a tad on the high side, especially when you can get a bigger sized regular hard drive for less. But this is a stylish game drive that is super easy to get up and running and does what it needs to do - for the most part at least.

Pros

  • No set up required
  • Really lightweight
  • Fun military-style design

Cons

  • Annoyingly short cable length
  • Some games will not store correctly

Western Digital has been making gamer-friendly hard drives for years now, and we’ve been putting the WD Black D30 drive to the test. This is an external SSD that came to market recently.

Advertisement

Lots of gamers will be considering external drive purchases at the moment. After all, games have been getting bigger and bigger for years now, and the larger the game, the more space it will take up in your storage.

The chances are that even with a brand new console, you will need some extra storage fairly early on, so having a game drive is a must for those who like to have all their favourites lined up and ready to play.

But is the WD Black D30 a game drive that is worth buying? Keep on reading, and we’ll lay down all the essential info in our full review!

Jump to:

WD Black D30 review: summary

The WD Black D30 Game Drive SSD is here.
The WD Black D30 Game Drive SSD is here.

The cost lets this down, in all honesty. You’ll get a decent game drive with the WD Black D30, but it does not do anything better or quicker than most other major hard drives out there. It’s good, don’t get us wrong, but when you can buy just as good for a lot less, it is hard to recommend it.

What is the WD Black D30?

The WD Black D30 is a portable SSD storage drive for PC and consoles. You simply plug it into your device of choice, and away you go – you’ll have extra storage in no time! It comes in 500GB, 1TB or 2TB. We reviewed the 1TB version.

How much is the WD Black D30?

There are three different price points to be aware of here – the WD Black D30 with 500GB storage will set you back £84.99, while the 1TB version costs £129.99 and the 2TB version is costed at £229.99.

We’ll be honest, the cost here is a bit too much for us to fully recommend picking it up. At just shy of £130, the 1TB version that we tested is fairly pricey, and that is especially true when you compare it to other hard drives of the same size.

WD Black D30 design

A side-on view of the WD Black D30.
A side-on view of the WD Black D30. Western Digital

You get a military-style design here that makes it look different from most other external hard drives that are on the market. The size of this surprised us when we opened it up, it was far smaller than we imagined it to be, and it is hard to even spot on our shelf behind the PlayStation 5 that it is plugged into.

WD Black D30 features

Not a lot to say here. It does what it needs to do, and anything it comes with is essential to it working. You really just get the drive itself and a wire to connect it, but then what else do you really need?

On the wire front, it does not come with a standard hard drive connection but one that still works on consoles. Our main complaint is that the wire itself is tiny, so if you need to place it some distance from your console, you’re out of luck unless you invest in a bigger wire separately.

WD Black D30 performance

Performance-wise, for the bare basics, it does the job just fine. You get transfer speeds of around 850MB/s and 1050MB/s, and it was compatible with both our Xbox Series X and our PlayStation 5. That being said, Series X owners will have issues with getting games to load from it as while it will save them with no problem at all, the system restrictions Microsoft has put in place will cause problems for games that are upgraded for the X. Older games will work fine.

Both reading and writing files seemed to work without issue, and the aforementioned speed is more than enough to not make you feel like you are waiting an eternity for a file to copy. There are faster drives you can find, though, and some cost less, so that is definitely something to keep in mind before you decide to purchase it.

WD Black D30 setup

Will you invest in the WD Black D30?
Will you invest in the WD Black D30? Western Digital

When it comes to the setup for the WD Black D30, there is not a huge amount to say as it is simple as you would imagine. Simply connect the game drive to your console of choice, wait a few moments, and you should get a notification saying that it is ready to use – it really is that easy!

Our verdict: Should you buy the WD Black D30?

The WD Black D30 does what it needs to do for the most part, and in that sense, you could do far worse than picking this up. The main thing that will likely put you off is the price, and it would be hard to convince you otherwise when you get something that does the same thing for a fraction of the cost.

Review scores:

  • Set-up: 5 / 5
  • Design: 3.5 / 5
  • Features: 4 / 5
  • Performance: 3.5 / 5
  • Value for money: 3 / 5

Overall star rating: 3.7 / 5

Where to buy the WD Black D30

You should be able to find the WD Black D30 Game Drive from most of the usual haunts, and we know that Amazon currently has them in stock with varying storage space.

If you’re looking for a deal, check out our snazzy widget below, which should automatically pull together the best prices on the web.

Follow Radio Times Gaming on Twitter for all the latest insights, or visit our video game release schedule for all upcoming games on consoles.

Advertisement

If you’re looking for more tech reviews, don’t miss our best soundbar and best wireless earbuds round-ups.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement