WD Black 2TB showing as Sata 2

[johnleonard]

Interesting issue.
My New WD Black is the WD2003FREX and WD does not manufacture a Sata 2 version. They are all Sata 3
My Motherboard is the Gigabyte Aorus 370 Gaming 7 and I have tested the drive in every sata port.
Speccy, Crystal Disk Info, Intel RST and Samsung magician all show the correct serial number correct firmware serial number etc but identify it as Sata 2.
I have also moved the drive to test on a second PC with a hot swap bay Sata 3 but once again it is seen as Sata 2.
This results in a lower data transfer speed which is annoying as it is purchased to be a backup for my 2 older 2012 WD 1TB Blues.
Benchmarks show the Blues as Sata 3 and the read write speed of a Blue is tested this morning was Read 169 and write 142.
The WD 2TB Black however was Read 148 and Write 143
My Second Blue scored much lower but is also filled with small files documents etc etc and is 70% full. Read 134 and write 128
I happen to know the bench marks as WD support asked me to send them screenshots.
Other than this the drive is very quiet, no noise as reported in some forums. Temps are a OK but it does move towards the 50c average temps 47c. This should be fine but the blues thanks to the Sata 3 interface even after 6 years of use are quite exceptional.
My query is might I have a similar issue as reported a few years ago with another series of WD sata 3's that had a batch where people needed to use a USB drive and boot into a DOS environment to remedy a firmware issue ?
Those were the WD FAEX series.
So have I simply been unlucky or does anyone else have a similar issue. ?

 

[USAFRet]

With a spinning hard drive, SATA II or SATA III does not matter.
The drive cannot saturate that bandwidth.

Like if you have a car with a 90mph top speed.
It does not matter if the road has a speed limit of 100mph or 150mph. The car can only do 90.

 

[johnleonard]

Thats is not the issue.
My MB does not even have Sata 2 but 6 x Sata 3.
That the Brand new WD Black Product manufactured February 2018 touted as a speed king is currently running 26MB/s slower than my old November 2012 WD Blues is the isssue.
WD Black Spec sheet says Read and Write speeds of 164MB/s Sustained write buffer to host.
WD specs are always on the conservative side to avoid countless people complaining that they cannot reach that speed. My WD Blue spec sheet states 150 MB/s but I can read at 169 MB/s
So the end result is that a new drive for my steam games library is going to be slower than the older out of warranty drives I am replacing.

 

[USAFRet]

Have you run the WD diagnostic suite on this drive?
WD DataLifeguard

 

[johnleonard]

Yes and it passed the tests.
After the tests I copied over 1TB of data. My Steam games library as it was split over two other drives.
The WD Black is my security should one of the older drives fail as they have been in constant use for almost 6 years.
Interestingly they also passed the tests but no warranty and logic says replace before disaster.
WD support said it might be the motherboard but thats just a shot in the dark from support.
I have the Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 and it happily pushes my WD Blues to their limit.
Just so strange that the Drive is seen on two different PC's and with multiple apps as Sata 2.
Anyways the long slog of data copying is done. It could have been faster but thats life.
Maybe the same issue appears for more people as it did with the older FAEX series and then someone finds a solution.