WD Blue or Black?

[Migzzbleh]

I'm in store for a new HDD and was wondering if the 25dollar difference between the two 1tb models actually mean a lot in performance?

I'm currently taking up Industrial Engineering and constantly use my desktop as a means of :
Research
Autocad2014
MS OFFICE 2013
Slight Gaming

I just need something that has big enough storage, reliable performance, and wont break down in hopefully the next three years.

 

[Icaraeus]

The Black HDDs are faster but I think they make more noise. If you want a balance you can go with a Seagate Barracuda drive, 7200RPM is fast enough for most tasks. If you're working with large projects an SSD will be significantly faster and don't make noise, but they're more expensive.

 

[ronintexas]

I swear by the WD Black drives - a 5 year warranty is the best out there - they perform well and are very reliable. The WD Blue, Green and Red drives are good, but the Black are worth the price....Seagate makes good drives also - I just don't think there is anything better than the WD Black drives.

 

[gizzard1987]

The Western Digital Blacks are not faster...The only difference between a Blue and a Black is the warranty.

Not sure why people always get the Blacks and the Velociraptors mixed up.

 

[ronintexas]

If that is what you choose to believe gizzard - go right ahead and purchase the Blue drives. The WD Black drives have unique features:

WD's dynamic caching algorithm improves performance in real time by optimizing cache allocation between reads and writes. For example, if there's an overwhelming percentage of read traffic as opposed to write traffic, the drive automatically allocates more cache for read data, which reduces congestion and improves overall drive performance.

It isn't like a Black drive will have twice the speed of a blue drive - that isn't going to happen. It might be 5% - 25% max depending upon use within the system.

 

[gizzard1987]

The reality of the matter is that you're never going to notice a difference in performance, ever. If you bottleneck at 64 MB cache, which both drives can have, then you need a better solution. Either way I'm supporting the Black, because it's got a better warranty, not because it has a marketing gimmick on it. If you want faster, buy a SSD. If you want cheaper, go for a WD Blue (2 Year Warranty). If you want a little more peace of mind, and while still staying cheaper, get a WD Black(5 Year Warranty).


http://hdd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/WD-Blue-1TB-2012-vs-WD-Black-1TB-2013/1779vs1822
This is a benchmark between the 2 drives. According to the user benchmarks, there is a 7% speed boost. However, the synthetic benchmarks suggest all speeds are the same.