The Author's Experience with Western Digital Hard Drives

When I was in the market for a new hard drive, I came across two models from Western Digital: the Western Digital Blue and the Western Digital Black. The prices were $60 and $80 respectively, which seemed like a significant difference at first glance. However, as it turns out, the main differences between these two drives are not what I expected.

In the past, Western Digital's Black series was known for its superior performance compared to the Blue series. It had more hardware on the drive and offered higher speeds. However, when I got my hands on the 2012 edition and 2013 edition of both drives, I was shocked to find that there was no difference practically speaking between them physically. The weight of both drives was virtually identical, and the only visible difference was a slight variation in soldering mask used for the Blue drive. This was the extent of the physical differences between these two drives.

Furthermore, the Black drive had some extra features compared to the Blue drive, including an additional processor on the drive itself. However, as it turned out, this added feature did not make a significant difference in performance. In fact, when I put both drives through their paces using various benchmarks and tests, I was surprised to find that the Western Digital Blue performed significantly better than the Black.

The results were striking. When testing the drives at 8K transfer rates with .5 Koby read and rights, there was little difference between the two. However, as soon as the transfer rate increased, the Western Digital Blue started pulling ahead of the Black. This was a clear indication that the Blue drive was outperforming the Black drive.

I decided to double-check my results by using different test equipment and configurations to confirm that I wasn't just seeing isolated anomalies. I used AS-SD, which is a software testing tool designed to test hard drives at various speeds and transfer rates. The results were consistent: the Western Digital Blue consistently outperformed the Black.

The implications of these findings are significant. When comparing the two drives side-by-side, it becomes clear that the extra processor on the Black drive does not provide any tangible benefits in terms of performance. In fact, at the current prices, the difference between the two drives is negligible, making the additional cost of the Black series seem like overkill.

Furthermore, when considering failure rates and warranty lengths, there's little to distinguish one drive from another. Both the Western Digital Blue and Black have similar failure rates out of the factory, with some cases offering slightly longer warranties. This means that consumers are essentially paying a premium for features that do not provide any significant benefits in terms of performance.

The author is disappointed by this development, as they've always had good experiences with Western Digital drives in the past. However, this latest experience has left them feeling underwhelmed and skeptical about the value proposition offered by the Black series. Until Western Digital addresses these issues and provides more compelling reasons for consumers to choose their higher-end drive, it's likely that the Blue series will remain the preferred choice.

One final observation worth noting is that both drives were incredibly quiet, with minimal noise levels even during heavy usage. This suggests that Western Digital has made significant strides in terms of noise reduction technology in recent years.

