Scrolling through the pages of online stores in search of a new hard drive, you have probably noticed more than once that the drives from Western Digital are for some reason painted in different colors. There is no secret in these colors: WD decided to divide their products into several model lines, marking each of them with a specific color. In today’s article, we will take a closer look at what each of the colors means and what features the disc models included in it have.
CONTENT
- List of all colors
- Blue HDDs from Western Digital
- Green HDDs from Western Digital
- Black HDDs from Western Digital
- Red HDDs from Western Digital
- Purple HDDs from Western Digital
- Other lineups from Western Digital
List of all colors
First, let’s determine how many colors (model ranges) Western Digital has. So, from this manufacturer you can find HDDs under the following colors: blue, black, green, red and purple. Each of the model lines includes certain types of HDDs, suitable for different purposes. Let’s take a closer look at each of the HDD rows of this company.
Blue HDDs from Western Digital
The blue hard drives are versatile drives for the average user. They have a pretty good speed, which is primarily achieved due to the high cache size (maximum – 64 MB), and relatively low price. Among other things, don’t forget about technology such as WhisperDrive, which reduces operating noise. Ideal HDDs for storing data and performing light tasks, for example, working with office programs.
Perhaps the most successful example of the “blue” line of Western Digital is the WD10EZEX model, which has the following characteristics:
- storage capacity – 1 terabyte;
- connection interface – SATA III;
- spindle rotation speed – 7200RPM;
- buffer size – 64 megabytes;
- form factor – 3.5 ″;
Green HDDs from Western Digital
Feature of hard drives from the “green” model line is that they consume much less power for their work. Western Digital claims that these drives use 40 percent less power than drives from other drive lines.
Behind the reduced power consumption is useful technology like IntelliPower. In addition to reduced power consumption, Western Digital green HDDs emit much less noise during their operation. Economical and quiet HDDs will definitely find their customers. However, do not forget about the obvious disadvantage of such drives: they are much slower than other HDDs.
From the side of this line, the ideal representative would be the WD20EZRX model, which has the following characteristics:
- storage capacity – 2 terabytes;
- connection interface – SATA III;
- buffer size – 64 megabytes;
- form factor – 3.5 ″;
You may have noticed that there is no line with the spindle speed among the characteristics. Western Digital instead indicates the presence of IntelliPower technology, which does not mean anything to many users, but be aware that the spindle speed of a hard drive using this technology will usually always be 5400RPM.
Black HDDs from Western Digital
Black hard drives from Western Digital are definitely worth buying for a computer that will only be used for light tasks. Such HDDs are perfect for heavy tasks such as video games, graphics processing or working with video editors. The minimum spindle speed on such hard drives is 7200RPM.
Such drives are perfect for a home computer, but installing them in an office is not very profitable. It should be noted the rather low operating temperature and excellent vibration protection of the “black” drives from Western Digital. Among other things, do not forget about the two-drive head positioning system, which improves the quality of these discs.
In the case of an example, a model such as the WD10JPLX is a good fit for this line. It should be noted that this hard drive can be sold at a rather high price.
- storage capacity – 1 terabyte;
- connection interface – SATA III;
- spindle rotation speed – 7200RPM;
- buffer size – 32 megabytes;
- form factor – 2.5 ″;
Of course, you can find “black” hard drives in the 3.5 ″ form factor and with a cache size of up to 64 megabytes. WD10JPLX was just an example.
Red HDDs from Western Digital
Moving on to heavy equipment. Western Digital’s line of “red” hard drives are designed to work in really tough conditions. Such drives will be ideal for working with cloud storage, servers and in certain office departments.
Buying a red HDD for home use can easily be called a waste of money, especially considering the fact that these drives use IntelliPower technology. As you may remember, the speed of discs with this technology reaches only 5400RPM. The price of such discs is often extremely high, which is not surprising.
Let’s take a look at this lineup on the WD60EFRX hard drive:
- storage capacity – 6 terabytes;
- connection interface – SATA III;
- buffer size – 64 megabytes;
- form factor – 3.5 ″;
Purple HDDs from Western Digital
Western Digital’s purple hard drives are designed for use in video surveillance systems. These HDDs are capable of operating in rather harsh conditions for a long period of time. They have extremely high cache and volume. However, the spindle speed on such disks does not exceed 5400RPM.
It should also be mentioned that purple HDDs can work with NVRs that use artificial intelligence. These capabilities are achieved thanks to the support introduced by the developers for analytical systems with deep learning technologies.
Perhaps the ideal representative of this model line will be the 100PURZ disc, which has the following characteristics:
- storage capacity – 10 terabytes;
- connection interface – SATA III;
- spindle rotation speed – 5400RPM;
- buffer size – 256 megabytes;
- form factor – 3.5 ″;
Other lineups from Western Digital
In addition to dividing products by color, Western Digital has three distinct product lines at its disposal: SE, RE and VelociRaptor. SE – hard drives designed for office storage systems, have a low operating temperature, relatively high speed, but also noisy. REs are hard drives designed for office workstations, on which a huge number of software solutions are constantly being produced.
The previous two model lines are used for office needs, but the VelociRaptor line of hard drives is versatile and suitable for many tasks. It should be noted that such discs have an extremely high operating speed, which reaches 10000RPM. However, with high performance comes high temperature and a lot of noise as well. And don’t forget that drives from the SE, RE and VelociRaptor lines are quite expensive.
