Solved How do different HDDs differ (e.g., WD Red, Blue, Purple)


Baeolophus

Baeolophus

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Western Digital and Seagate offer different HDDs for different use cases: desktop computer (WD Blue, Seagate BarraCuda), NAS (WD Red, Seagate IronWolf) and video surveillance (WD Purple, Seagate SkyHawk). How do these vary in construction? What do those differences accomplish in detail?
 

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As far as WD concerns, I am sure you can find the specs of each model on the WD site, so that you can compare the differences by yourself. I did that not so long ago, because I needed a 2 TB drive. I won't tell which one I have chosen, because my desires may be completely different from yours.

The Seagate drives I don't have any idea of (not of the Seagate site as well) as I don't have the best experience with Seagate in the past.
But Seagate certainly will have a comparing list as well.
 

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For me, the biggest thing to worry about is whether a HDD is CMR vs SMR. To understand these differences (and they are important depending on your use case), GOOGLE is your friend using "CMR vs SMR" Seagate has finally come around to designating these differences with their drives, many other manufacturers have not done so to date.
 

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Baeolophus said:
Western Digital and Seagate offer different HDDs for different use cases: desktop computer (WD Blue, Seagate BarraCuda), NAS (WD Red, Seagate IronWolf) and video surveillance (WD Purple, Seagate SkyHawk). How do these vary in construction? What do those differences accomplish in detail?
Click to expand...
It´s very important to consider the write method, which can be CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) or SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording). This applies to both WD and Seagate.
 

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...and if you're considering SEAGATE, here's a quick LOOK at which drives are which. You may not find this with other vendors. I personally have found SMR drives to be very slow when writing large files, and if they're used in RAID arrays that can be very cumbersome.
 

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What I am gathering, including from a Wikipedia article on hard disk drives, is that there are fundamental differences in
  • caching methodologies,
  • write prioritization vs. read prioritization,
  • build quality and corresponding duration of warranty and
  • reliability under constant vs. intermittent use.
 

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macOS SequoiaM1 Max Apple Silicon32 GB
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