WD Blue vs Black

[SeaBriscut]

I have little knowledge when it comes to storage and was curious, what the difference is between WD's Blue and the Black? 

[EarthboundHero]

@SeaBriscut Blacks are more reliable, and are generally faster.

[Juganog]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/desktop/

 

blacks are for performance blue's are for more every day use

[Clyne]

the black is a bit faster than the blue, their more optimized for performance. 

(IMO) blacks are not worth it, just get a blue or a barracuda instead. 

[Juganog]

the black is a bit faster than the blue, their more optimized for performance. 

(IMO) blacks are not worth it, just get a blue or a barracuda instead. 

i agree!! i store all my games on a black and i used to used to have them on a blue and i saw hardly any difference

[AlwaysFSX]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/desktop/

 

blacks are for performance blue's are for more every day use

Thank you for linking that. It gets frustrating when people keep asking these when they can just look at the site. Might bookmark it for future use.

[SeaBriscut]

THANKS GUYS

[Marvzl1357]

Thank you for linking that. It gets frustrating when people keep asking these when they can just look at the site. Might bookmark it for future use.

It seems that the wd blacks are the most supported of the lot though, they have a straight up 5 year only warranty, as opposed to the 2/3-5 year for the other ones...

[TopplesS]

Also something they didn't mention is the Black models have heavy duty bearings (expect it to go for longer than the other models, unless you drop it, of course), gets hotter than the other models and are more noisy/vibratey. Keep this in mind when selecting them because if you have a confined space with little ventilation they can slowly cook themselves. They get quite hot when not adequately cooled.

[jaypro]

Blues are cheaper. (don't think anybody mentioned that yet)

[Snickerzz]

I use a 1tb blue for almost all my games and a lot of programs and it doesnt seem slow for a hdd

[Luke]

If you are looking for a reasonably fast hard drive that's also reliable and cheap the WD Blue is a great option. I don't see much reason to buy a WD black since Seagates SSHD's are around the same price but much faster.

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @SeaBriscut!

 

The community already explained shortly what they are all about. So I can offer you some additional info:

WD Blue is in the sweet spot between performance and resource management, and it is mostly recommended for home systems and everyday computing. There are not that big in capacity (max 1TB) but you will get the solid performance. 

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760

WD Black is all about performance and high-end applications. It's a great fit, if you are into gaming and/or heavy softwares. They also offer quite the variety of capacity (anywhere from 500GB to 4TB).

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=770 

Both drives have 64 MB cache and run at 7200 RPM but WD Black drives have a much better performance in read/write speed. 

 

Hope this answers your question completely.

SuperSoph_WD

 

[mayu]

Just wondering how WD Purple fit in for regular desktop users, for say use PC most of the times in day and is on overnight for downloading

 

Asking this because Purple has 3 years warranty specified vs 2 of Green/Blue

 

But Purple costs similar to Green/Blue, while Black costs almost double to them here

I am looking for something to use as back up drive for all pictures, games etc.

[askmax]

Just wondering how WD Purple fit in for regular desktop users, for say use PC most of the times in day and is on overnight for downloading

 

Asking this because Purple has 3 years warranty specified vs 2 of Green/Blue

 

But Purple costs similar to Green/Blue, while Black costs almost double to them here

I am looking for something to use as back up drive for all pictures, games etc.

Purple is for surveillance, E.G a security camera with a feed straight to the hard drive. They aren't meant for regular PC usage.

[mayu]

Purple is for surveillance, E.G a security camera with a feed straight to the hard drive. They aren't meant for regular PC usage.

 

Thanks, I read that RED -> RAID, Purple -> Surveillance.

What I am wondering is, if there is any significant disadvantage or risk of using Red/Purple drives for regular desktop use instead of green/blue, Or I just won't be using them to there full potential.

Asking since they have 1 year more warranty and costs are similar.

Also considering RED's are for RAID setups and Purple's are for 24*7 surveillance systems, wouldn't they be considered more reliable than Green's and Blue's?

[askmax]

Thanks, I read that RED -> RAID, Purple -> Surveillance.

What I am wondering is, if there is any significant disadvantage or risk of using Red/Purple drives for regular desktop use instead of green/blue, Or I just won't be using them to there full potential.

Asking since they have 1 year more warranty and costs are similar.

Also considering RED's are for RAID setups and Purple's are for 24*7 surveillance systems, wouldn't they be considered more reliable than Green's and Blue's?

They will be extremely slow.

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @mayu !

 

@askmax is right. 

There's a reason behind the purposes of the drives. 

WD Purple, as already mentioned, are specifically for surveillance. They are designed to replace standard desktop drives in security/surveillance systems, because this kind of workload on the drive requires always-on 24/7 reliability, which is not found in most regular HDDs.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1210

 

As for WD Red drives, they are also tested to run in 24/7 environments. And they are specifically designed for NAS and RAID usage. 

WD Red (1-8 bay systems): http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810

WD Red Pro (8-16 bay systems): http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1280

 

Both Red and Purple have the TLER feature (time-limited error recovery) that prevents from data loss and extended error recovery of the systems. This is essential and functional feature for both RAID and surveillance.  

 

You won't be able to experience all of these advantages,  if you use them as standalone drives in a desktop. 

 

Hope this answers your questions, guys!

SuperSoph_WD