Western Digital hard drives

[f4phantom2500]

Well?

I have a silver top WD2000JB, a black top WD800JB and a black top WD1200JS. I don't know if there are any differences other than the interfaces and sizes (and all that inherently applies as a result [number of platters, etc]). The silver is older, so is that the only difference? If so, why did they switch to the blacks? Is either implicitly better than the other?

EDIT: I just submitted this question to WD, and it said I should receive an email response within the next business day (dunno if they consider Saturday a business day, so that could mean 3 days). I'll post the reply here, so if nobody here knows (or if the answers are different), we'll all actually know the difference, straight from the horse's mouth, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been curious about this.

 

[sieistganzfett]

the black ones just look sexy compared to the silver. the silver drives are the order casings they used. below is the specs from WD's site, there is no difference in any performance specs, except that the one black drive had a lower max for "Buffer To Disk transfer rate" one silver and one black were tied on that. the main difference is the 2 letters on the end of the model. they deal with stuff like warranty length, cache, interface, rotational speed...

Performance Specifications WD2000JB silver

Rotational Speed 7,200 RPM (nominal)

Buffer Size 8 MB

Average Latency 4.20 ms (nominal)

Contact Start/Stop Cycles 50,000 minimum


Seek Times

Read Seek Time 8.9 ms

Write Seek Time 10.9 ms (average)

Track-To-Track Seek Time 2.0 ms (average)

Full Stroke Seek 21.0 ms (average)


Transfer Rates

Buffer To Disk 748 Mbits/s (Max)



Buffer to Host (EIDE)

Mode 5 Ultra ATA
100.0 MB/s

Mode 4 Ultra ATA
66.6 MB/s

Mode 2 Ultra ATA
33.3 MB/s

Mode 4 PIO
16.6 MB/s

Mode 2 multi-word DMA
16.6 MB/s

Performance Specifications WD800JB black

Rotational Speed 7,200 RPM (nominal)

Buffer Size 8 MB

Average Latency 4.20 ms (nominal)

Contact Start/Stop Cycles 50,000 minimum


Seek Times

Read Seek Time 8.9 ms

Write Seek Time 10.9 ms (average)

Track-To-Track Seek Time 2.0 ms (average)

Full Stroke Seek 21.0 ms (average)


Transfer Rates

Buffer To Disk 602 Mbits/s (Max)



Buffer to Host (EIDE)

Mode 5 Ultra ATA
100.0 MB/s

Mode 4 Ultra ATA
66.6 MB/s

Mode 2 Ultra ATA
33.3 MB/s

Mode 4 PIO
16.6 MB/s

Mode 2 multi-word DMA
16.6 MB/s





Performance Specifications WD1200JS black

Rotational Speed 7,200 RPM (nominal)

Buffer Size 8 MB

Average Latency 4.20 ms (nominal)


Seek Times

Read Seek Time 8.9 ms

Track-To-Track Seek Time 2.0 ms (average)

Full Stroke Seek 21.0 ms (average)


Transfer Rates

Buffer To Host (Serial ATA) 300 MB/s (Max)

Buffer To Disk 748 Mbits/s (Max)

 

[LiLithTecH]

I believe the Black drives are their RE (RAID Enterprise) drives.
They have the designation of RE in the Model number.

 

[f4phantom2500]

Originally posted by: LiLithTecH
I believe the Black drives are their RE (RAID Enterprise) drives.
They have the designation of RE in the Model number.

don't think so, my wd800jb and wd1200js are black tops. i think it's just a newer design, but i didn't know if it was like, designed to dissipate heat better (better material, w/e) or something like that, like if there was a reason besides aesthetics for it (maybe production cost?)