WD Blue Hard Drives

[steelodon]

Have the mainstream hard drives changed for Western Digital? I noticed these WD Blue drives with 5400 RPM when larger than 1TB. When did this happen? Are the Green drives gone?

 

[VirtualLarry]

WD Green became WD Blue 5400 RPM. Basically, Green drives sucked, got a bad reputation, Blue drives had a decent reputation, so now Green drives are Blue drives. Got it? Good!

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Hey there steelodon,

WD Green is getting integrated into the WD Blue line to ease the consumers' choice. Basically, from now on the WD Blue up to 1TB will remain the WD Blue as you know it while the 1TB and above will be the same as the WD Green (low rpm, energy-saving, cool and quiet drives designed for secondary storage and backups). The 1TB WD Blue model has two versions - one with 7,200rpm and one with 5,400rpm. You can read a bit more on this here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=PB9jmv.

Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions!

Captain_WD.

 

[Elixer]

Hey there steelodon,

WD Green is getting integrated into the WD Blue line to ease the consumers' choice. Basically, from now on the WD Blue up to 1TB will remain the WD Blue as you know it while the 1TB and above will be the same as the WD Green (low rpm, energy-saving, cool and quiet drives designed for secondary storage and backups). The 1TB WD Blue model has two versions - one with 7,200rpm and one with 5,400rpm. You can read a bit more on this here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=PB9jmv.

Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions!

Captain_WD.

Since you asked, in what world is it a easier choice now, if instead of the label color to indicate what drive is what (5400 RPM vs 7200RPM), that now, people must look up the model number, and see if it ends in a X or Z?

Seriously, how is that any easier than it was before?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Since you asked, in what world is it a easier choice now, if instead of the label color to indicate what drive is what (5400 RPM vs 7200RPM), that now, people must look up the model number, and see if it ends in a X or Z?

Seriously, how is that any easier than it was before?

Easier to dupeconfuse the customer. ^_^

Edit: I wonder what happened to the idea, of simply selling WD Blue 7200RPM HDDs, in larger than 1TB capacities...

 

[Deders]

Yeah not convinced by easier choice. Sounds like doublespeak.

 

[tcsenter]

WDC newest 5400RPM Blue drives have platters that are (up to) 1TB each. Areal density of 1TB platter would yield throughput equivalent to (or greater than) some 7200rpm drives from just few years ago that used two or more platters to achieve the same total drive capacity.

Or at least, that's what I said to reassure myself when I recently purchased 2 x 1TB and 2 x 2TB Blue 5400rpm drives because the price was good (and special promotional discount). Just got the 1TB drives today, haven't opened them. 2TB drives are still in transit.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Or at least, that's what I said to reassure myself when I recently purchased 2 x 1TB and 2 x 2TB Blue 5400rpm drives because the price was good (and special promotional discount). Just got the 1TB drives today, haven't opened them. 2TB drives are still in transit.

Are you able to share info about the discount? I might be in the market for some bigger and hopefully reliable drives. For the right price, I might go with 5400RPM.

 

[Coup27]

I asked Captain_WD to explain further the reasoning behind the decision in another thread but he/she never replied.

I think the decision was more about WD consolidating their product lines and thus reducing everything that goes with operating an entire line of products. With the Blue stuck at 1TB it became a pointless product. With SSD's now the weapon of choice for the OS and HDD's used mainly for large storage, having a range of drives from 250GB to 1TB when the Green's started at 500GB was pointless. So I think they've just mashed the two lines together so the Green does the full range of capacities. Although, is anybody really going to buy a 250GB HDD anymore?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Although, is anybody really going to buy a 250GB HDD anymore?

The possibility frightens me.

 

[Coup27]

VirtualLarry will probably buy some in 5 years time when they're on special offer ;-)

 

[tcsenter]

Are you able to share info about the discount? I might be in the market for some bigger and hopefully reliable drives. For the right price, I might go with 5400RPM.

No, the deal is over now. It wasn't all that great of a deal just enough to make me get on it. Newegg has a coupon/discount on WDC products right now with additional $1 off each drive for volume discount (up to 4) that brings the price to within ~$5 dollars of what I paid.

Also check platter data here: HDD Platter Capacity Database

 

[Elixer]

I asked Captain_WD to explain further the reasoning behind the decision in another thread but he/she never replied.

I think the decision was more about WD consolidating their product lines and thus reducing everything that goes with operating an entire line of products. With the Blue stuck at 1TB it became a pointless product. With SSD's now the weapon of choice for the OS and HDD's used mainly for large storage, having a range of drives from 250GB to 1TB when the Green's started at 500GB was pointless. So I think they've just mashed the two lines together so the Green does the full range of capacities. Although, is anybody really going to buy a 250GB HDD anymore?

If you want to be a customer representative, you should be able to answer any question, especially, if you go out and specifically say "Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions!"

They have, Black, Blue X, Blue Z, Blue SSHD, Purple, Purple Nv, Red, Red Pro, Se, Re, Re+, Ae, so, IMO, it doesn't make much sense, even if the old Blues were "capped" at a 1TB limit.

I am really interested in the internals of all these lines, and just what about them differentiates them the most, is it just the firmware, or, do they have different parts inside, and if so, what exactly is being changed to give some drives 5 yr warranties, yet others have 3yr.
Data recovery experts, care to speak up?

 

[skipsneeky2]

Although, is anybody really going to buy a 250GB HDD anymore?

If its a ssd,already planning on it.My entire actively played game library is well under 256gb.

