Jump to content

WD Green vs. WD Blue vs. WD Black for quietness?

InfamousMEE
By InfamousMEE
in Storage Devices
 Share
Go to solution Solved by Captain_WD,
 
My colleague @Titania_WD game you some good general info on the drives. Here are my two cents on this:
 
Out of all Western Digital drives, the most quiet ones would be those with Intellipower. Overall, the lower the rpm, the lower the noise. You can find info of how loud the drives are in their drive specification sheets (I'll post them bellow in the end).
Depending on what you need the drive for, I would say either the WD Green, WD Red, WD Purple or WD AV should be the one you are looking at. 
Out of the three you listed, WD Green would be the most quiet. Compared to it, though, WD Red and WD Purple are even more quiet, but their design and purpose are different. WD Red drives are designed and tuned for NAS/RAID environments and WD Purple is designed for surveillance. Both should work in your computer as normal storage drives, though. What are your plans for the drive and why do you need your drive to be as quiet as possible?
 
Here are the drives' spec sheets and their acoustic levels in dBA both at Idle and during Seeking. I've put the numbers for the 1TB drives or with the closest storage space (some drives do not offer 1TB in capacity):
 
WD Black 1TB (the FZEX and FAEX models): 28, 30 and 29, 33 (http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=ersngf)
WD Red 1TB: (the EFRX and JFCX models): 21, 22 and 24, 25 (http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=bpWWpT)
WD Ae - different purpose 
 
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask :)
 
Thanks @Jerakl and @ThatCoolBlueKidd for mention :)
 

Captain_WD. 

Posted

Not as much noise as any WD drive.

Not as much noise as my (currently dead) Blue when it was on it's last legs.

It sounded like a siren mixed with screws rattling around in a metal bucket. That thing was old and beaten. Took 13 minutes to boot Vista xD

|PSU Tier List /80 Plus Efficiency| PSU stuff if you need it. 

My system: PCPartPicker || For Corsair support tag @Corsair Josephor @Corsair Nick || My 5MT Legacy GT Wagon ||

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I had a seagate drive once, it sounded like a snare drum.

i have a CAME WITH THIS SHIT LAPTOP drive.

its 500gb. laptop size, whatevs.

 

dead serious its louder than my galaxy s4 speakers. i just turn everything on my computer on, then hope that i dont need to load a game anytime soon.

Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger, forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart. 
-Jim Hensen

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I hear my harddrives all the time.

 

I have two 2TB WD Blacks and some random 1TB WD drive from an old external HDD. (Likely the noise culprit.)

 

I honestly have not noticed a difference in HDD noise over the years.  I've owned quite a few different ones, and they're all audible when they're working.  The more stuff you use an SSD for, the better imo.

4K // R5 3600 // RTX2080Ti

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

The WD green are the quietest out of the 3, WD Blue are quiet after they have spun up (running an SSD for a while made me realise how much noise the HDD was making), WD Black are the loudest with more performance and a higher power consumption.

"We also blind small animals with cosmetics.
We do not sell cosmetics. We just blind animals."

 

"Please don't mistake us for Equifax. Those fuckers are evil"

 

This PSA brought to you by Equifacks.
PMSL

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

But they are quiet, quieter than freaking WD drives, which are like jets.

Don't you ever get tired of this BS? It's annoying enough when the fanboys in the countless Intel vs. AMD or nVIDIA vs. AMD threads do this shit all the time, but the differences between WD and Seagate HDDs are so minor, you're just making a complete and utter fool of yourself every time. Especially when you completely lose contact with reality, like with that statement. So much hatred, just because one of their drives failed on you, and it did not happen with Seagate (yet)? Grow up, please, will you? Jeez...

 

Especially from the same person (that was you, wasn't it?) who not so long ago claimed, he'd never get an SSD because he loved the sounds of HDDs and old technology in general sooo much...

[Main rig "ToXxXiC":]
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K | MB: ASUS Maximus VII Formula | RAM: G.Skill TridentX 32GB 2400MHz (DDR-3) | GPU: EVGA GTX980 Hydro Copper | Storage: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD + Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD (+NAS) | Sound: OnBoard | PSU: XFX Black Edition Pro 1050W 80+ Gold | Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II | Cooling: Full Custom Watercooling Loop (CPU+GPU+MB) | OS: Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Don't you ever get tired of this BS? It's annoying enough when the fanboys in the countless Intel vs. AMD or nVIDIA vs. AMD threads do this shit all the time, but the differences between WD and Seagate HDDs are so minor, you're just making a complete and utter fool of yourself every time. Especially when you completely lose contact with reality, like with that statement. So much hatred, just because one of their drives failed on you, and it did not happen with Seagate (yet)? Grow up, please, will you? Jeez...

