Western Digital Caviar - Black Blue Green

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Bingy

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Hi I was looking at the Western Digital Caviar Hard Drives and thought were was only one version on the 640gb hard drive. Till I found out that theres the Black, Blue and Green version. My problem is I dont know which one to get. Can any 1 recommend me which version to get.(espically if you have one, and why you picked one over another.) The PC is used for heavy gaming and every thing else you use a PC for/ internet downloading, music. I wont be using Photoshop or doing any encoding or anything else like that.

Can find info on the different versions here. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/index.asp?cat=3&language=en

Thanks
 

Bingy

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Also should i consider the Seagate 640gb with 32mb cache instead?

What would you get the Western Digital Caviar 640gb 16mb cache or the Seagate 640gb 32mb cache, keeping in mind gaming will be the main use for the PC
 
G

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as far as I know

green = low power / low performance
blue= medium power / medium performance
black = high power / high performance

IIRC they are rougly the same price right? So unless you need a low heat solution, are running a low power HTPC or are particularly environmentally concious (even then the couple of watts saved using the green drive is almost irrelevant when compared to the amount of energy used to manufacture it) I can't see a compelling reason not to go for the back version and maximum read/write speed.

Stuart
 

Bingy

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Blue is $121-$127 Black is $152. Thats for New Zealand dollars were i leave. Spending $152 I might as well go for a 750gb HD. So I think i might go with the Blue version.

But know I have another problem. Should I get the Western Digital Caviar 640gb 16mb cache or the Seagate 640gb 32mb cache, keeping in mind gaming will be the main use for the PC. Did any one have to make this discison?

How does a good and a poor Hard Drive effect gaming? Do hard drives only effect the loading times of game start ups and loading levels? Not fps or actaull game performance?
 

hacker91

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goto Newegg and get a WD 640AAKS thats the fastest 640gb on the planet trust me its as fast as some of the 10k raptors. If your wondering what its nomenclature is its a Black drive without that title.
 
G

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i'm getting a seagate barracuda 7200.11 that according to mose benchmarks is just under the performance of the velociraptor 300 for a fifth of the price :) so i'm going that route
 
i'm getting a seagate barracuda 7200.11 that according to mose benchmarks is just under the performance of the velociraptor 300 for a fifth of the price :) so i'm going that route

For 15 years i have used nothing but Maxtor and seagate but I will never touch another one .

Many seagate 7200.11's dont work from new , many are hopelessly slow .
I drew the short straw and got a dead drive and I wouldnt have minded but the NZ vendor called C1shoppingmall havent replaced it even though they have it RMA'ed and know its dead , and Seagate havent done a thing to help me get a replacement from them .


 

Zorg

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The WD 6400AAKS gets ~91.5MB/sec. avg. read and the 6401AALS gets ~100MB/sec. avg. read as measured with HD Tune.

Seagate 7200.11s are known to have problems.
 

Bingy

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can some one send me the link from newegg with the search results being 640gb(or what ever will show the best results of 640gb HD's) in the search box.

For example type 640gb into the search box, click go. And copy the next page address and paste it and post it here.

For some reason the site doesnt allow me to search anything now.
 

hathost82

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the black drive are performance/gamer drive blue are the general purpose drives and green are the low power tree hugger drives.
 

Bingy

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Ive seen some HD Tune benchmarks and the WD has a much better access time around 11-12 while the Seagate has averagering of around 14.7 or so. How does access time effect your performance.

Though the WD seem to have a lower average of around the lower 90'sMB while the Seagate has a average of around 95 and up.
 

Bingy

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I still i dont know what to get look at these benchmarks

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,668489/Reviews/Eleven_SATA_hard_drives_with_640_to_1500_Gigabyte_reviewed/

Is this a actaull high failure rate with the seagate 640gbs? Newegg reviews only really show that like the 750gp ones have the high failure rates?
 

Bingy

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ok some one tell me this. Is it better to have an access time of around 11-12ms with ever thing else good averages and speeds. OR is it better to have an access time of 15+ms BUT slighty better every thing else, above good averages and speeds. Only slightly better then the first option.

Thank you.
 

Bingy

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Im just gonna get the Black one WD6401AALS. ThoughI would like to know how would a WD 640gb BLACK compare to a 750GB GREEN? Im guessing the black would be far more better interms of performance?
 

DevilMind

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Just buy Blue...they are good Drives & make less noise than Black...
i got Blue & i love it...i have been using Seagate all my life....but i got my WD blue by seller's mistake, he sent me WD Blue rather than Seagate....

In my experience Seagate just makes toooo much noise....
i have using been over a year now & my WD Blue is still Quite :) ....
so just go for WD Blue...and i also do a lot of gaming, media & net stuff :)

-
 
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