Is there a difference between WD Blue and Black?

claypigeon101 · 7 Jan 2015 at 23:43

Hi guys,
Am after a 1TB drive to store game files and other storage. Want it to be as fast as possible to keep load speeds down.

I put my 2 or 3 most frequent games on my OS SSD.

My question is, is there any real world difference between the blue and black drives?

They're both 64MB cache. Will the black be life-changingly different compared to the cheaper blue?
Alternative drives happily considered.

Thanks everybody. Look forward to your thoughts.

MasterOC · 8 Jan 2015 at 00:36

They have a slight performance difference.

Black has the best performance and are also the loudest and most power hungry.

Green has the lowest performance and is also the quietest and least power hungry.

Blue is the sweet spot between performance/price/noise

I think there's a warranty difference between the blue and black aswell but am unsure without looking

tamzzy · 8 Jan 2015 at 00:40

MasterOC said:
I think there's a warranty difference between the blue and black aswell but am unsure without looking

3 yr on the blue, 5 yr on the black.

but i wouldn't get a black. not worth the money.
neither would i get a green. the aggressive head parking can cause premature failures depending on your usage patterns.

either a blue, for standard workloads, or a red, if you have your pc on 24/7
mind you, the red is slightly slower (5900rpm vs 7200rpm on the blue) unless you get the red pro

claypigeon101 · 8 Jan 2015 at 01:29

Thanks guys, brilliant advice.
Blue it is then...
Unless you think seagate 1tb or SSHD is better?

tamzzy · 8 Jan 2015 at 02:25

nah. get the wd blue.
anecdotally, seagate drives are not as reliable as wd drives. of course it's all down to the luck of the draw.
so definitely ymmv!