Ultimately, my experience with these two Western Digital hard drive models serves as a reminder to consumers to carefully consider their needs and budget before making a purchase. While the Black series may offer some additional features, it's clear that the Blue series provides superior performance at a fraction of the cost.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eneveryone's going to love this video except Western Digital so when I was in the market for a new hard drive I came across the West digital blue for $60 and then I came across the Western Digital black for $80 and now the differences back in the day was that the Western Digital black used to have a significant performance advantage over the blue it also used to have more Hardware on on the drive and also it used it does still does come with that 5-year warranty over the blues 2-year warranty however when I got both these drives in this is the 2012 edition this is the 2013 edition I was shocked to find that there was no difference practically no difference between these two drives physically I mean the weight was virtually identical between both drives and there was I think a different they used a different soldering mask on the blue compared to the uh black and then other than that they also uh they used I guess in the top corner you can see there's only one little physical difference there so I mean physically these things were exactly the same oh and the black does get some extra processor on the drive itself which virtually makes no differences in the tests however when we got across to the test I was shocked the Western Digital blue that I have here significantly outperformed this Western Digital black as we can see in the atto uh disc Benchmark here the 8K when it when it first started out with the .5 Koby transfer read and rights it was pretty much about the same but when it got all the way up to 8 kilobits that's when things started to get scary I mean the Western Digital blue pulled away from the Black by a lot so this was the cheaper Drive performing better than the more expensive drive from the same company now I I started to double check so I wanted to double check this I used assd just to confirm the numbers and yes the read and rights on the blue were significantly faster than the blacks I mean we were talking 184 versus 160 on the actual reads and on the rights it was about 160 4 versus 140 I mean I double checked this too I decided to switch drive ports I decided to switch S ports even s cables just to make sure these numbers were concrete and they were the Western Digital blue was indeed outperforming the Western Digital black so I was like what is going on here Western Digital so in conclusion what can I say about the Western Digital black it's quite disappointing because in the past the black like I said before has always represented u a better product whether it be having better Hardware or having higher speeds but this time around with the black it seems like all you're paying for is pretty much a drive with extra warranty and I mean for 33% of the cost over a blue it's simply not recommended at those prices I'm quite disappointed with Western Digital because I've always loved them I've always had good experiences on Western Digital drives however this time I feel a little bit let down by the black uh considering there's just nothing extra as opposed to the blue um also one thing to note that both drives will whisper quiet they were really quiet drives uh the black the one thing I did notice though was that the black did run a little bit cooler than the blue and I'm guessing this is due to the fact that it just wasn't running as fast as the blue uh so yeah ultimately the blue was a better drive than the black so I'm quite disappointed to say that West digital blacks are pretty much not going to be getting recommended by me anymore until they offer a better product over the blue because this blue was outperforming the black uh anyway uh the failure rates again I'll say that as well the failure out of the factory are the same as well so if you get a blue or a black they're going to have the same chance of failure out of the factory so all you're getting is an extra 3year warranty in some cases a drive that will perform slower than the cheaper variant anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please give it a thumbs up if you have any comments or questions about this video then leave comment in the comment section below and I'll catch you guys with another tech video very soon peace out for now byeeveryone's going to love this video except Western Digital so when I was in the market for a new hard drive I came across the West digital blue for $60 and then I came across the Western Digital black for $80 and now the differences back in the day was that the Western Digital black used to have a significant performance advantage over the blue it also used to have more Hardware on on the drive and also it used it does still does come with that 5-year warranty over the blues 2-year warranty however when I got both these drives in this is the 2012 edition this is the 2013 edition I was shocked to find that there was no difference practically no difference between these two drives physically I mean the weight was virtually identical between both drives and there was I think a different they used a different soldering mask on the blue compared to the uh black and then other than that they also uh they used I guess in the top corner you can see there's only one little physical difference there so I mean physically these things were exactly the same oh and the black does get some extra processor on the drive itself which virtually makes no differences in the tests however when we got across to the test I was shocked the Western Digital blue that I have here significantly outperformed this Western Digital black as we can see in the atto uh disc Benchmark here the 8K when it when it first started out with the .5 Koby transfer read and rights it was pretty much about the same but when it got all the way up to 8 kilobits that's when things started to get scary I mean the Western Digital blue pulled away from the Black by a lot so this was the cheaper Drive performing better than the more expensive drive from the same company now I I started to double check so I wanted to double check this I used assd just to confirm the numbers and yes the read and rights on the blue were significantly faster than the blacks I mean we were talking 184 versus 160 on the actual reads and on the rights it was about 160 4 versus 140 I mean I double checked this too I decided to switch drive ports I decided to switch S ports even s cables just to make sure these numbers were concrete and they were the Western Digital blue was indeed outperforming the Western Digital black so I was like what is going on here Western Digital so in conclusion what can I say about the Western Digital black it's quite disappointing because in the past the black like I said before has always represented u a better product whether it be having better Hardware or having higher speeds but this time around with the black it seems like all you're paying for is pretty much a drive with extra warranty and I mean for 33% of the cost over a blue it's simply not recommended at those prices I'm quite disappointed with Western Digital because I've always loved them I've always had good experiences on Western Digital drives however this time I feel a little bit let down by the black uh considering there's just nothing extra as opposed to the blue um also one thing to note that both drives will whisper quiet they were really quiet drives uh the black the one thing I did notice though was that the black did run a little bit cooler than the blue and I'm guessing this is due to the fact that it just wasn't running as fast as the blue uh so yeah ultimately the blue was a better drive than the black so I'm quite disappointed to say that West digital blacks are pretty much not going to be getting recommended by me anymore until they offer a better product over the blue because this blue was outperforming the black uh anyway uh the failure rates again I'll say that as well the failure out of the factory are the same as well so if you get a blue or a black they're going to have the same chance of failure out of the factory so all you're getting is an extra 3year warranty in some cases a drive that will perform slower than the cheaper variant anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please give it a thumbs up if you have any comments or questions about this video then leave comment in the comment section below and I'll catch you guys with another tech video very soon peace out for now bye\n"