 

Especially from the same person (that was you, wasn't it?) who not so long ago claimed, he'd never get an SSD because he loved the sounds of HDDs and old technology in general sooo much...

 

I second this.

 

AMD vs Nvidia (or Intel) etc are reasonable. But two different HDDs is just petty. Seagate drives and WD drives are basically the sticker.

• NCASE M1 • i5-9600k • GTX 1080 FE • Z370N-WIFI • SF600 • NH-U9S • LPX 32GB • 960EVO •

I'm a self-identifying Corsair & Nvidia Fanboy; Get over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Hi there InfamousMEE,


If it's quietness you seek, then the WD green would be my choice. However, WD recommends it for secondary storage. If you have SSD or another primary drive, then WD Green should do just fine. An alternative to the Green, that you could use actively is the WD Red. It is designed especially for NAS, but you could use it on its own as well. The WD Black are the HDDs recommended for gaming and creative tasks, because of their performance.


Hope this gives you some useful hints. You can take a look at this brief comparison of WD drives here as well - http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=bRTzRJ


Cheers,


Titania_WD


Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

This.

I use Reds in my system for redundant storage. Much quieter than my Blacks. I cannot comment compared to greens though.

Reds are a bit quieter than Greens and are more consistently quiet as well. I personally use Reds and haven't found consistently quieter drives. 

 

enough said

Don't make separate threads for the same topic. I'm merging the threads.

If you ever need help with a build, read the following before posting: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/3061-build-plan-thread-recommendations-please-read-before-posting/
Also, make sure to quote a post or tag a member when replying or else they won't get a notification that you replied to them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Solution
 
My colleague @Titania_WD game you some good general info on the drives. Here are my two cents on this:
 
Out of all Western Digital drives, the most quiet ones would be those with Intellipower. Overall, the lower the rpm, the lower the noise. You can find info of how loud the drives are in their drive specification sheets (I'll post them bellow in the end).
Depending on what you need the drive for, I would say either the WD Green, WD Red, WD Purple or WD AV should be the one you are looking at. 
Out of the three you listed, WD Green would be the most quiet. Compared to it, though, WD Red and WD Purple are even more quiet, but their design and purpose are different. WD Red drives are designed and tuned for NAS/RAID environments and WD Purple is designed for surveillance. Both should work in your computer as normal storage drives, though. What are your plans for the drive and why do you need your drive to be as quiet as possible?
 
Here are the drives' spec sheets and their acoustic levels in dBA both at Idle and during Seeking. I've put the numbers for the 1TB drives or with the closest storage space (some drives do not offer 1TB in capacity):
 
WD Black 1TB (the FZEX and FAEX models): 28, 30 and 29, 33 (http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=ersngf)
WD Red 1TB: (the EFRX and JFCX models): 21, 22 and 24, 25 (http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=bpWWpT)
WD Ae - different purpose 
 
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask :)
 
Thanks @Jerakl and @ThatCoolBlueKidd for mention :)
 

Captain_WD. 

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

 

Hey InfamousMEE,
 
Out of all Western Digital drives, the most quiet ones would be those with Intellipower. Overall, the lower the rpm, the lower the noise. You can find info of how loud the drives are in their drive specification sheets (I'll post them bellow in the end).
Depending on what you need the drive for, I would say either the WD Green, WD Red, WD Purple or WD AV should be the one you are looking at. 
Out of the three you listed, WD Green would be the most quiet. Compared to it, though, WD Red and WD Purple are even more quiet, but their design and purpose are different. WD Red drives are designed and tuned for NAS/RAID environments and WD Purple is designed for surveillance. Both should work in your computer as normal storage drives, though. What are your plans for the drive and why do you need your drive to be as quiet as possible?
 
Here are the drives' spec sheets and their acoustic levels in dBA both at Idle and during Seeking. I've put the numbers for the 1TB drives or with the closest storage space (some drives do not offer 1TB in capacity):
 
WD Black 1TB (the FZEX and FAEX models): 28, 30 and 29, 33 (http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=ersngf)
WD Red 1TB: (the EFRX and JFCX models): 21, 22 and 24, 25 (http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=bpWWpT)
WD Ae - different purpose 
 
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask :)
 
Thanks @Jerakl and @ThatCoolBlueKidd for mention :)
 
Captain_WD.

