The Scenario: One of these 3 drives will be put into an HP Z400 running Windows 10 Enterprise, in a raid 1 configuration. The drive will be accessed very often (around 5 hours a day, occaionsally transferring large files).
The question: Will the blue's last about as long as the red's/black's, or is it common for them to fail more often than the other two, which is why it only has a 3 year warranty? Can a black survive as long as a red in a server situation? Are all the drivers basically made the exact same, but are marketed differently so WD can make more money? Really, which should I choose, and why?
P.S Please don't speak out of your ass about which would be the best for what I plan to do with it. Preferably want some first-hand experiences from someone who's dealt with all of the drives, or some online documentary about why one is better than the other/about how they are actually made differently and will perform differently under different circumstances.
Blue: 300,000 Load/Unload cycles, 2 yr warranty, sustained transfer rate 150-175 MB/s, 21-30 dBa Black: 300,000 Load/Unload cycles, 5 yr warranty, sustained transfer rate 150-218 MB/s, 29-34 dBa Red: 600,000 Load/Unload cycles, 3 year warranty, sustained transfer rate 150-175 MB/s, 21-28 dBa
Red should last the longest, Black should be the fastest, and Blue is cheapest I guess?
You may also want to look into the Se/Re drives from WD, they are actually designed for servers and aren't all that more expensive than their desktop counterparts, at least here in the States they aren't.
WD green and wd blue have been merged into a single brand " new" WD Blue so you wont get any real opinions about reliability of new series as its to early for big numbers. Ealier opinions and numbers may not apply .
WD Blue for something cheap WD Black for performance HDD. WD Red for cheap nas WD Red Pro for good nas WD RE for very good nas (Recommended in this case) But one fact that is more important than all else. Dont buy a WD green ffs
Source: 10+ years of using WD drives in personal and customer systems
Black and Blue´s are very close. the main diffrence is that black drives have a slightly beefier chasis to make them a bit more robust so to speak. And it comes with 5 yr warrenty over 2 year warrenty on the blue´s. But its more marketing, they dont perform any better then the blue´s.
Seagate Constellation Enterprise drives ($110), HGST NAS drives are right up there for reliability as well
I have 4 Seagate constellations that have been running for 4 years 24x7 No issues whatsoever. I have lost 2 blacks in 24/7 usage in the past I would not put them in a server type environment. Have not used reds but they are rated for 24x7 use. But as others have said get enterprise level drives they don't cost more and they are a deploy and forget type drive.
Blue is the standart drive with max 1TB per platter. Red is a 24/7 runner. Black is a more reliable drive with more cache in the 2TB+ options and more enterprise components.
Just go with Blue for your averagy gaming rig. If you want to match color or be a bit safer about vibrations: Black NAS/NAS-like tasks: Red
This is more superstition than fact due to having no evidence to support any claims, but I hate WD Blue drives. Last year I replaced about 15-20 laptop WD Blue drives through various manufacturers, and about 8 WB Blue drives out of desktops. As such I never purchase blues to replace with.
So between the 3 drivers (Blue, Red, Black) they are actually made differently for different scenarios, and aren't marketed differently but are made the same, like I had thought?
