What is the difference between different wd green, wd blue, wd black, wd red and wd purple?

[sou100mit]

What is the difference between different wd green, wd blue, wd black, wd red and wd purple?

[AlexStriz]

Black - performance

Blue - standard

Green - eco

Red - nas

Purple - surveillance 

[AlwaysFSX]

If you were to go to their site you would get the answer you're looking for....

 

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

[SeanBond]

Black - performance

Blue - standard

Green - eco

Red - nas

Purple - surveillance 

Surveillance? How is it optimized for that? Red is the most reliable isnt it?

[Aniallation]

What is the difference between different wd green, wd blue, wd black, wd red and wd purple?

Desktop use:

Black - fastest drives, but noisiest 

Blue - In the middle, not too slow, not too fast

Green - slowest drives, but usually cheapest and largest in capacity (up to 6TB), also quieter and use less power then green/black

 

Red - Designed for NAS use, most quiet and reliable drives designed to be run 24/7 without issue

 

Purple - For surveillance camera systems, probably similar to Red or green, not widely used

[AlexStriz]

Surveillance? How is it optimized for that? Red is the most reliable isnt it?

From the WD website about the purples - "Built for personal, home office or small business surveillance systems using up to 32 cameras."

Kinda like reds i guess. Never really heard of anyone using purples

 

Got that from the link AlwaysFSX posted. Go there if you want to learn more

 

Edit: welome to LTT! 

[Fred Castellum]

Here's a informative post about the WD drives. 

 

http://www.smbitjournal.com/2014/05/understanding-the-western-digital-sata-drive-lineup-2014/

 

Just noticed your new to the forums OP. 

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

 

Don't forget to read the CoC here!

[Vacsol]

Surveillance? How is it optimized for that? Red is the most reliable isnt it?

it's optimized for being read/written constantly and run 24/7

[AlexStriz]

Green - slowest drives, but usually cheapest and largest in capacity (up to 6TB), also quieter and use less power then green/black

Reds also go up to 6tb

 

[NovaFlux]

I've always gone with red. Good for all around and quiet.

[AlexStriz]

it's optimized for being read/written constantly and run 24/7

I think both reds and purples are built for 24/7 use. Reds looks like higher end purples to me.

[sou100mit]

Sorry for not being clear...I meant specifics. Like

green looks like low power.

may be purple have higher write speed as it has to be used by multiple cameras (just guessing).

May be red and purple both are validated fro 24x7 operation. And if I want a NAS but dont want to use a raid, why is red better than Purple?

 

http://www.smbitjournal.com/2014/05/understanding-the-western-digital-sata-drive-lineup-2014/ is kind of helpful. But does not have all answers.

[SeanBond]

it's optimized for being read/written constantly and run 24/7

Yeah but so it is red.

[GoodBytes]

Yeah but so it is red.

It's Red without the RAID part.

The reality of things is that Red and Purple is just a certification.

Red is probably Black but RAID tested (drive firmware debug is tested for reliable operating with a bunch of RAID controllers)

Purple is probably blue or green tested to run 24/7 with constant writes.

[Nuluvius]

It's all basically a marketing gimmick...

[sou100mit]

 

Here's a informative post about the WD drives. 

 

http://www.smbitjournal.com/2014/05/understanding-the-western-digital-sata-drive-lineup-2014/

 

Just noticed your new to the forums OP. 

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

 

Don't forget to read the CoC here!

 

I love animes...so I like the welcome.

[EmeraldFlame]

What is the difference between different wd green, wd blue, wd black, wd red and wd purple?

 

WD Blacks: Highest performance consumer grade drives made by WD. Spin at a higher RPM (typically 7200). There are WD Raptors or VelociRaptors that are 10k RPM drives that are even higher performance, but that sits outside their standard consumer market, and to be honest with the onset of SSD's, I dunno if they even make the Raptor line anymore.

WD Blue: Standard performance 7200 RPM drive. In the past these have been identical to the black except the controller has 1 processor instead of 2.

