Better Gaming HDD?

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SyferOnline

SyferOnline

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Aug 16, 2013
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I'm about to purchase a 1tb only HDD for storage and a few games for my new build. I had my eyes on either a WD Black, Blue or Seagate FireCuda SSHD. I hear the Black is noisy but good for gaming and same with the FireCuda SSHD. I also heard that the Blue is faster than Black. I just need a solid HDD that will give me good load times. Of course not SSD speeds. So I'm thinking about getting the FireCuda SSHD. Any tips?
 
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Blacks are faster, they're the performance variant of the consumer WD line. Having said that, they tend to be a lot more expensive, often around 150% of the price of the same capacity blue. While they're decent HDDs, they're not massively faster than blues. Part of what you pay for is the longer warranty.

I was in the same position as you and ended up with a Seagate hybrid drive for my game library. I found it was actually priced slightly lower than the Black and for gaming - at least in theory - you often load the same assets repeatedly (like you die for example and have to reload the level), so the caching can help **at least in theory**.
Even if you never make much use of the cache, the firecudas are still 7200RPM drives at heart...
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CRO5513Y

CRO5513Y

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Mar 15, 2017
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To my knowledge the WD Black is faster than the Blue but i may be mistaken. As for which is fastest, the FireCuda without a doubt since it's a SSHD. If you get a good price on one can't go wrong. I am running a 1TB FireCuda right now for games storage and it is noticeably faster than my old WD Blue 500GB HDD. Havn't noticed any noise problems so far or anything like that. Hope this helps :)
 
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rhysiam

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Mar 24, 2013
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Blacks are faster, they're the performance variant of the consumer WD line. Having said that, they tend to be a lot more expensive, often around 150% of the price of the same capacity blue. While they're decent HDDs, they're not massively faster than blues. Part of what you pay for is the longer warranty.

I was in the same position as you and ended up with a Seagate hybrid drive for my game library. I found it was actually priced slightly lower than the Black and for gaming - at least in theory - you often load the same assets repeatedly (like you die for example and have to reload the level), so the caching can help **at least in theory**.
Even if you never make much use of the cache, the firecudas are still 7200RPM drives at heart, so aren't massively slower than the Blacks anyway. I wouldn't pay a big premium over the Black for a Hybrid drive, but I'd certainly go hybrid if the price was similar.

Don't ignore the older Seagate Hybrid drives either that still seem to be kicking around for a little less than the newer models. Obviously if priced similarly the newer model is the pick, but if you can save a bit of cash it might be worthwhile.
 
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