Blue vs black Western digital

[DeathTechs]

are there any diffrences from WD blue and WD black? thing i notice is

- the price

- one is more popular

- and why do people buy black instead of blue

- any diffrence?

 

[Aytex]

I have a black and i have terrible problems with it. 100% disc usage, i've called both WD and Microsoft and neither can fix it so, thats just my two cents

[AresKrieger]

I'd just get blue honesly, they are solid drives and blacks can be loud among other things, they mostly just have a better warranty so I don't bother with them.

[vectorx5000]

Just now, Aytex said:

I have a black and i have terrible problems with it. 100% disc usage, i've called both WD and Microsoft and neither can fix it so, thats just my two cents

Haven't heard that before, but black drives have a longer warranty and are more reliable.

[IMPERIUS]

@CaptainWD

afaik, blue is faster, black is more reliable. Or something in those guidelines. Blue is for the mainstream market and Black is geared towards content creators

[DennisBerry]

These are the different specifications:

Some WD black Hard drives have more cache and have 5 years warranty instead of 2 years.

[Aytex]

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

I'd just get blue honesly, they are solid drives and blacks can be loud among other things, they mostly just have a better warranty so I don't bother with them.

Their both equally loud on load for me..

[Shoob]

You are basically paying more for the warranty with the WD Black if we are talking about the 1TB models.

[pspfreak]

IDK but i can say the blue line is reliable as frigg. I currently have 5 wd blue drive all made during different times and they are all running great still. 

[vpavlicevic]

Cache and warranty.

Nothing else.

[thatguyyouknow75]

Always stick to blue. No difference in performance energy consumption of noise for less money 

[AresKrieger]

1 minute ago, Aytex said:

Their both equally loud on load for me..

Hmm I've had people say the blacks vibrate more, causing more noise but I don't have one to actually compare.

[TheRoss0411]

Black is faster, but makes more noise. I have one, not really worth it IMO

[DeathTechs]

Hm so what's worth to buy then? blue or black, as i see it i would go for black because they have a smaller fail %

[DennisBerry]

6 minutes ago, DeathTechs said:

Hm so what's worth to buy then? blue or black, as i see it i would go for black because they have a smaller fail %

I wouldn't really stick on the smaller fail %, because the Western Digital blue is also realible.

Well that depents on your compromises:

WD blue Fastest Average noise Highest Density

WD black  Fast  Noisiest  Highest Endurance

[Deli]

I have both. They are roughly the same speed. But Black is really noisy when the head is seeking data.

If you don't need more than 1TB. I'd say stick with Blue.  Or if you need more than 1TB, try Red. The speed difference of Red and Black is like 145MB/s vs 160MB/s. Not a very big deal. The Red is much cheaper and quieter, while still has 5 year warranty.

[EmeraldFlame]

Black's will typically have a higher cache when comparing similar capacity drives. Black's also have 2 on board controllers that generally increase performance over the blues, especially on small random IO. They also have a longer warranty. Other than that they are effectively the same. The internals are (or at least they used to be, this may be different now) the same so they make the same amount of noise, it is just the controller board that is different.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, EmeraldFlame said:

Black's will typically have a higher cache when comparing similar capacity drives. Black's also have 2 on board controllers that generally increase performance over the blues, especially on small random IO. They also have a longer warranty. Other than that they are effectively the same. The internals are (or at least they used to be, this may be different now) the same so they make the same amount of noise, it is just the controller board that is different.

The Black drive is really heavy. I don't have the 1TB version. However the 2TB version is 754g. Even heavier than the 4TB Red. The Blue 1TB is 446g. I think Blue and Black are quite different internally.

[EmeraldFlame]

3 hours ago, Deli said:

The Black drive is really heavy. I don't have the 1TB version. However the 2TB version is 754g. Even heavier than the 4TB Red. The Blue 1TB is 446g. I think Blue and Black are quite different internally.

I have a feeling you are comparing different model years of drives to each other. Nearly every year WD updates their drives and they are often redesigned to take advantage of new technologies. So comparing a black from a year or two ago to a blue today really isn't fair.

According to WD's current official spec sheets (Blue and Black), weights of drives are pretty much across the board the same, as well as nearly all other parameters with very slight differences at the higher end.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, EmeraldFlame said:

I have a feeling you are comparing different model years of drives to each other. Nearly every year WD updates their drives and they are often redesigned to take advantage of new technologies. So comparing a black from a year or two ago to a blue today really isn't fair.

According to WD's current official spec sheets (Blue and Black), weights of drives are pretty much across the board the same, as well as nearly all other parameters with very slight differences at the higher end.

The Blue drive I got in 2014. Both Red and Black drives are from last year.