Western Digital Desktop Hard Drive (WD5003AZEX)
Next-generation desktop performance, designed to intensify your PC experience.
For the Gamer…
Smarter than the average drive
Performance and workstation PCs equipped with high-end components often omit vibrations and acoustics that can reduce the precision and performance of your hard drive. Even the best chassis on the market cannot always compensate against this. The new generation of WD Black hard drives feature Vibration Control Technology (VCT) which allows the disks inside the drive to adapt to any mounting problems or vibration conditions that are inside your case, resulting in increased data accuracy, performance and reliability over time. Put simply, this means you can game harder, faster and longer.
For the Enthusiast…
Action meets stable traction
In addition to Vibration Control Technology (VCT), WD Black is also equipped with StableTrac Technology, which secures the motor shaft inside the drive at both ends to help reduce additional system-induced vibrations. StableTrac confidently stabilizes the platters inside, resulting in more accurate tracking in a particular sector during read and write operations and delivers increased performance. (2 TB models and above)
For the Creative Pro…
High resolution for a high definition world
Underlying its athletic stance of performance and capacity, WD Black features a new High Resolution Controller (HRC) with an improved architectural design, resulting in increased data precision across the hard drive. This translates to superior responsiveness evolving your high definition world to the next level.
Product Features
Inspiring performance and capacity
For the creators, the gamers and those that demand the best, we delivered the next generation of hard drives to enlarge your PC playground. The latest WD Black desktop hard drives offer enhanced features that maximize system performance, allowing you to spend more time doing what you love most and less time waiting. WD Black is designed to intensify your PC experience with generous capacity and incredible performance, pushing the boundaries of personalization.
Protecting your moments
The worst thing that can happen during a rendering process is losing data due to power fluctuation or power failure. The new generation of WD Black hard drives is equipped with Corruption Protection Technology (CPT), which helps to protect and limit the potential problem of data loss during power failure or power loss to the hard drive. Overall, Corruption Protection Technology can save you time and money on your project.
Dynamic Cache
WD's dynamic caching algorithm improves performance in real time by optimizing cache allocation between reads and writes. For example, if there's an overwhelming percentage of read traffic as opposed to write traffic, the drive automatically allocates more cache for read data, which reduces congestion and improves overall drive performance.
NoTouch Ramp Load technology
The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
The WD advantage
WD puts our products through extensive Functional Integrity Testing (F.I.T.) prior to any product launch. On average, each new product goes through 600,000 hours of testing. WD also has a detailed Knowledge Base with more than 1,000 helpful articles. You can also call toll-free support 7 days per week in the U.S. and Canada. See the WD Support site for full details.
Upgrading your drive is easy
WD Acronis TrueImage, available as a free download on the WD Support site, enables you to copy all your data to a new drive so you don't have to reinstall your operating system to get all the benefits of a new drive.
Ideal for:
- Desktops
- High-performance workstations
- All-In-One PCs
- Gaming PCs
- Gaming consoles
- Home Media PCs
Features at a glance
- Next-generation desktop performance hard drive designed to intensify your PC experience
- Inspiring performance and up to 4 TB massive capacity
- Improved Architectural Designs: Dual Core Processor, High Resolution Controller (HRC), StableTrac Technology
- Improved Data Protection: Vibration Control Technology (VCT), Corruption Protection Technology (CPT), NoTouch Ramp Load Technology
- Superior responsiveness with the next-generation speed that you need
WD-certified packaging
All WD drives purchased from Amazon.com are shipped in WD-certified hard drive packaging. It is designed and fully tested to provide WD products with the highest of safety while in transit. With WD-certified packaging, you can rest assured that your WD hard drive will arrive safely, fully protected, in a non-descript, easy-open package.
Recommended use
WD Black hard drives are tested and recommended for use in PCs, high-performance workstations, all-in-one PCs, gaming PCs, game consoles and home media PCs.*
*Desktop drives are not recommended for use in RAID environments, please consider using WD Red hard drives for personal/small/home office, 1-8 bay NAS systems and WD Red Pro hard drives for medium to large size business, 8-16 bay NAS systems.
You might also consider:
3.5-inch Internal
Comparison Chart | 
WD Blue | 
WD Green | 
WD Black | 
WD Red |
WD Red Pro | 
WD Purple |
| Solid performance
and reliability for everyday computing. | Cool, quiet operation with massive capacity. | Maximum performance
for power computing. | The right drive for personal, home
or small office NAS. | The right drive for medium or large business NAS. | Built for personal, home office or small business surveillance systems using up to 32 cameras. |
| Ideal for | Family and business computing. | Desktop PCs, secondary storage and external drives. | Photo and video editing, and maxed out gaming systems. | Specifically designed and tested for personal, small and home office, 1-8 bay NAS. | Designed and built for medium and large business, 8-16 bay NAS systems. | Home / SOHO / SMB |
| Capacity range | 80 GB – 1 TB | 500 GB – 6 TB | 500 GB – 4 TB | 1 TB – 6 TB | 2 TB – 4 TB | 1 TB – 4 TB |
| Interface | SATA 6 Gb/s
PATA 100 MB/s | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Form factor | 3.5-inch | 3.5-inch | 3.5-inch | 3.5-inch | 3.5-inch | 3.5-inch |
| Cache | 8 MB – 64 MB | 64 MB | 32 MB – 64 MB | 64 MB | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Highest capacity | |  | | | | |
| Highest performance | | | | | | |
| Photo/video editing | | | | | | |
| Network Storage Systems | | | | | | |
| Video Surveillance | | | | | | |
