Difference between blue green and black from WD?

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

So I got three hard drives on this store. WD Caviar Black for $99.98, WD Caviar Blue for $72.88. Both are 1TB drives, 7200 RPM and 64 MB cache. So what the hell is the difference? Why is there a price difference??

[Kirihuna]

Green is for power saving storage. Look start up time for the disc, and goes off automatically at times.

Blue is your basic HDD, average read time, etc.

Black is a bit faster in read time and better performance.

Red is for RAID.

 

Probably off on a bit of info, but I think that's basically the set up.

[nightlitezzz]

The colour. Also some green drives run at 5400 RPM whereas blues run at 7200 RPM. Black is basically a blue to me and is not worth the extra. I just go for blues/Seagate Barracudas. I'm not sure what cache does but I read it doesn't really matter.

[IvanSnipedYu]

The color of the sticker on the drive is different.

[wpirobotbuilder]

Green is for power saving storage. Look start up time for the disc, and goes off automatically at times.

Blue is your basic HDD, average read time, etc.

Black is a bit faster in read time and better performance.

Red is for RAID.

 

Probably off on a bit of info, but I think that's basically the set up.

 

Green is a power saving drive, good for media storage etc, spins at 5400 RPM from memory

Blue is your all rounder HDD, spins at 7200 RPM and is a faster HDD than green, if power saving isn't a concern then blue is a good pick

Black is basically a slightly faster Blue, still spins at 7200 RPM, but isn't alot faster than a blue so is hard to justify the price increase

Red is basically set up for a NAS and I would suggest a blue/green drive unless your running 3 or more drives

 

Good and good. Blacks have significantly better random read/write performance but sequential performance across all 4 types is relatively similar.

[Goldilock]

How about running WD Red as Desktop Storage used for OS, storage, and games?

 

I heard they WD Red have better build quality than blue or green. I am thinking about this route for my next build as I turn on my PC 24 hours. 

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Also, the black drives have 5 year warranty while the green and blue are 2 years.

[Glenwing]

Keep in mind WD Black drives have a 5 year warranty compared to 2 years on the Blue and on Seagate Barracudas.  Also, blue drives only go up to 1TB, so if you want a larger drive you need to get a WD Black.  WD Blacks are a little faster as well.  That's the difference there.

 

You can use a WD Red drive in a desktop but I don't see a reason to.  They are very slow, meant for conservative power usage, and they aren't exactly cheaper than a blue drive.  They are good for home servers and stuff like that.  Greens are like that too; slow (5400RPM), but quiet and low power.

 

I wouldn't worry about reliability or whatever; in my experience, any HDD can fail, or any HDD can last for a really long time.  It's mostly a matter of luck, and what mood the delivery guy was in when he puts the package at your door.

[WoodenMarker]

Keep in mind WD Black drives have a 5 year warranty compared to 2 years on the Blue and on Seagate Barracudas.  Also, blue drives only go up to 1TB, so if you want a larger drive you need to get a WD Black.  WD Blacks are a little faster as well.  That's the difference there.

 

You can use a WD Red drive in a desktop but I don't see a reason to.  They are very slow, meant for conservative power usage, and they aren't exactly cheaper than a blue drive.  They are good for home servers and stuff like that.  Greens are like that too; slow (5400RPM), but quiet and low power.

 

I wouldn't worry about reliability or whatever; in my experience, any HDD can fail, or any HDD can last for a really long time.  It's mostly a matter of luck, and what mood the delivery guy was in when he puts the package at your door.

What he said^

 

Also, WD Blacks aren't really worth the extra money and greens/reds don't perform well enough for me to recommend over other alternatives.

Seagate barracudas/blues would be my recommendation for general use--whichever is cheaper.

[Mooshi]

I've heard blacks are loud so I think the Blue's would be the best solution if this is going to be a storage drive.

[Alex(PlayMedium)]

If you have a boot-ssd, get a green drive. honestly, the speed is just fine, the lower-rpm drives are noticably quieter and cheaper. unless you want something you can record to with fraps, just get a green. (For recording fraps, a RAID0 of 2 WD reds is awsome, i have it and it can handle 1080p@60fps without any issues )

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

If you have a boot-ssd, get a green drive. honestly, the speed is just fine, the lower-rpm drives are noticably quieter and cheaper. unless you want something you can record to with fraps, just get a green. (For recording fraps, a RAID0 of 2 WD reds is awsome, i have it and it can handle 1080p@60fps without any issues )

 

I won't be getting a SSD if I don't save 100$ in offers the day I buy. I will probably go with a 1TB blue, with SSD or not.

[Broseephus]

I won't be getting a SSD if I don't save 100$ in offers the day I buy. I will probably go with a 1TB blue, with SSD or not.

 

 

I'm not sure what you said about the 100$ thing, but SSD will change your life. It's the one upgrade you can make to any computer and notice an immediate difference.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

I'm not sure what you said about the 100$ thing, but SSD will change your life. It's the one upgrade you can make to any computer and notice an immediate difference.

Without special offers, my setup costs 2100$, if I can save at least 100$ with rebates and such il get a SSD.

[Alex(PlayMedium)]

Without special offers, my setup costs 2100$, if I can save at least 100$ with rebates and such il get a SSD.

I do not consider an SSD to be an option, more as a neccesary part. I just cringe when I have to use a PC that doesn't have an SSD, it will change the way you work on your computer. everytime you say to yourself "oh no i have to wait, it's doing something" you can just go on and work as fast as you can, you system doesn't freeze if you do many things, it just keeps working the way you expect it to.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

I do not consider an SSD to be an option, more as a neccesary part. I just cringe when I have to use a PC that doesn't have an SSD, it will change the way you work on your computer. everytime you say to yourself "oh no i have to wait, it's doing something" you can just go on and work as fast as you can, you system doesn't freeze if you do many things, it just keeps working the way you expect it to.

Never had much lag or freeze, only on Vista but that was Vista... only times I wait is boot times, and I don't really care, it's like if I boot my PC everytime I go away for like 30 mins.

[Viking Kong]

Sort of related (what not to do) but for some reason my buddy gave me my first rig with a 500GB green drive.....and it was my boot drive. Didn't last forever.

[WoodenMarker]

Without special offers, my setup costs 2100$, if I can save at least 100$ with rebates and such il get a SSD.

It sounds like you're doing something wrong if you're spending $2100 and you don't have a ssd.

[LessThanSatisfactory]

Blue drives are you're basic economic cheap run-of-the-mill hard drives. They're a great bang for the buck and preform great for moderate usage.

Green drives are power saving drives. They have a slightly lower rpm speed and thus preform a bit less. I consider them only good for super large RAID arrays and archiving stuff.

Black drives are you're performance drives. They have a higher rpm and read/write speed. They are a bit more expensive but they are great for gaming and video editing unless you're an extreme speed or silence guy in which case, get an SSD.

 

Note: There are two more classes of drives, Reds (for home servers and RAID arrays) and SE drives (The industry-class server grade drives)

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

It sounds like you're doing something wrong if you're spending $2100 and you don't have a ssd.

It's because of my peripherals, monitor keyboard etc... my build is like 1500$ witjout them.

[Broseephus]

Even so with $1500 build there should be at the bare minimum a 60$ boot ssd.

[WoodenMarker]

It's because of my peripherals, monitor keyboard etc... my build is like 1500$ witjout them.

Even so with $1500 build there should be at the bare minimum a 60$ boot ssd.

What he said^

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Even so with $1500 build there should be at the bare minimum a 60$ boot ssd.

All the minimum SSDs I found were 90-100$...