WD Green: Power saving. These drives are capable of a variable RPM that can go up to 5400. But when that speed isn't needed it is able to slow down to save power, and generate less heat.

WD Red: Nearly all Red models are actually physically identical in every way. The differentiating factor with these is the firmware. They retain all features of the green, like the variable RPM, but add in a feature called TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) which helps with raids. In a RAID, if your drives do not offer TLER then they will often drop out of the RAID causing a bunch of needless reboots. What TLER does is when the drive detects an error or has an abnormally high seek time, it sends a message to the RAID controller basically saying 'hey hold up a sec and let me try to figure this out' so that it does not drop out of the RAID. This is why using Black, Blue, or Green is not advised in RAID as none support TLER.

WD Purple: From everything I have read these seem to also be identical to WD Green/Reds physically, although I can't find anywhere to confirm this. It also has variable RPM up to 5400. Their firmware also supports TLER. The difference on these drives also seems to be mainly firmware as it supports "AllFrame" which according to the WD website seems to be some type of video compression and caching algorithm it uses. I have never seen one in person and don't know much about them so I can't tell you much more than that.

[sou100mit]

WD Blacks: Highest performance consumer grade drives made by WD. Spin at a higher RPM (typically 7200). There are WD Raptors or VelociRaptors that are 10k RPM drives that are even higher performance, but that sits outside their standard consumer market, and to be honest with the onset of SSD's, I dunno if they even make the Raptor line anymore.

WD Blue: Standard performance 7200 RPM drive. In the past these have been identical to the black except the controller has 1 processor instead of 2.

WD Green: Power saving. These drives are capable of a variable RPM that can go up to 5400. But when that speed isn't needed it is able to slow down to save power, and generate less heat.

WD Red: Nearly all Red models are actually physically identical in every way. The differentiating factor with these is the firmware. They retain all features of the green, like the variable RPM, but add in a feature called TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) which helps with raids. In a RAID, if your drives do not offer TLER then they will often drop out of the RAID causing a bunch of needless reboots. What TLER does is when the drive detects an error or has an abnormally high seek time, it sends a message to the RAID controller basically saying 'hey hold up a sec and let me try to figure this out' so that it does not drop out of the RAID. This is why using Black, Blue, or Green is not advised in RAID as none support TLER.

WD Purple: From everything I have read these seem to also be identical to WD Green/Reds physically, although I can't find anywhere to confirm this. It also has variable RPM up to 5400. Their firmware also supports TLER. The difference on these drives also seems to be mainly firmware as it supports "AllFrame" which according to the WD website seems to be some type of video compression and caching algorithm it uses. I have never seen one in person and don't know much about them so I can't tell you much more than that.

Thanks...got my answer.

[sou100mit]

WD Blacks: Highest performance consumer grade drives made by WD. Spin at a higher RPM (typically 7200). There are WD Raptors or VelociRaptors that are 10k RPM drives that are even higher performance, but that sits outside their standard consumer market, and to be honest with the onset of SSD's, I dunno if they even make the Raptor line anymore.

WD Blue: Standard performance 7200 RPM drive. In the past these have been identical to the black except the controller has 1 processor instead of 2.

WD Green: Power saving. These drives are capable of a variable RPM that can go up to 5400. But when that speed isn't needed it is able to slow down to save power, and generate less heat.

WD Red: Nearly all Red models are actually physically identical in every way. The differentiating factor with these is the firmware. They retain all features of the green, like the variable RPM, but add in a feature called TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) which helps with raids. In a RAID, if your drives do not offer TLER then they will often drop out of the RAID causing a bunch of needless reboots. What TLER does is when the drive detects an error or has an abnormally high seek time, it sends a message to the RAID controller basically saying 'hey hold up a sec and let me try to figure this out' so that it does not drop out of the RAID. This is why using Black, Blue, or Green is not advised in RAID as none support TLER.

