Help me choose from these two please.

[wolfrahm21]

I want to add a storage drive to my system. I have a Kingston 120GB 3k for win7 OS, and a 5400rpm Toshiba from my laptop (still all vital data inside).

I want to buy a good 1TB drive as my main storage drive and I will use my toshiba drive for external file transfers. Now I have access to this 2 drives but specs are almost the same only the series are different.

Black Drive
http://www.gltsa.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&path=25_28&product_id=356

and this...

Blue Drive
http://www.softland.com.sa/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1399

Im totally fine with the second choice being a bare drive, I have sata cables from my mobo.

I just need to know, which one is the better choice without counting on price as well...

Any ideas?

 

[dingo07]

a WD Black drive is better than a Blue drive - http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/desktop/

see the Product Selector description...

 

[wolfrahm21]

Im really confused, caviar black has 64mb cache like blue and 7200rpm like blue. So what really is the deciding factor between the 2? I mean except from the price and the warranty of course.

I need to know spec wise if there is some hidden info on this version of caviar blue that I need to understand. Please anyone to shed some light?

 

[manofchalk]

Black drives are faster than Blue drives.
Though if its possible (websites wont load for me, cant see if they have it), I would suggest getting a Seagate Barracuda. They are a bit faster than WD Black drives and often at a much cheaper price.

This is the model number to look for.
ST1000DM003

EDIT:
On paper the Black and Blue drives are the same, but the Black is made of higher binned (ie Quality) components. Chances are it will also have more advanced firmware and other features that just look like marketing speak when its on paper.

 

[wolfrahm21]

a WD Black drive is better than a Blue drive

hi thanks for the answer, i see you have 2 blacks on you. Is it really noisy as the internet claims it is??? I own a toshiba laptop hdd and i can hear rumblings but its normal for me.

 

[dingo07]

hi thanks for the answer, i see you have 2 blacks on you. Is it really noisy as the internet claims it is??? I own a toshiba laptop hdd and i can hear rumblings but its normal for me.

I only hear the drives when I'm churning audio or video, basically, when they are working I hear them - which is what I expect. I want to know something is going on. If I don't hear them I know something is wrong, and that's never happend, ever (yet).
My fans (which are not good ones) are what I'm getting tired of hearing, actually, and am looking to replace them soon with high CFM ones. My issue is keeping my SLI cards cooled in a relatively packed mid case.

 

[Onus]

The Black is the better drive. With Seagate cutting their warranty back to two or even one year, I'm not confident they haven't changed their materials and/or methods in a way that lowers quality.
One of my 1TB WD Black drives is somewhat loud, but not atrociously so; it has always been loud, it isn't getting worse. Another two (newer ones) are quieter.

I've bought Seagate Barracudas and Spinpoint F3s. Whatever the benchmarks say (I believe they trade), the WD Black "feels" faster to me. That alone would not be worth the price difference (I use SSDs as boot drives), but still having a five year warranty while the others have been reduced to a miserable one year (in the case of the F3) is definitely worthwhile.

Edit: To be fair, I have not had to return any drive that failed in service for more years than I remember. I have not bought a Seagate or Samsung drive since they cut their warranties, and I've bought four WD Blacks (2 each of 500GB and 1TB). One of the 1TB drives was DOA, but its replacement was fine.

 

[wolfrahm21]

The factor here is. I am really divided if this blue 1tb has all the specs of the black and I think blues use less power and less noise, and If we bring in the price as well we got a very good deal here. right?

The only catch is the warranty. 3year (blue), 5 year (black). But as you guys mentioned. I also never had a drive fail on me ever...

I have 1 year and 2 year warranty drives before both from seagate and wd that I used for more or less 6 years span. I ended up giving them away or sold a few, coz I needed SATA drives. Its a pain, I cant find a review of this blue.

I may be going out in an hour to buy the black just for general recommendations. Thanks guys, Love this forum... cheers!!!

 

[wanderer11]

I just bought the blue drive you linked and hooked it up yesterday. I can't hear it over my case fans. The price increase didn't seem worth it to me to get a black.

 

[wolfrahm21]

Im currently formatting the black drive. And I dont hear a thing either (maybe sound is being drowned by my fans). Anyway I have encountered no issues so far.

ATM I am reformatting my whole pc and using the new black drive as a complement to my SSD. All data files will be on black as well as the user and program data folder.

I was gonna buy the blue, but the stupid salesman has only one piece left, and maybe he has promised it to a friend, coz he said that it can only be purchased via a complete system build sale. But im pretty happy with my black @ 53% formatting atm.

 

[dingo07]

you won't be dissapointed!

 

[Onus]

Excellent, I'm sure it will do well for you. I just formatted another one myself; will go into a RAID1 with its mate this weekend.