Western Digital Black vs Blue vs Green

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Minar

Minar

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Hi guys,

I am looking for a secondary hard drive that I will put most of my larger games on and use as a mass storage device; since I have a 250GB SSD which I use for OS, programs and a select few games. I am probably going to get a 3 TB drive, but I could be swayed into a 2TB if they are more reliable (which is what I heard).

The most important factor for me is for the drive to be QUIET but a decent speed, I had a hard drive that made a grinding sound whenever it was accessed (and sometimes when it wasn't) and it drove me crazy, even though I wear headphones whenever I use my PC.

So, I would love to hear your recommendations, and thanks for taking the time to read ^^

-Minar
 
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ronintexas
Minar - the blue/green/red/black/purple drives all have the same basic mechanisms - the major differences are the algorithms in the firmware to access the data stored on the drives. The old drives (5+ years old) were noisy....the new ones are not....I have 4 drives in 2 computers sitting under my desk - I never hear them....

The only issue I have with the green drives is they "power down" during periods of non-use (it is actually a "standy-by" type of thing). It takes 2-3 seconds for the drive to spin back up when you try to access the drive.

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ronintexas

ronintexas

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The blue drive is the standard consumer drive, the green drive has "green power" features, and the black drive is the performance drive. The differences are the firmware (optimized for green power or speed) and the warranty. My experience has been the WD drives are quiet and reliable....I prefer the black drives.

My experience is the smaller capacity drives have better performance. I run high speed RAID arrays at work - and generally go for the smaller drives in large quantities to improve performance.

I run 3 drives - one SSD (128GB), 1 data drive (1TB WD Black) and 1 backup drive for the network (2TB WD Black).
 
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Minar

Minar

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Hmm, is that the case for all the drives? I know the greens are completely silent, as I have seen them being used, but I am also aware they are quite bad performance wise compared to the blacks/blues. HDD's suck :/
 
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Minar

Minar

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However, do the blacks make any noise at all, especially while not being accessed? The blacks are also quite expensive compared to the other 2 over here in the UK, so I'm not sure :/
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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The older WD Black drives (5+ years ago) were a lot noisier. Most of them were 300GB and below. They made a lot of clicking noises. The high speed SAS drives are also noisy. The consumer based Black, Blue, Green, Red and now Purple drives are quiet (they basically all have the same mechanics in them).
 
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Outlander_04

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It clicks like crazy when seeking . Has done from new . Its a good drive . Its now 6 years old and was in daily use for 5 years

The performance margin is small though compared to a blue and IMO not worth it
 
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Minar

Minar

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[/quotemsg] It clicks like crazy when seeking . Has done from new . Its a good drive . Its now 6 years old and was in daily use for 5 years

The performance margin is small though compared to a blue and IMO not worth it [/quotemsg]

Hmm, do you know how loud the blues are by any chance? From scouring the internet I think I might just go with a green, they might be slower but since its not for my OS I can deal with it since it is completely silent.
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Minar - the blue/green/red/black/purple drives all have the same basic mechanisms - the major differences are the algorithms in the firmware to access the data stored on the drives. The old drives (5+ years old) were noisy....the new ones are not....I have 4 drives in 2 computers sitting under my desk - I never hear them....

The only issue I have with the green drives is they "power down" during periods of non-use (it is actually a "standy-by" type of thing). It takes 2-3 seconds for the drive to spin back up when you try to access the drive.

 
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Minar

Minar

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Alright, I think I will maybe just order a blue or a black and see how they sound, but I thank you and Outlander_04 for all your advice, you have helped a lot :)
 
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Outlander_04

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It clicks like crazy when seeking . Has done from new . Its a good drive . Its now 6 years old and was in daily use for 5 years

The performance margin is small though compared to a blue and IMO not worth it [/quotemsg]

Hmm, do you know how loud the blues are by any chance? From scouring the internet I think I might just go with a green, they might be slower but since its not for my OS I can deal with it since it is completely silent.[/quotemsg]


I do have some WD blue drives here . One is in my HTPC , andopther is a back up drive in my desktop .
They are quiet . MUCH quieter than the plack

You are incorrect about the drives being largely the same . The blacks have additional bearings to help stabilize the spinning disk , and they have two controller chips in parallel . It is not just algorithms and firmware
 
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