So many of these reviews say the drives are old (pass their 5 year warranty). Is this true?

We've purchased over 100 WD Black drives over the past 10 years. One of 100 was DOA and replaced by Amazon within 5 days of the date we requested RMA. I was involved in a malware remediation project for a Fortune 100 company that mandated disposal and replacement of 30,00 desktop drivers (worldwide). We replaced all with WD Blacks. That was 4+ years ago and we continue to maintain a contract with the company. I just asked the IT Director over Thanksgiving dinner how many of those drives have failed and was told less than 1.75% as of October 1st this year (2017). I do prefer WDs SSDs for our workstations that that we use for virtualization purposes (and gaming) but for desktop storage WD Blacks are still our preference. But, one of our techs is in the process of benchmarking drives and gathering data for our next storage cost-benefit analysis coming up in February. So it's possible that we could move to another manufacturer; however, I have no reason to believe that will be the case. Based solely on my experience. Others may disagree. But based on the extremely low RMA count AND the timely replacement of DOA or failed drives under warranty, I'm a firm vote of "YES" for WD Black drives. Please note that this is NOT true of their "Blue" products. Good luck!

Why is this particular model about one-half the price of the following model: Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM?

WD2002FAEX vs WD2003FZEXThe FZEX uses Advanced Format 4k sectors, faster on modern OSs (Windows 7, Vista SP1 and above); FAEX uses 512byte sectors (good XP and below). FZEX uses 800GB platters (higher density platters mean faster drive response time; fewer platters means less head contention when retrieving data (also faster retrieval rate); FAEX uses 500GB platters. The FZEX also has improved dual-core processor and other controller and firmware improvements. All of these make this drive faster than the older model. It still has the same dual actuators and bearings at both ends of the spindle (typical caviar black configuration).SATA 3GB vs SATA 6GB is irrelevant for 7200RPM hard drives, they can;t max out a 3GB connection, so the addition of the 6GB connection is purely for systems compatibility issues.What does all this mean? The FZEX is 20% (to 40% depending on data profile) faster than the FAEX. Plus it has a 5yr warranty (as does the FAEX), it is the same higher quality caviar black model line (dual actuators, bearing on both ends of the spindles, etc) than the red, green, or other low end drives with 2/3 yr warranties. You can tell how good the drive is based on the length of the warranty, thats how much money the manufacturer is willing to put behind the quality of the drive.

Please purchase mounting hardware and cables separately if necessary. What do I need?

You will need a mounting rail for the drive (with screws) to secure it in the computer, similar to http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Universal-Mounting-Bracket-BRACKET/dp/B0001UZQWG/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1402791368&sr=1-2&keywords=hard+drive+mounting+rail+kita SATA cable to connect to your motherboard if you do not have an extra available, such as: http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-18-Inch-Locking-90-Degree-108783/dp/B009GUXU52/ref=pd_sim_pc_23?ie=UTF8&refRID=1039H3T1A80RRZ6K7P7H,and an available power plug or Y-cable (the white 4 pin or 6-pin) depending on what power cables your computer has, again depending on whether your computer has an extra alreadyhttp://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-PYO2SATA-Power-Splitter-Adapter/dp/B002N2EHVQ/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1402791237&sr=1-4&keywords=computer+power+y+cableorhttp://www.amazon.com/Computer-Molex-Power-Supply-Splitter/dp/B001PI9AAC/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1402791237&sr=1-3&keywords=computer+power+y+cableYour computer may already have a full width cable internally, in which case it will provide both power and communication

Is everything I need to install this drive in my desktop included in the package.

It only includes the drive. You have to make sure you have a SATA cable available. You also need screws, but it depends on your PC. Many new PC's do not use screws anymore. Instead they you reataining clips and brackets.On the otherhand, if you are replacing a bad drive, then you can just swap this one in its place.

Brand	WD_BLACK
Manufacturer	Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
Series	Gaming Hard Drive
Colour	Black
Form Factor	3.5-inch
Item Height	1.03 Inches
Item Width	4 Inches
Product Dimensions	14.7 x 10.16 x 2.61 cm; 748.43 Grams
Item model number	WD8002FZWX
Hard Drive Size	8 TB
Hard Disk Description	Mechanical Hard Disk
Hard Drive Interface	Serial ATA-600
Hard Disk Rotational Speed	7200 RPM
Hardware Platform	PC, Mac
Are Batteries Included	No
Included Components	Gaming hard drive, Acronis True Image WD Edition Software, Quick Install guide
Manufacturer	Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
Country of Origin	China
Item Weight	748 g

WD_BLACK 8TB Gaming Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 128 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD8002FZWX

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