Recently Western Digital was able to show that they were well on their way towards recovering from the disastrous flooding in Thailand. Their lineup was reinvigorated by the introduction of an ultra fast VelociRaptor and the new RE series which pushed capacities to the astounding 4TB mark. Throughout this year, Western Digital moved forward on a number of fronts but the popular consumer-oriented Black series remained untouched but that all changed about two weeks ago when the Black Edition 4TB was unveiled.

The Black Edition 4TB (which is sold under the WD4001FAEX moniker) is currently considered Western Digital’s flagship model despite there being more expensive and higher performing drives in their lineup. Simply put, the Blacks are supposed to be the optimal combination of performance and capacity for the enthusiast market and this new model’s price reflects this mentality. At $339 it may be only $40 more than the 3TB version and a bit less than two Black Edition 2TB drives but the Black 4TB still represents a substantial investment. However, the competition currently doesn’t have anything that can compare in this capacity segment and the Black is still a good $120 less than the 4TB RE drive