Sourced for enterprise IT teams, the Western Digital WD5003AZEX-B2 (WD5003AZEX-B2 - Western Digital Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Hard Drive) is a Desktop Hard Drive component appropriate for new-build, expansion, or warranty-replacement procurement. Technical specifications include spindle speed of 7,200 RPM, form factor of 3.5-inch, interface of SATA, data rate of 6 Gb/s, cache of 64MB. Appropriate for OS boot tier (Windows Server, RHEL, Ubuntu Server, ESXi), application data tier, database log volumes, and tier-2 capacity in mixed-storage clusters. Pro Disk Network supplies the WD5003AZEX-B2 to US business buyers. Stocked units ship same-day on in-stock orders placed before 3pm ET. Pro Disk Network applies a 90-day functional warranty. Free US ground shipping on orders over $150; same-day expedited (UPS Next Day Air, FedEx Priority) available at checkout.
The WD5003AZEX-B2 is a Western Digital desktop hard drive component with spindle speed 7,200 RPM, form factor 3.5-inch, interface SATA. Pricing on the WD5003AZEX-B2 is quote-based — email sales@prodisknetwork.com or use our live chat for a quote within one business day.
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Reviewed by:Pro Disk Network Engineering Team — . Specifications, compatibility, and pricing for the WD5003AZEX-B2 are shown on this page.
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Same-Day US Shipping — orders before 3pm ET ship today via UPS
30-Day Returns — pre-paid label on DOA and defective items
Quick Answer: Will the WD5003AZEX-B2 work with my RAID controller?
The WD5003AZEX-B2 operates with any standard SAS/SATA/NVMe-compatible RAID controller (Dell PERC, HPE Smart Array, LSI/Broadcom MegaRAID, Adaptec, IBM ServeRAID, Lenovo ThinkSystem RAID). Mixing this drive in the same RAID volume with drives of different speed/capacity is supported but never recommended.
How fast does the WD5003AZEX-B2 ship?
WD5003AZEX-B2 orders placed before 3 pm ET ship the same business day from US warehouses. Delivery is next business day to most metro ZIPs via FedEx/UPS overnight; ground delivery covers remaining US in 1-4 business days.
The WD5003AZEX-B2 is deployed by US enterprises, MSPs, government, and education customers across multiple infrastructure scenarios. Below are the most common deployment patterns Pro Disk Network sees in real-world orders.
Veeam Backup Repository — Cost-optimised backup target for Veeam B&R, Rubrik, or Cohesity primary backup tier. RAID 6 over 8–24 drives delivers 100+ TB usable per server.
Splunk Warm/Cold Tier — Appropriate for Splunk warm/cold/frozen indexes where ingest write rates are below 200 MB/s per node. Avoid for hot-tier indexes — use NVMe instead.
File Server / SMB Shares — General-purpose Windows Server / Samba shares for departmental file storage. RAID 5 for capacity, RAID 10 for IOPS-sensitive workloads.
Object Storage (Ceph / MinIO) — JBOD presentation behind Ceph OSDs or MinIO erasure-coded pools. Mix with NVMe metadata drives for production object stores.
What is the WD5003AZEX-B2?
The WD5003AZEX-B2 is a Western Digital enterprise-grade hard drive with spindle speed 7,200 RPM and form factor 3.5-inch, manufactured by Western Digital. Pro Disk Network ships this part new and certified-refurbished from our US warehouse with same-day dispatch on orders placed before 3 PM ET, backed by a 30-day return guarantee.
Pros & Cons of WD5003AZEX-B2
Pros
Free 30-day return window covers DOA + fit issues
Cons
Not enterprise NVMe — sub-100 µs latency workloads need a different SKU
Bulk capacity is the value play, not raw IOPS
Larger orders may ship via LTL freight (signature required)
Frequently Asked Questions about WD5003AZEX-B2
Is the WD5003AZEX-B2 a genuine Western Digital part?
Yes. Pro Disk Network sources every WD5003AZEX-B2 as factory-original Western Digital inventory. New units arrive sealed in OEM packaging; refurbished units are pulled from decommissioned Western Digital servers, surface-tested, and re-warranted by Pro Disk Network for 90 days.
Will the WD5003AZEX-B2 work with my RAID controller?
The WD5003AZEX-B2 operates with any standard SAS/SATA/NVMe-compatible RAID controller (Dell PERC, HPE Smart Array, LSI/Broadcom MegaRAID, Adaptec, IBM ServeRAID, Lenovo ThinkSystem RAID). Mixing this drive in the same RAID volume with drives of different speed/capacity is supported but never recommended.
How fast does the WD5003AZEX-B2 ship?
WD5003AZEX-B2 orders placed before 3 pm ET ship the same business day from US warehouses. Delivery is next business day to most metro ZIPs via FedEx/UPS overnight; ground delivery covers remaining US in 1-4 business days.
What is the warranty on the WD5003AZEX-B2?
New WD5003AZEX-B2 units carry the full Western Digital manufacturer warranty (typically 1 to 5 years depending on product line). Refurbished and bulk-OEM units include a Pro Disk Network advance-replacement warranty (90 days refurbished). DOA replacement is free within 30 days of receipt.
Do you offer bulk pricing for the WD5003AZEX-B2?
Email sales@prodisknetwork.com with the quantity and target ship date for a quote within one business day.
Other parts that share the WD5003AZEX series prefix — useful when sourcing matched lots, hot-spare pools, or capacity-tier expansions.
WD5003AZEX — WD5003AZEX - Western Digital Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Hard Drive — $178.95
WD5003AZEX-00K1GA0 — WD5003AZEX-00K1GA0 - Western Digital Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Hard Drive — $238.13
WD5003AZEX-00K1GAO — WD5003AZEX-00K1GAO - Western Digital Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Hard Drive — $286.42
WD5003AZEX-00K3CA0 — WD5003AZEX-00K3CA0 - Western Digital Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Hard Drive — $211.00
WD5003AZEX-00MK2A0 — WD5003AZEX-00MK2A0 - Western Digital Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Hard Drive — $447.63
WD5003AZEX-00RKKA0 — WD5003AZEX-00RKKA0 - Western Digital Black 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-inch Hard Drive — $546.53
Pro Disk Network Buyer’s Guide: Desktop Hard Drive
How to Pick the Right Drive Capacity for Your Use Case
For VMware vSAN deployments, the WD5003AZEX-B2 is best deployed in the capacity tier with NVMe cache drives in front. Size the cache layer at 10% of usable capacity for write-intensive workloads and 5% for read-leaning workloads. For Veeam backup repositories, plan around 1.5× the size of your protected estate to allow for incremental forever chains plus synthetic fulls. Splunk warm tier sizing should follow the daily ingest rate × retention days × 1.6 compression overhead.
Drive Health Monitoring: SMART, Workload Rating, and Predictive Failure
For VMware ESXi 8 hosts, enable vSphere's predictive-failure analysis on the WD5003AZEX-B2 via the host's storage device list. The host queries SMART on a regular cadence and surfaces yellow/red warnings in vCenter before the drive fails outright. On Linux, use smartctl piped to your monitoring system; on Windows Server, Storage Spaces exposes health state directly in Server Manager.