If you are in the market looking for a new hard drive from Western Digital, then you will realize that the company is known for color coding their hard drives.
There is nothing surprising about this as different companies have different methods of differentiating between their products, and the concept of color coding is a rather simple, yet effective way of doing so.
The most common types of WD drives that you will find in the market are the Western Digital Blue, Black, as well as the Green. Now the more important question that is up for debate here is the difference between these three different hard drives.
Even though SSDs are on the rise, buying a hard drive is still the smarter option along with an SSD, because the cost per gigabyte on the hardware side of things is still the best, and something an SSD will not be able to rival any time soon.
Moreover, a hard drive can also be used in some other areas where an SSD usually can’t, such as a NAS storage unit.
Below, we are going to discuss the differences, and find out which one is the right choice for the right type of user.
Western Digital Blue
The Western Digital Blue hard drives come with a single 1TB platter. This means that the read and write speeds are effectively faster due to the data density being higher.
This also means that the overall travel requirement of the header is going to be reduced since each square inch will have more data stored in it. Seek times are also reduced, and the raw speed is actually much faster than you would see on some of the Western Digital Black hard drives that were known for their speed.
The maximum capacity for a Western Digital Blue with 7,200 RPM is 1TB, whereas the 5,200 RPM option goes as high as 6TB. Normally, for those who are looking for a faster solution, we do suggest the 7,200 MB option simply because of faster overall speeds.
Below are some of the pros, as well as the cons of the Western Digital Blue drives.
Pros
- Offers higher speeds for gaming.
- Comes with a higher density which provides a better cost to performance ratio as well as speed.
- Despite being fast, the hard drive remains relatively quiet.
Cons
- The faster 7,200 RPM model tops up at 1TB capacity.
- The warranty is only for 2 years.
Western Digital Black
In most of the industries that are focusing mainly on speed and performance, the color black is considered the flagship color.
However, things are different when you look at the hard drives by Western Digital. Sure, the WD Black was known as the speed king, but in terms of performance, the WD Blue is certainly ahead.
So, what is the difference here? Well, the Black hard drives by Western Digital are using 800GB platters instead of 1TB, meaning that the speed is somewhat slower than the Blue variant.
However, you do have a higher capacity that reaches up to 4TB on a single drive. Additionally, the good thing is that Western Digital Black drives are known for their endurance, and are used in production scenarios the most.
They are also accompanied by a 5-year warranty, so you do get that as a benefit.
Below, you will find some common pros as well as some cons related to the WD Black hard drives.
Pros
- Higher capacity drives ranging up to 4TB.
- Great endurance.
- 5-year warranty.
Cons
- The hard drive is a bit noisier.
- The cost per gigabyte is higher.
Western Digital Green
Just like black is the color most associated with performance, green is thecolor that is largely associated with efficiency.
At first glance, the Western Digital Green drives were made mainly because they were supposed to serve as archival drives. Which means that they were slower, and they were also low on power consumption, and most importantly, they were a lot cheaper. However, they did compromise on the overall endurance of the drive itself.
Keeping that in mind, if you are looking for cheap storage solutions that won’t consume a lot of power, and you are not really concerned with the overall performance as well, then buying the Western Digital Green hard drives is definitely a great option that you should go for.
You can get 2TB of storage, but it is comparatively cheaper as well, so there is nothing too bad about this drive. As far as the pros and cons are considered, they are listed below for your convenience.
Pros
- You get a higher capacity at a lower price tag.
- The overall power consumption is lower as well.
- The hard drive works quietly in most cases.
- It is cheap and works really well for archival purposes.
Cons
- The speeds are not really good for a primary hard drive, or for a gaming drive.
- The wake and seek times are slower as well.
- The overall reliability is not the best we have seen
- You only get a 2-year warranty.
Conclusion
For anyone who is in the market to buy a good hard drive, you are going to be getting a lot of options that you can choose from. This is certainly a great thing as it allows us to pick and choose the right one without any issues.
However, the great thing about Western Digital is that they always color code their drives, making it even easier for the consumers to pick the option that they should go for.
As far as the color schemes are concerned, there are more like Western Digital Red, and Purple but the differences are so minor that mentioning them would have been overcrowding.
With that said, if you are wondering what the main differences are between these color coded hard drives, we hope that this article will help you make the right decision. Once you have made the decision, buying these hard drives should be an easy job.