WD Black vs. Seagate Barracuda?

[Woodman567]

So I am just putting together a list of parts for fun for a future build I may do, and I was looking for a long term storage option (at least 2TB) other than the SSD for the OS. I looked at the WD Black because of the great performance, but then a few lines down, I see the same amount of storage on a Seagate Barracuda for half the price! What exactly is the difference that makes the WD Black so much more expensive? Is the extra price worth it?

[NTDaws]

Barracuda

[minibois]

WD Black and Seagate Barracuda have different warranty times, 5 years and 2 years respectively.

But in terms of performance they won't differ much. Some people will say something like "but Seagate fails more!", but the reality is that all hard drives could fail. So always have a backup.

 

I have been extremely happy with my WD Black over the past 6 years although it does make some noise (not any more than any other HDD though), but I don't have a (recent) Seagate Barracuda to equally compare them.

 

If I were you, I would go for the Seagate.

[NTDaws]

The WD Black is, I believe, the only consumer hard drive to have retained a five year warranty since the Thailand floods a couple years ago. Other companies have reduced their warranties, but not WD on the Black. It is also one of the fastest mechanical drives, although that is not sufficient (imho) to be worth the extra money. Throw in the extra warranty, and it is worthwhile.

Taken from Tom's Hardware

[Zando_]

WD Black has a different controller and stuff, may last a bit longer. But for double the price, it's probs not worth it. 

[waterjug]

make sure to look at the RPM- that's very important. The price difference might be in the RPM. Just make sure it's 7200 RPM or above and you're good.

[minibois]

3 minutes ago, wii8cookies said:

make sure to look at the RPM- that's very important. The price difference might be in the RPM. Just make sure it's 7200 RPM or above and you're good.

Both Seagate Barracuda and WD Black drives (in the 2TB variants) are both 7200RPM with 64MB cache. Not sure on higher capacities, but I think Barracuda drives generally retain their RPM.

[pagani123]

I would say the Barracuda

[seagate_surfer]

Hi Woodman,

 

thank you for considering a BarraCuda!

Any major manufacturer of hard drives has been working hard over decades to make hard drives faster and more reliable.

 

The BarraCuda series is designed for regular computing, gaming and backups and although you will always have the issues of a mechanical device eventually - as long as you don't use this type of drive in a 24/7 environment (e.g. in a NAS), you should be good to go.