Seagate Barracuda vs WD Green vs WD Black

melikepie · Jan 22, 2014

I'm trying to figure out the best deal out of these three drives. I'm trying to stay around the $90 or so budget range.

Here are the drives I'm looking at:

-WD Green 2TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=22-236-404&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo

- WD Black 1TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W019M6559

- Seagate Barracuda 2TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=22-148-834

The purpose of this drive is for storing media, Steam games, Linux (not a very heavy Linux user so I'm more concerned about storage space here), and for a desktop folder. My main drive right now is just a 120GB SSD. I feel like the WD Green has a more appropriate amount of memory, but lacks enough speed to be suitable, the WD Black being reliable, fast, but expensive, and the Barracuda being big, fast, cheap, but very unreliable when compared to the other two.

Which would be my best bet here? I'm trying to not overpay for something that I could've gotten away with with a cheaper drive or underpay and realize I've wasted my money.

Also, I'd take suggestions if there are any other drives out there that may be worth considering.

USAFRet · Jan 22, 2014

In between the WD Green and Black...the WD Blue.

melikepie · Jan 22, 2014

USAFRet :

I've looked at it and I'd consider it but are there any 2TB equivalents of the Blue?

aevm · Jan 22, 2014

First of all, if you think a HDD is unreliable don't buy it. Saving $20 or so but losing your files makes no sense.

Now, between WD Green (slowest but cheapest per GB) and WD Black (fastest but most expensive per GB) - you decide what matters most to you - capacity or speed. We can't make that decision for you. If you're not sure go for the Blue indeed, it's somewhere in the middle.

ahnilated · Jan 22, 2014

Here's something interesting to read for drive quality too.

http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

das_stig · Jan 22, 2014

Hitachi if you want it last awhile !!!

spdragoo · Jan 22, 2014

For sizes > 1 TB, WD seems to replace the Blue editions with "Desktop" editions: $110 at the local Micro Center gets you a 3TB drive.

Basically, though, if you're planning on using it primarily for data storage (i.e. only occasionally accessing it), then a WD Green is fine. If you want to install apps/programs on it, a WD Blue/Desktop (or other brand equivalent) should be fine. If you're really worried about access speed and/or reliability, the WD Black does have a 5-year warranty.

melikepie · Jan 22, 2014

Are Greens supposed to last a bit longer then Blues or are they just there for saving power and money? Also, just how much slower is a Green?

USAFRet · Jan 22, 2014

melikepie :

In theory, the Green is supposed to spin down and up according to need, saving 'power'. In reality, you might save $2/year.

melikepie · Jan 22, 2014

I'm still a bit confused. Will the Green suffice game and file storage that's accessed often? I'm talking about games like Crysis 3 and handling very small to 1GB+ files.

popatim · Jan 22, 2014

If you want to run a game that is stored on an HDD then DO NOT get the green drive. It will spin down & power down based on its internal parameters which you have no control over and neither does any windows power settings.

newegg has the seagate 3tb for 109 which is probably the best value per TB currently. Its also a 7200 rpm drive. I had two in a raid0 for testing for 3 months before moving them to my server. Its been about 5 months w/o any issues. I do have the Chinese made ones (part# ends in 1ch166)

sunder25 · Jan 22, 2014

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145620
avoid seagate(personal experience)

Newf · Jan 23, 2014

melikepie :

No. The Green is just the wrong drive for what you want to do. If you just want to archive photos or system backups, then OK, but not for running applications, or any other frequently accessed usage.

WD Blue 1TB $60 (EZEX)
WD Black 1TB $89 (FZEX)
WD Black 2TB $150 (FZEX)
Hitachi HGST 2TB $180 (7K4000)

These are all reasonable choices. You get what you pay for, but any of these are made to do what you want.

Newf.

.

melikepie · Jan 23, 2014

sunder25 :

Why does that cost so much?

USAFRet · Jan 23, 2014

melikepie :

5 yr warranty, for one reason

melikepie · Jan 23, 2014

USAFRet :

Yeah, but the WD Black 2TB is $30 cheaper and it has a 5 year warranty. I just don't get why there is a $180 2TB drive.

USAFRet · Jan 23, 2014

melikepie :

USAFRet :

Yeah, but the WD Black 2TB is $30 cheaper and it has a 5 year warranty. I just don't get why there is a $180 2TB drive.

It has that magical word "Enterprise" next to it.

melikepie · Jan 23, 2014

I'm probably just going to get a 1TB Black or 1TB Blue. Will the Black be relevant enough in 5 years to make it worth buying it for it's warranty ($20 more)?

spdragoo · Jan 23, 2014

You mean in terms of performance? Probably -- hard drives max out on their disk-to-buffer transfer speeds at 1Gbps (about 1/6 as fast as SATA 3.0's 6Gbps), but that's still extremely fast; you can't usually find residential services with connection speeds anywhere close to that (the highest I've seen in the USA top out around 50Mbps or so). And let's face it, a terabyte of data storage is a lot of space (~ 200 single-sided DVDs).

Newf · Jan 23, 2014

melikepie :

Well, you do get more for your extra money than just a longer warranty. The Black 1TB has a little more robust build and a better data processor which makes it a little faster than the 1TB Blue. It is also a newer model. The 2TB Black also adds spindle bearings at both ends of the platter, making it more likely to last without errors long term.

Now, from a practical standpoint, I just yesterday received a 1TB Blue drive that I am going to use in a 10 year old AMD X2 3800 system. The original Seagate drive is starting to make noises I don't like, and since Win XP is nearing its end of support, I will either switch to Ubuntu or put a fresh final copy of XP on it with all available updates. That old Seagate is nothing special, (a desktop 160GB SATA), and 10 years of reliable home use is quite reasonable. I would be more concerned about the newer Seagates, only because there seems to be so many people who claim problems with them in the last few years. I can't remember whether the 1TB or 1.5TB models a couple years back had huge failure rates, but since it's so easy to buy something else I tend to stick with WD. Never had one fail.

Hitachi bought into the hard drive business back around 2002 from IBM. IBM drives were considered state of the art, but around 2000 they had one new series of drives with massive failures and lost money on that end of the businees, hence the sale. You just never know. Hitachi sold this business to WD, and now you see HGST drives primarily marketed towards the server and business end of the storage market. AFAIK these are good drives with prices to match.

You pays your money and takes your chances...

Newf.

.

chawlie33 · Jan 23, 2014

WD Caviar Black is the one I'd pick. Personally I tried it and it never let me down.

melikepie · Jan 25, 2014

Newf :

melikepie :

Well, you do get more for your extra money than just a longer warranty. The Black 1TB has a little more robust build and a better data processor which makes it a little faster than the 1TB Blue. It is also a newer model. The 2TB Black also adds spindle bearings at both ends of the platter, making it more likely to last without errors long term.
.

What are the chances the spindle bearings will help it last longer?

USAFRet · Jan 25, 2014

melikepie :

"last longer" is mostly irrelevant. Just depends on whether you want a longer or shorter warranty.
Whatever critical data is on that drive is backed up elsewhere. Right? Right?

In the event of a drive fail, RMA and bring up the data from your backup. Or if out of warranty, toss it and replace.

popatim · Jan 25, 2014

As for relevance, consider that the 1tb black was introduced just 5 years ago as a top of theline drive.

Today we have 4tb drives.

So in about 5 yrs I would think we would be seeing 12-16tb drives with 4tb being mainstream.

sunder25 · Jan 25, 2014

popatim :

Might be, but you can only make a magnetic imprint so small. They have to start hitting the wall sometime.

Seagate Barracuda vs WD Green vs WD Black

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