hard drive difference

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samdougle1

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#1 samdougle1
Member since 2009 • 83 Posts

so i wanna buy like a 500gb hard drive and im looking at western digital hard drives and they have 3 different 500gb's. here they are:
LINK: http://www.ebuyer.com/search?limit=50&store=2&cat=4&sq=caviar&sort=pricelow&page=1

  • Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blue 37.16 english pounds
  • Western Digital WD5000AADS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Green 38.99 english pounds
  • Western Digital WD5001AALS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Black 41.57 english pounds

    so what is the difference and what is the best please?
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flyingsnail

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#2 flyingsnail
Member since 2009 • 793 Posts
The black is the best From WD website Black: Maximum performance for power computing. Green : Cool, quiet, eco-friendly. Blue: Performance and reliability for everyday computing.
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CStheGreat

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#3 CStheGreat
Member since 2008 • 705 Posts

The Caviar Black is the fastest/best drive of the three.

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shred

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#4 shred
Member since 2003 • 268 Posts

the black also carries a 5 year warranty compared to the other two hard drives' 3 year warranty

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no_man001

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#5 no_man001
Member since 2004 • 25 Posts

its better to choose Western Digital WD5001AALS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Black

the black one for sure :)

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GTR12

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#6 GTR12
Member since 2006 • 13490 Posts

Who cares about warrenty for HDD's, they are cheap anough anyway. If it was me I would just get the green, it spins fast anough.

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MaoTheChimp

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#7 MaoTheChimp
Member since 2008 • 1727 Posts

Have you considered the WD Caviar Blue 640GB?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144339

The higher density platters (320GB vs. 250GB) make it significantly faster than all the drives you listed, including the Caviar Black.

--EDIT: Typo

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dansnipe

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#8 dansnipe
Member since 2005 • 237 Posts

Basically the Caviar black is the high end / fast rpm drive. A good drive for a primary drive on a gaming computer for example. Blue is the mid-range comercial drive, basically the same as the black but slightly less quality, although possibly cheaper. The green is the power saving drive and has a lower rpm. Good for server harddrives or a second drive for storage on your pc.

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C2C_Moltar

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#9 C2C_Moltar
Member since 2008 • 156 Posts
Black is the best, hands down. The Black has a 32MB cache and a consistent 7200rpm spin speed, recommended if you are doing video or gaming for quicker load times. Blue is a step down from Black with a 16MB cache and, again, a consistent 7200rpm spin speed., recommended for everyday computing and light gaming. Green is Western Digital's power saving drive. The hard drive uses a variable spin speed that changes spin rates in order to save power. To be honest I don't think the Green is worth it considering that the amount you save in power is pennies. By the way, here is a little insite on what the cache represents and does for your system: A hard drive cache is on board RAM used as a buffer zone to hold read/write data for the cpu.This increases efficiency by allowing both to do other things instead of waiting around. (Instead of doing a single task they can do multitasking). It's pretty much the same as the RAM on the motherboard, more ram is more efficient-and we see improved performance.
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#10 ajkalan
Member since 2004 • 399 Posts

Each has its advantages. Green is the slowest, but it is also the quietest and uses the least energy. It is a good choice for data storage and anyone whose primary concern is quiet computing. Conversely, Black is louder and uses more energy, but is the best performer. Blue is a good compromise between the two extremes - it is pretty close to the Black in many aspects of performance, while being close to as quiet as the Green. Which one you choose depends on what what kind of a system you have or want to build. I'd choose the Blue, personally, but there are good reasons to choose any one of them.