Question WD colors

[ditrate]

As I understand WD drive colors are describing different purposes of usage (Black - for server; blue- for pc's, Green- is ecology friendly, etc.). But how is they differs inside?

 

[rgd1101]

quality of components

 

[falcon291]

Black is the best, it will last longer than any other WD disk. So, its guarantee period is a lot longer.

I don't buy blue or green, but if your budget is limited, blue is kind of OK, green can only be usable for storing media, as it will have performance issues.

Purple is for surveillance systems; I don't recommend them for PCs.

Red and Red Pro are for servers again I don't recommend them for PCs.

Check the guarantee periods, you are paying more for better HDs, because of their speed and their MTBF (Mean time between failures) so their guarantee period.

 

[ditrate]

Black is the best, it will last longer than any other WD disk. So, its guarantee period is a lot longer.

I don't buy blue or green, but if your budget is limited, blue is kind of OK, green can only be usable for storing media, as it will have performance issues.

Purple is for surveillance systems; I don't recommend them for PCs.

Red and Red Pro are for servers again I don't recommend them for PCs.

Check the guarantee periods, you are paying more for better HDs, because of their speed and their MTBF (Mean time between failures) so their guarantee period.

That was a pleasure to read, thanks.

 

[fzabkar]

This is what WD said when it was caught out attempting to redefine the term "RPM":

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/09/western-digital-is-trying-to-redefine-the-word-rpm/

For select products, Western Digital has published RPM speed within a “class” or “performance class” for numerous years rather than publishing specific spindle speeds. We also fine-tune select hard drive platforms and the related HDD characteristics to create several different variations of such platforms to meet different market or application needs. By doing so, we are able to leverage our economies of scale and pass along those savings to our customers.

Essentially what they appear to be saying is that they produce a single product and then "tailor" (cripple?) its firmware in different ways to create artificial performance classes. That's how a 7200 RPM model becomes a "5400 RPM class" model. The hardware is the same, the RPM is still 7200, but the firmware is different and reports a false RPM of 5400.

 

[COLGeek]

As I understand WD drive colors are describing different purposes of usage (Black - for server; blue- for pc's, Green- is ecology friendly, etc.). But how is they differs inside?

From another site: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/different-wd-hard-drive-colors-mean

 

[SkyNetRising]

Black is the best, it will last longer than any other WD disk. So, its guarantee period is a lot longer.

Black is performance line. It will not necessary last longer.
In fact extra performance comes at the cost of life expectancy.

Purple is for surveillance systems; I don't recommend them for PCs.
Red and Red Pro are for servers again I don't recommend them for PCs.

Purple and Red are meant for 24/7 operation. Red for NAS, Purple for surveillance systems.
They work in desktop pc-s very well.

Green line - is low performance line, supposed to be more power efficient.
Currently used for low performance SSDs.

 

[geofelt]

Here is a comprehensive article on that subject.
But, be aware that this was written in 2015 .

Understanding the WD Rainbow

WD has a very diverse hard drive product line that can be difficult to decipher at times. In this article we go over the various 3.5inch hard drive lines from WD to help you decide which is right for your system.

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[MWink64]

From another site: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/different-wd-hard-drive-colors-mean

I believe the link in this post has the most accurate and up to date information in this thread. However, I'm not sure the Green line is even manufactured anymore. I was under the impression that it was discontinued and the drives were sold as higher capacity Blue drives. That's why Blue drives over roughly 1TB have poorer performance than the smaller ones.

By the way, Black drives are not made for servers or necessarily the "best" drives. I would describe them as high performance "prosumer" drives. There are other lines that will be better suited to certain applications. Also, I don't know why WD didn't just discontinue the regular Red line. That line is intended for NAS usage and apparently the SMR drives in that line are downright unsuitable for some NAS applications.

 

[CountMike]

Colors describe the way they work as well as expected speeds, it's up to user to decide what to use them for, Nothing is stopping you to use for instance "Red" as OS /BOOT drive but performance would be same as if installed in a DVR.
Btw, Blue is "New green" and they exist as 5400 and 7200 Rpm-.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The purpose of each color in the so-called the WD rainbow:

• Blue/Green: value drives. These also have more aggressive power saving measures (i.e., they'll park the heads sooner). However people have noted this may cause wear issues. Comes with a 2 year warranty most of the time
• Red/Red Plus/Red Pro: Meant for NAS drive operations. If the marketing literature is correct, these contain firmware that NAS systems (like those from QNAP or Synology) can use to optimize their performance, while Plus and Pro add more features or are built for slightly better performance and reliability. Red Pros have a 5 year warranty while the others have a 3 year one. Also Red Plus and Pro use CMR, while the normal Red uses SMR.
• Purple: Meant for surveillance and DVR type systems. So they work better with a constant, continuous workload. Also has a 3 year warranty.
• Black: High performance. WD likes to advertises these as gaming hard drives now. WD also claims these are built with stability features for reliability. Has a 5 year warranty
• Gold: These are meant for enterprise and server systems. Though they're not geared specifically for performance, but rather reliability. Typically comes with a 5 year warranty

How they differ inside is subtle, but the basic theme is there are things in there to help mitigate against physical things that could cause issues like excess vibration or whatnot. I'm pretty sure if you took the platters or the heads out, they're pretty much the same across the board.

 

[USAFRet]

And the WD Green HDD is a total waste.
'Green', supposedly to use less power (and $$) and save the planet.

Low RPM, and spins down completely when not in use.

Good marketing.

Compared to the high performance WD Black saves you a whole $5 per year.

Ask Ars: are “green” hard drives really all that green?

Are "green" drives just a marketing gimmick, or do they make a significant …

arstechnica.com

The 'savings' is not worth the performance hit.

 

[falcon291]

Black is performance line. It will not necessary last longer.
In fact extra performance comes at the cost of life expectancy.

Check the guarantee period. Blacks guarantee 5 or 7 years.

They are for performance right, but they also last longer, a lot longer than any blue or green.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Check the guarantee period. Blacks guarantee 5 or 7 years.

That doesn't mean, they can't fail sooner than end of warranty.