 

You're the only WD affiliate I can remember, so I just tag you in every WD help related thread :)

Someone told Luke and Linus at CES 2017 to "Unban the legend known as Jerakl" and that's about all I've got going for me. (It didn't work)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

-snip-

 

 

Hi Captain,

 

May sound stupid but I've never really understood the WD Purple drives, what exactly warrants the drive for better use in a surveillance situation, and what does that mean for the performance / sound differences from it's more consumer-orientated Blue drives.

 

Never really got that,

Thanks.

• NCASE M1 • i5-9600k • GTX 1080 FE • Z370N-WIFI • SF600 • NH-U9S • LPX 32GB • 960EVO •

I'm a self-identifying Corsair & Nvidia Fanboy; Get over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Hi Captain,

 

May sound stupid but I've never really understood the WD Purple drives, what exactly warrants the drive for better use in a surveillance situation, and what does that mean for the performance / sound differences from it's more consumer-orientated Blue drives.

 

Never really got that,

Thanks.

 

@Jerakl there are a number of Western Digital representatives here. Each of us has specified that we are affiliated to Western digital in our signatures as well as our nicknames contain the _WD part which can help you identify us. :) Glad you trusted me for this question. Thanks!

 

You're the only WD affiliate I can remember, so I just tag you in every WD help related thread :)

 

@ThatCoolBlueKidd (I always smile when I see your avatar :) ) the WD Purple drives are designed and tuned for surveillance systems and for recording video files from cameras and thus have some specific features in their firmware, such as AllFrame technology, TLER and ATA streaming support, caching algorithms are tuned for write-intensive, low bit rate, high stream count applications and other. Also, they are designed to be as quiet as possible in order not to intervene during recording of sound (their sound is basically below the level of normal hearing). Also they are designed to support a number of cameras and to record from multiple places, instead of a single source. They are tested with a number of manufacturers and products to ensure full compatibility with recording devices. 
 
Although they are not recommended for regular desktop usage, many people report that they work good as such and that's why I put it up there in case OP wanted to have more choices. :)
 
Here's some more info on the WD Purple drives if you'd like to check them out: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=.
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

@Jerakl here's a list of all the WDers.

 

Captain_WD

Boogieman_WD

BossaNova_WD

Citizen_WD

CK_WD

Cyndy_WD

Doctor_WD

Dorian_WD

D_Know_WD
Elisha_WD

KY_WD

Mighty_Miro_WD

Peggy_WD

R2D2_WD

Ray_WD

Sannin_WD

Steph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

Techpumpkin_WD

Titania_WD

Tommykw_WD

YusD_WD

 

For the sake of not spamming, I tagged none of them. However from this big list I only know of @Captain_WD as he's most prominent on the forum, So yea I tag him first before anyone else.

 

I never even knew these many WDs existed. I thought it was just oh captain, my captain  :P

• NCASE M1 • i5-9600k • GTX 1080 FE • Z370N-WIFI • SF600 • NH-U9S • LPX 32GB • 960EVO •

I'm a self-identifying Corsair & Nvidia Fanboy; Get over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

@Jerakl here's a list of all the WDers.

 

Captain_WD

Boogieman_WD

BossaNova_WD

Citizen_WD

CK_WD

Cyndy_WD

Doctor_WD

Dorian_WD

D_Know_WD

Elisha_WD

KY_WD

Mighty_Miro_WD

Peggy_WD

R2D2_WD

Ray_WD

Sannin_WD

Steph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

Techpumpkin_WD

Titania_WD

Tommykw_WD

YusD_WD

 

For the sake of not spamming, I tagged none of them. However from this big list I only know of @Captain_WD as he's most prominent on the forum, So yea I tag him first before anyone else.

 

I never even knew these many WDs existed. I thought it was just oh captain, my captain  :P

 

Since we are a number of people working on the forums, we all registered in the beginning but different users are more active than others in a specific forum. :)

Here in LTT (I am very glad to be a part of this particular community) you can refer to me, @Mighty_Miro_WD, @Titania_WD and @SuperSoph_WD if you have questions regarding WD products or storage in general. :) I would be more than happy to help with other questions as well if I am able to.

 

Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

my wd greens is pretty fast for media storage :).

 

pretty much I'd go black but if there are any 2tb-4tb blue's available I'd be trigger happy. if not seagate.

 

edit: yep green>blue>black for quite stuff.

Live your life like a dream.

 
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Storage Devices

×