WD Purple: From everything I have read these seem to also be identical to WD Green/Reds physically, although I can't find anywhere to confirm this. It also has variable RPM up to 5400. Their firmware also supports TLER. The difference on these drives also seems to be mainly firmware as it supports "AllFrame" which according to the WD website seems to be some type of video compression and caching algorithm it uses. I have never seen one in person and don't know much about them so I can't tell you much more than that.

 

Hey but this WD site (http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/996/~/support-for-wd-desktop-drives-in-a-raid-0-or-raid-1-configuration) says red does not have TLER.

 

Critical: WD Blue, Green, Red or Black hard drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications. For all Business Critical RAID applications, please consider WD’s Enterprise Hard Drives that are specifically designed with RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER), are tested extensively in 24x7 RAID applications, and include features like enhanced RAFF technology and thermal extended burn-in testing.

 

For more information on the differences between a RAID Edition (RE) drive and a Desktop drive please see Answer ID 1397: What is the difference between Desktop edition and RAID (Enterprise) edition hard drives?.

[Nuluvius]

Hey but this WD site (http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/996/~/support-for-wd-desktop-drives-in-a-raid-0-or-raid-1-configuration) says red does not have TLER.

 

Critical: WD Blue, Green, Red or Black hard drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications. For all Business Critical RAID applications, please consider WD’s Enterprise Hard Drives that are specifically designed with RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER), are tested extensively in 24x7 RAID applications, and include features like enhanced RAFF technology and thermal extended burn-in testing.

 

For more information on the differences between a RAID Edition (RE) drive and a Desktop drive please see Answer ID 1397: What is the difference between Desktop edition and RAID (Enterprise) edition hard drives?.

 

Indeed; as I said it's BS marketing gimmicks which are best avoided. What I also don't like is this IntelliPower controlled RPM which they are highly elusive about.

 

One is best simply to fill their NAS up with something such as the Seagate ST3000DM001 which is a very cheep 7200rpm 64MB drive that supports TLER without all of the bloat and faff. I chose this option and am contented for it...

[Blade of Grass]

Hey but this WD site (http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/996/~/support-for-wd-desktop-drives-in-a-raid-0-or-raid-1-configuration) says red does not have TLER.

Critical: WD Blue, Green, Red or Black hard drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications. For all Business Critical RAID applications, please consider WD’s Enterprise Hard Drives that are specifically designed with RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER), are tested extensively in 24x7 RAID applications, and include features like enhanced RAFF technology and thermal extended burn-in testing.

For more information on the differences between a RAID Edition (RE) drive and a Desktop drive please see Answer ID 1397: What is the difference between Desktop edition and RAID (Enterprise) edition hard drives?.

The drives have TLER, and are designed for a home server/NAS RAID environment, not an enterprise environment, and are not certified to run in the latter.

[Blade of Grass]

One is best simply to fill their NAS up with something such as the Seagate ST3000DM001 which is a very cheep 7200rpm 64MB drive that supports TLER without all of the bloat and faff. I chose this option and am contented for it...

Barracudas do not have TLER and are not recommended commended for RAID.

[Nuluvius]

Barracudas do not have TLER and are not recommended commended for RAID.

 

Yes they do and are recommended and commended for RAID.

[Blade of Grass]

Yes they do and are recommended and commended for RAID.

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-hdd/?sku=ST3000DM001

No where on that page does it state they have TLER (or ERC, Seagate's version of it) or are rated for RAID. Though it does state they are for a an 8x5 environment, which writes it off to me in use for any type of constantly on storage.

[Nuluvius]

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/desktop-hdd/?sku=ST3000DM001

No where on that page does it state they have TLER (or ERC, Seagate's version of it) or are rated for RAID. Though it does state they are for a an 8x5 environment, which writes it off to me in use for any type of constantly on storage.

 

Maybe check the data sheet/send them an email if you really want to get yourself obsessed over this...

 

Look here, there's also mention of it on a few forums. When I checked with Scan I was informed that they DO support ERC, it would have been short sighted to make the purchase otherwise.