4 TB Desktop Hard Drives

The 4 TB desktop hard drives here are the WD Blue WD40EZAX and the Seagate BarraCuda ST4000DM004. Both are 3.5 inch SATA drives that spin at 5400 RPM with a 256MB cache. They are built for bulk storage in a desktop: game libraries, photo and video archives, and backups. WD and Seagate each cover their drive with a 2 year warranty.

On paper the two are almost identical, so the choice mostly comes down to brand preference. WD lists low power consumption for the WD Blue, and Seagate lists its Multi-Tier Caching Technology for the BarraCuda. Either drive needs a free 3.5 inch bay, a SATA data port and a SATA power connector.

Frequently asked questions

Will these drives fit a laptop? No. They are 3.5 inch desktop drives. In a laptop they work only through an external enclosure that has its own power supply.

Is a 5400 RPM drive fine for games? It is fine for storing a game library. Keep Windows and the games you play often on an SSD, because loading times are much shorter there.