If there was a 250gb 10,000rpm hard drive for about $50,i would easily consider it for my games and os.

Currently using a circa 2008/2009 WD blue for os+games,its write speeds of about 75mbps is pitiful.

 

[Coup27]

If you want to be a customer representative, you should be able to answer any question, especially, if you go out and specifically say "Feel free to ask if you happen to have any questions!"

He/she did though. The answer was "to ease the consumers' choice". It's about all you get from large companies these days.

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Hey Elixer,

Apologies for the late answer, I'm off during the weekends.
Less color options means less to choose from and thus easier choice. The only case where people should actually check if the drive is 7,200 rpm or 5,400 rpm is the 1TB model as it features both. higher capacities than 1TB ar all 5,400 rpm while all the lower than 1TB capacities are all 7,200.
The reasoning behind this basically is that WD Blue drives are originally designed for simple everyday computing and basic builds where people don't particularly need anything extraordinary from their HDD but rather simple inexpensive drive for everyday things. WD Green is designed for secondary storage, backups and lower-power usage with low noise and heat output. Since we decided that people who would like to have more than 1TB from a single drive would either need it for massive storage or for rather higher performance which WD Green and WD Black already cover so there's basically no need for a larger WD Blue. Secondary storage and lower-noise and power usage drives under 1TB aren't really necessary especially with the growing SSD market so a lower than 1TB WD Green isn't really needed. Thus WD Green is integrated into the WD Blue line to simplify the choice between the different colors of the WD consumer drives. No actual need for checking the model number or other specs besides the 1TB WD Blue model.

If there's anything else I can do for you - feel free to ask!

Captain_WD.

 

[Elixer]

Hey Elixer,

Apologies for the late answer, I'm off during the weekends.
Less color options means less to choose from and thus easier choice. The only case where people should actually check if the drive is 7,200 rpm or 5,400 rpm is the 1TB model as it features both. higher capacities than 1TB ar all 5,400 rpm while all the lower than 1TB capacities are all 7,200.
The reasoning behind this basically is that WD Blue drives are originally designed for simple everyday computing and basic builds where people don't particularly need anything extraordinary from their HDD but rather simple inexpensive drive for everyday things. WD Green is designed for secondary storage, backups and lower-power usage with low noise and heat output. Since we decided that people who would like to have more than 1TB from a single drive would either need it for massive storage or for rather higher performance which WD Green and WD Black already cover so there's basically no need for a larger WD Blue. Secondary storage and lower-noise and power usage drives under 1TB aren't really necessary especially with the growing SSD market so a lower than 1TB WD Green isn't really needed. Thus WD Green is integrated into the WD Blue line to simplify the choice between the different colors of the WD consumer drives. No actual need for checking the model number or other specs besides the 1TB WD Blue model.

If there's anything else I can do for you - feel free to ask!

Captain_WD.

Thanks for the reply, honestly, I wasn't really expecting one.

The crux of the issue is, before, ALL blues were 7200 RPM, so, they were faster than the greens most of the time. (Platter density mitigates this somewhat, compare to the "old" 1TB blues.)
Now, as you say, drives over 1TB are all 5400 RPM, when people expected them to be 7200 RPM.

I really wonder why we don't see 2GB+ 7200 RPM drives that aren't black label, or the ones for "pros"?
Again, I know that the platter density can make some 5400 RPM HDs perform better than the older 7200RPM HDs, but, it would be nice to see them, and even though they would compete with the much higher priced Blacks, there seems to be some wiggle room in there with shorter warranties as well to get the price down.

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Simply put, we think that people who use their computer for regular things such as everyday computing, office work, education (simple one), etc. don't typically need more than 1TB of storage.

Larger capacities are usually required for massive secondary storage or backups for movies, music, photos, large databases, etc so a 7,200 rpm isn't really needed for all of this. We considered that people would prefer a rather quiet and energy-efficient drive that is also budget-friendly. This is why WD Green exists and why WD Blue doesn't go above 1TB.
We are simply putting these two lines together so people aren't as confused from the number of colors.

Higher-performance drives that also have larger than 1TB capacity are usually needed for heavier work, multitasking or NAS/Server/RAID usage. This is where WD Black and WD Red Pro step in. WD Black is designed for such high-demanding purposes whereas WD Red Pro (another 7,200 rpm drive with 5 year warranty) is designed for more demanding NAS/Server setups and larger RAID arrays that carry out heaver workloads.
For even more demanding workloads and usages we have the Enterprise-level drives.

I will make sure that your suggestion goes to the appropriate department, though, thanks for the comments!

If there's anything else I can do for you - feel free to ask

Captain_WD.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Simply put, we think that people who use their computer for regular things such as everyday computing, office work, education (simple one), etc. don't typically need more than 1TB of storage.

That's kind of rich. A rep from a storage company, telling its customers that that don't need more than X storage?

Comcast's download caps, and a famous quote about "640KB" come to mind...

 

[tcsenter]

This is why WD Green exists and why WD Blue doesn't go above 1TB.

What is going to happen to current WDC Blue drives @ 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, discontinued? These look like newly released products.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822235011

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Nothing more than a simple consideration Everyone is free to choose what drive they use, how much storage they'd like to have and how would they like to configure it.

~snip~

No, these 5,400 rpm models are the re-branded WD Green. 1TB+ WD Blue drives (including the 5,400 rpm 1TB WD Blue) are what WD Green is becoming. We are keeping both drives during the transition period so people can still choose which ones should they go with

Captain_WD.