Write
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Western Digital apparently has a clear idea about every series: Green as a storage of data that don’t require long access time, Blue as a compromise between performance and price for casual home configurations, and Black as its (Blue) more powerful alternative for more demanding users. The remaining three disks promise a design for continual operation. Purple for CCTV systems, Red for NAS, and Gold could be useful even in data centers because of its high performance. We couldn‘t test their real lifespan, obviously, but we did everything else that matters.
Each of the tested drives is a current model in its series, with a capacity of 1 TB, and one platter. All disks have 64MB cache, except for Gold (128 MB). Green, Red, and Purple run at 5400 rpm. Blue, Black, and Gold run at 7200 rpm. What’s interesting is that the Gold weights roughly 40% more than others (618 g). Probably because of its robust spindle and bigger PCB, see the picture below:
Slower 5400rpm models don’t look that different on the outside, but you cannot overlook the difference between Blue and Black. Black has an atypical rotor design. Its actuator axis (which is made of a different material) is on the same height level as the casing (the axis in others is a bit lower). And Black also has a unique flat connector.
How we were testing
The performance was tested by transferring directories with different file sizes. From RAM to HDD (write) and vice versa (read). The smallest files had 12 – 59 kB, representing document data which are the biggest challenge for drives. It was much better with bigger blocks (427 – 1235 kB), the performance almost reached its maximum. In practice, we talk about compression of photos or videos. The next phase was concentrated on 5 – 10MB files (JPEG, MP3, and other mainstream formats). Uncompressed RAW and FLAC files belong to the fourth category of 24 – 36MB files. And finally, we used large files, 1 – 2 GB. These are usually high resolution videos, various archives, or exported projects from graphics editors.
We recorded the speed with stopwatch, and then converted it to MB per second. During writing and reading, we also recorded the flowing current on 12V (mechanical) and 5V (logical) SATA conductors. This was done using the amperometric pliers Prove 15. We measured the consumption even in idle, after 30 minutes of inactivity. After this time, all tested models stabilized to the minimum of their capabilities (with platters still moving). Disks can have lower consumption than this only during spin-down.
The noise level was measured in an isolated space. We subtracted the noise in idle first, when the only sound was the one of the rotating platter. Then, through HD Tune, we simulated random access to 512B blocks. That’s when the heads go wild and the noise rises accordingly. One of the reasons is that we put the disks on metal cases which spread the vibrations, and that creates a secondary noise. It’s a similar situation like in some PC case. Commercially promoted anti-vibration mounting systems can usually only partially absorb the negative effect.
To achieve the most accurate results, the disks were placed 10 cm from the noise level meter Reed R8080. We put average values of all relevant samples to the charts (noise, power, consumption).
We also did some tests of heating of every model (without an airflow) after 30 minutes of operation with max. performance. However, this is only symbolic because these temperatures are not that important. More interesting circumstances would be in a rack full of disks in some server room where the ambient temperature is way higher than in our testlab (21 – 21.4 °C).
The test platform was Intel X99 (Marwell) because we measured the best results of all external controllers with it (during our preparations of the procedures). The memory modules we used were G.Skill Flare X 32 GB (3200 MHz/CL14).
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Write
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Read
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Random access
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Input power
Heating
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Consumption
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Noise
What disk is best for an office work, photos, videos, operating systems, games, and for demanding servers? And is the Red really well designed for network storage? You can find out in this practical comparison of the performance, consumption, and noise levels of each model from WD. The differences are significant and the results surprising. Green, blue, red, purple, black, or gold?
Conclusion
It is a pity that WD has stopped the production of green series. The latest model (WD10EURX) is definitely the quietest HDD in our test, which makes it the most appropriate choice for data archiving in ULN. A small comfort is that the Purple (WD10PURZ) is very similar to the Green. Even though it is a bit noisy, it has better performance and price.
The best performance for the price is the Blue (WD10EZEX). On the other hand, we aren’t very pleased with the Black (WD1003FZEX). You pay 60% more for 1 GB, and you get only slightly better performance during sequential writing and reading of smallest files. This is also the only situation when the Black has a higher power consumption (with 5V that supply the logical part of the disk). However, the access time is nothing special, although the Black is a bit more calm (less vibrations). When transferring anything bigger than the smallest files, it falls behind its blue brother (but with slightly better consumption). The reason for this behaviour can be explained by the lower current load on the 12V conductor that supplies mechanical part. This means that it has actually a bit lower RPM, or it has simply slower arms.
Now to deal with the red and the gold models. They are both from different worlds, but they share recommendations for continual use. The Red is the disk with the best consumption. The consumption with 12V is the same as with other 5400rpm models, but it leads thanks to a lower current load of the logical section. It can get to the standby mode really fast (at 0.7 W), so it makes sense to use it in NAS. For comparison, the power input of the Purple and the Green is practically the same at 5V, the consumption does not decrease in idle. This also applies to the Gold (WD1005FBYZ) which is supposed to be the model with the highest performance and immediate response. Its consumption in idle (4.86 W) is higher than Purple‘s consumption under load (4.25/4.31 W). On the other hand, over 200 MB per sec. with HDD is a great result, and even more admirable is the write time of 512B blocks – less than 3 ms (Blue and Black are 4 times slower). It is also worth mentioning that it has the most stable performance. However, the very high performance requires the heads to move extremely fast, which means more vibrations. It is therefore 7 – 9 dBA louder (depends on the mounting system).
TL;DR: With the exception of the controversial Black model which is more expensive and basically also slower than Blue, we can recommend each of the models. Purple, in addition to being suitable for static data, can be a good alternative for Green. Blue is a fine compromise for lower budget configurations that need more space than a cheap SSD can provide. Red is slow but very economical, which is an important attribute when you need a disk for non-stop operation. Gold is twice as hungry, but its performance is worth it.
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