WD Blue or Black, what differnce does the increased RPM make to game load times.

[sirromeoj]

Hi there,

I considering buying either a 1tb 7200 WD black drive or the 1tb 5400 pm blue. The use case is gaming with and backing up via cloneing my operating system drive (240 gb ssd) on a weekly basis. Does anyone know if there is a noticeable difference in load times in game (or any other gaming performence differences) between a 5400 and a 7200 rpm hard drive as the sustained read speeds look similar, but I guessing the slower drive would have more latency.

Joe

[NTDaws]

Depends on the drive controller.

[Godlygamer23]

It depends on the drive itself. Even when you have the same RPM, you can have architectural improvements in the controller, including cache increases. What drives are you looking at specifically? The models are a requirement in order to determine the performance of the drives. 

[sirromeoj]

Looking at a WD Blue 2tb (found one on offer for the same price as a 1tb) or a WD Black 1tb.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, sirromeoj said:

Looking at a WD Blue 2tb (found one on offer for the same price as a 1tb) or a WD Black 1tb.

I know, but they each have their own model numbers. For example, all of my hard drives are WD Blue, but the model numbers are different. 

[davidna2002]

WD Black has better reliability IMHO.  They are built for performance & dependability and while it does depend on a few other factors mentioned here, WD Black is the better choice.

[sirromeoj]

I see what you're after

WD Blue - WD20EZRZ

WD Black - WD1003FZEX

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, sirromeoj said:

I see what you're after

WD Blue - WD20EZRZ

WD Black - WD1003FZEX

Here are numbers for you to consider:

http://hdd.userbenchmark.com/WD-Black-1TB-2013/Rating/1822

http://hdd.userbenchmark.com/WD-Blue-2TB-2015/Rating/3521

[sirromeoj]

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Here are numbers for you to consider:

http://hdd.userbenchmark.com/WD-Black-1TB-2013/Rating/1822

http://hdd.userbenchmark.com/WD-Blue-2TB-2015/Rating/3521

Thanks man, very helpful

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, davidna2002 said:

WD Black has better reliability IMHO.  They are built for performance & dependability and while it does depend on a few other factors mentioned here, WD Black is the better choice.

Maybe for overall performance, but the OP is also losing half of the capacity based on their later posts(one of the posts may contain a typo).

[brighttail]

Look also at the warranty.  WD Blue/Greens are usually 2-3 years warranty. Blacks are 5-7 years.   Blacks are designed as more as a drive that will be accessed more frequently.  The Green/Blues were more meant for archiving stuff that you weren't going to need/care about the speed.  If you were to use a blue in one machine and a black in another machine, every day for the same usage, the blue would wear out quicker than the black.

 

I have a WD black 2tb drive that was four years 11 months and 28 days when it died.  WD gave me a replacement no questions asked.

[TheCherryKing]

I've noticed significant improvements in stability, speed, and reliability upgrading from a 5400 RPM HDD to a 7200 RPM HDD.

[Godlygamer23]

3 minutes ago, TheCherryKing said:

I've noticed significant improvements in stability, speed, and reliability upgrading from a 5400 RPM HDD to a 7200 RPM HDD.

Like I said, it depends on the drive(and task) as showcased here with my own numbers(in terms of speed). 5400RPM Seagate drive on left, and 7200RPM WD drive on right:

Spoiler