WD Blue 4TB Gaming 1 sec freeze every 1-2 min

[jessefgraham]

Issue
I have a WD Blue 4TB drive that I use for gaming, and just purchased it a couple of months ago. Old games from 2009 up to new games 2017 all have the same issue; every couple of minutes there is a 1 second freeze. The video completely stops for 1 second, then comes back as if nothing happened.

Specs
Z97-A
Intel Core I7 4790k 4.0GHz (no overclocking)
8GB DDR3
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Corsair Force GT 180 GB - For OS and most played games
WD WD10EACS-00D6B1 Green 1TB - Used to have most games on it
WDC WD30EZRX-00DC0B0 Green 3TB - Backup Drive
*WD WDC WD40EZRZ-00GXCB0 Blue 4TB - New HDD with supposed issue.
WD WD80EMAZ-00WJTA0 White Label 8TB pulled from easystore - Media
Super old 640GB Seagate - Backup Drive

Story
I purchased a WD Blue 4TB HDD a couple of months ago. I had only used it to stream media, then I moved all of that content off, and installed all of my steam/origin games on it.

Keep in mind that before I put my games on the Blue HDD, I had the majority of my games installed on a WD Green 1TB (with the exception of CS:GO and DOTA2, which were on my SSD). So needless to say, the performance is way, way better on my Blue. Load times feel 3x faster on Blue, and according to CrystalDiskMark it's 2.5x faster. I've also had games installed on my super old Seagate. Neither the Green 1TB, nor the super old seagate had a freezing issue. Yes they loaded slow, but they never froze consistently like this.

Troubleshooting
Ran Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, found no issues.
Ran Crystal Disk Info, found no issues.
Ran HD Tune Pro, found no issues.
Contacted WD support who tried to tell me I can't do gaming on a Blue. I punched them in the face with the following steps:
1. Uninstalled CS:GO from my Blue, installed it on my SSD, issue is not replicated.
2. Uninstalled CS:GO from my SSD, installed it on my White Label (5400 RPM just like my Blue), issue is not replicated.
3. Uninstalled CS:GO from my White, installed back on Blue, swapped power and SATA data cable between Blue and SSD, issue is replicated with those different cables.
4. Tried 5 other games, they had the same issue, but CS:GO it happened the most consistently. Every 1-2 mintues.
5. Defrag'ed the Blue, issue persists.

I haven't thought to format the Blue yet, so I will try that tonight.
I also haven't unplugged all of the other drives (except SSD for OS and Blue for the test), to see if my mobo is having issues or something.

I don't want to RMA until i've tried absolutely everything.
Any ideas what could be causing this?
I also want to know if you guys are gaming on HD Blue and have had any issues.

 

[JaredDM]

Check your power settings to be sure Windows isn't trying to put the drive to sleep. It could be something as stupid as that causing your issue.

 

[jessefgraham]

Check your power settings to be sure Windows isn't trying to put the drive to sleep. It could be something as stupid as that causing your issue.

Thanks for the suggestion. The power settings are set to Never let a hard drive sleep. I changed it to 300 just for fun to see if it behaves differently.