Western Digital vs Seagate Barracuda

Status
Not open for further replies.

haris25

Distinguished
May 3, 2013
43
0
18,530
Hi everyone, I needed your advice regarding the selection of a hard drive. I wanted to buy a 500 GB hard drive for mygaming needs. should i go for a Western Digital or Seagate
 
Solution
Each company is quite great. The Western Digital Blacks are typically a bit higher performance speed wise, but with a hard drive you won't notice a difference. The Blues are your standard drives, greens are "Power Saving" drives, and red is more for networking/server purposes. The Seagate Barracuda drives are great and sit between the Western Digital Blue and Black performance wise, but typically a fair bit cheaper. Just make sure its the 7200RPM modules.

fatboytyler

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2012
590
0
19,160
Each company is quite great. The Western Digital Blacks are typically a bit higher performance speed wise, but with a hard drive you won't notice a difference. The Blues are your standard drives, greens are "Power Saving" drives, and red is more for networking/server purposes. The Seagate Barracuda drives are great and sit between the Western Digital Blue and Black performance wise, but typically a fair bit cheaper. Just make sure its the 7200RPM modules.
 
Solution
The new Blues are actually faster than most of the blacks, and only about $4 more than a comparable seagate.

I personally stay away from the Seagate Barracudas - I've worked with a lot of drives in my time, and the Barracudas tend to run hot and noisy.
 
Blue or black are both good. The blacks are my personal preference simply for the warranty and the fact they are reliable as hell.

I actually have tons of western digital hard drives from over the years, none are dead... -.- So I definitely say go for Western Digital and avoid seagate.
 

fatboytyler

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2012
590
0
19,160
Seagates are just as reliable, it all depends on who you ask. I've got a 500GB Black in one of my builds and its been running great for quite some time. I've also known of people who have Barracuda's (Seagate) in their builds that are well more than 5 years old and they still perform great. Bottom line, you aren't going to go wrong with either one unless you're unlucky and get a bad one, which can happen with either brand. Go with whichever fits the budget best.
 
fatboytyler, you also have to consider their quality at this very moment. It's all good to say that Seagate was a very good company five years ago; I'd agree with you. However, in the past five years, their quality has been slowly slipping; they are just as reliable now, but they run hot and tend to be noisy.
 

haris25

Distinguished
May 3, 2013
43
0
18,530
I will be going for a 500 GB WD. These are the options.

WD 500Gb Caviar Green 64MB Cache
WD 500Gb Caviar Blue 16 MB Cache

What are your suggestions Blue or Green

 

Strict418

Honorable
May 5, 2013
1
0
10,510
WD Blacks any day. I've had various Seagate drives fail prematurely, and two WD Greens, but the WD Blacks I have now (three of them) are going strong. Only down side is the noise. But I don't feel like I'm playing russian roulette with my data any more! Hehe...
 
Neither.

The green spins slower and stops when it's not being read, because it's designed to save energy, not be fast.

The blue has only 16MB of cashe.

You SHOULD be able to find a 64MB cashe blue for pretty much the exact same price... and heck, for $10 more, you can get a TB of storage.
 
I think the Blacks are quieter than they used to be. I have one that is coming up on three years old that is one of the noisiest drives I've ever owned (although it's never had an problems in operation). OTOH, the ones I've bought over the last year have been pretty quiet. They work well in RAID-1 pairs too.
 

fatboytyler

Distinguished
Jan 29, 2012
590
0
19,160


My Black drive in my other build which is coming up on a year and a half now, has been pretty quiet under load.
 

SpecsGuy

Honorable
Sep 12, 2013
37
0
10,560
Do not get WD Blue!!! It causes many freezing problems to your system. I know this because I own one and I want to change it with a Seagate Barracuda. Go with WD Black or Seagate Barracuda. They are the best.
 

Eliposin

Honorable
Jun 4, 2013
69
0
10,640


I've got a 1TB blue and it has caused zero issues. It's almost as fast as my SATA II SSD. Which is saying something to compare between the SSD (older connection or not).
 

MidnightDistort

Distinguished
May 11, 2012
887
0
19,160
Both Seagate and Western Digital are good. I have had both WD and Seagates fail on me and there are seagates that still work for many years. I am partial to WD but in the end it's really up to you what brand you choose. Both will do the job, no drive lasts forever and as much as we want them too it just hasn't happened yet.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.