Which HDD Should I Get? (No SSDs)

[Pwnsauce01]

I have a question, which HDD should I get? Here are my options: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB. Seagate Barracuda 1TB, and Western Digital BLUE SERIES 1TB. I honestly see no difference between the Black and the Blue, you are paying 20 more bucks for the black even though the black is the same speed as the blue.....

 

[turkey3_scratch]

The Black are higher quality, and there are more to drives than just speed.

 

[Pwnsauce01]

The Black are higher quality, and there are more to drives than just speed.

More drives? What do you mean? Also which one would you get? Do you think paying an extra 20 bucks is worth it....? I don't really think so, but I would like to know your point of view. Also which one do you recommend out of the three options?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

If you need it to be more reliable then I'd spend the $20. I think it's actually a bit faster, too (not as in spinning speed but faster still). I meant that there are more aspects to hard drives than just RPM.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

We haven't bought a HD in over 5 years. What's it for ... Gaming ?

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hdd-charts-2013/-17-PCMark-7-Gaming,2915.html

In order of gaming perforemance

Seagate Desktop SSHD = 9.76 MB/sec ($69.99 for 1 TB Model)
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ftPfrH/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dx001

Seagate Barracuda = 6.55 MB/sec ($45.88 for 1 TB Model)
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dCxfrH/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003

WB Black = 6.34 MB/sec ($69.00 for 1 TB Model)
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Fz2kcf/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd1003fzex

WB Blue = 4.01 MB/sec ($47.49 for 1 TB Model) *
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/MwW9TW/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex

That listing is a bit unfair as the 500 GB model was slower than the 1 and 2 GB models as the latter had greater areal density. But it certainly was slower than the WD Black.

If not a gaming box, then you can look at other performance criteria

Application loading

Seagate SSHD - 17.25 MB/s
Barracuda = 4.20
WB Black = 4.30
WD Blue = 2.23

For other usages ....

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hdd-charts-2013/benchmarks,134.html

As i said, for the last 5 years we have used nothing but SSHDs in both laptops and desktops... so far not a single unit has failed. Those we own are used mostly in workstations with primary usage being AutoCAD. The ones we build for others are either installed on municipal offices, engineering forums or gaming boxes.

Before that we used the Barracuda 7200.14's, 7200.12s ... some of these are still in use as portable backup drives which are stored off site. We also had a few WD Blacks but saw no measurable difference in speed or reliability ... Seagate drives are relatively easy to return for exchange under warrant ... we returned one... oh I guess in 2003 or so. Delivered replacement, next day and we sent failed drive back in same box new one came in. We did pay for the ON mail but not the return. WD failure was in I'd have to guess 2006, they were not very helpful. They would not ship until getting old one back even with credit card. We shipped overnight, they sent snail mail... overall downtime was 6 days. As for who changed what policies in last 10 years, I have had no experience... haven't had a storage failure in about 10 years.

 

[Tradesman1]

Black vs Blue are very similar, as mentioned the Blacks have slightly better components from equally specced Blues (i.e. same RPM and Cache size), the Blacks will often test out up to about 10% faster, though in everyday computing and gaming you're not likely to notice 😉

 

[Pwnsauce01]

We haven't bought a HD in over 5 years. What's it for ... Gaming ?

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hdd-charts-2013/-17-PCMark-7-Gaming,2915.html

In order of gaming perforemance

Seagate Desktop SSHD = 9.76 MB/sec ($69.99 for 1 TB Model)
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ftPfrH/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dx001

Seagate Barracuda = 6.55 MB/sec ($45.88 for 1 TB Model)
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dCxfrH/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003

WB Black = 6.34 MB/sec ($69.00 for 1 TB Model)
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Fz2kcf/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd1003fzex

WB Blue = 4.01 MB/sec ($47.49 for 1 TB Model) *
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/MwW9TW/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex

That listing is a bit unfair as the 500 GB model was slower than the 1 and 2 GB models as the latter had greater areal density. But it certainly was slower than the WD Black.

If not a gaming box, then you can look at other performance criteria

Application loading

Seagate SSHD - 17.25 MB/s
Barracuda = 4.20
WB Black = 4.30
WD Blue = 2.23

For other usages ....

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hdd-charts-2013/benchmarks,134.html

As i said, for the last 5 years we have used nothing but SSHDs in both laptops and desktops... so far not a single unit has failed. Those we own are used mostly in workstations with primary usage being AutoCAD. The ones we build for others are either installed on municipal offices, engineering forums or gaming boxes.

Before that we used the Barracuda 7200.14's, 7200.12s ... some of these are still in use as portable backup drives which are stored off site. We also had a few WD Blacks but saw no measurable difference in speed or reliability ... Seagate drives are relatively easy to return for exchange under warrant ... we returned one... oh I guess in 2003 or so. Delivered replacement, next day and we sent failed drive back in same box new one came in. We did pay for the ON mail but not the return. WD failure was in I'd have to guess 2006, they were not very helpful. They would not ship until getting old one back even with credit card. We shipped overnight, they sent snail mail... overall downtime was 6 days. As for who changed what policies in last 10 years, I have had no experience... haven't had a storage failure in about 10 years.

So in conclusion, would you recommend Black or Seagate Barracuda (No SSHDs either, I forgot to mention that lol)? I am using it for games and for schoolwork and things in the future.

 

[madmatt30]

I wouldn't pay the extra for a black personally , I've been using Toshiba drives as of late - good compromise, as fast as the seagates, quieter than both Seagate & WD drives
Reliability seems good to me, not had a drive fail in 2 years+ (8 of these drives & they get a lot of use)

Tosh haven't been making drives long enough to garner real long term reliability but if you look around on drive failure rates at the minute they're second only to Hitachi.

 

[Pwnsauce01]

Guys, I am just curious, which Drive is the fastest out of all 3. Black, Blue, or the Barracuda. Can I just have one answer?

 

[madmatt30]

Black & barracuda about the same, blue slightly slower.

In real life you wouldn't notice the difference.

The black is a noisy drive though .

 

[Pwnsauce01]

Black & barracuda about the same, blue slightly slower.

In real life you wouldn't notice the difference.

The black is a noisy drive though .

Bro... please tell me one name.

Which one do I get then, the Black or the Barracuda. One option. Please list me the name of the fastest / best hard drive.

 

[Tradesman1]

Get the Black.

 

[rcald2000]

+Pwnsauce01 HGST (Hitachi) HDDs have the lowest failure rates. Ironically Western Digital owns that brand, but somehow hasn't transferred that knowledge to their own engineers. I say this because WDC, as well as other brands, still have higher failures rates than HGST.

HGST is my recommendation.

 

[oobymach]

WD drives larger than a couple terabytes have high failure rates, if you're going with wd make it a 1 or 2tb black hdd. My black 2tb is still going strong and so is my blue 1tb.

 

[Pwnsauce01]

WD drives larger than a couple terabytes have high failure rates, if you're going with wd make it a 1 or 2tb black hdd. My black 2tb is still going strong and so is my blue 1tb.

you recommend barracuda or black

lots of people in their builds online use barracuda so thats what i thought i should use

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Black is better but more money. I recommend black; I've experience noisy HDDs in terms of WD blue and Seagate Barricuda. Better quality control on the black is probably worth it.