Which WD internal 3.5 drive should I go with? (or other brand)

[The.316]

I want to upgrade my 3.5" drive in my iMac. Ive been a WD fan forever it seems, so I was thinking about maybe a Black drive. I have a Samsung 850 Pro SSD installed for the OS, so this is only for internal storage (I have a 4tb ex. drive as well). Has anyone used the WD Blue drive? Or maybe a different brand? Like I said, Ive been with WD for years now, but if there is something out there that is just as good, if not better, then I would think about it.

 

[satinsilverem2]

There are so many different flavors of WD drives now that it can be pretty confusing. It depends on how you will be using the drive. You said that your OS and application are installed on the SSD so speed isn't going to be all that important unless you are going to use the drive for photo and video editing. In that case I would go with the Black. Its the fastest spinning drive that they make. If you are just going to use it for general media storage and so on then maybe a WD Green drive will do. They are slower than the Black but this would be unnoticeable under everyday use. The Blue drive is mainly an OEM drive, but still a great drive. Versions that are larger than 1TB are 5400 RPM so keep that in mind. Now with all that being said my drive manufacturer of choice is HGST. They are owned by WD and their drives are fantastic. They have the fewest number of failures amongst other makers. They also tend to be the fastest in their class. Back Blaze has a great write up on them. I would stay away from Seagate if you have important data. Ive had a number of them fail in the past couple of years mainly the notoriously failure prone 3TB models but still.

 

[The.316]

There are so many different flavors of WD drives now that it can be pretty confusing. It depends on how you will be using the drive. You said that your OS and application are installed on the SSD so speed isn't going to be all that important unless you are going to use the drive for photo and video editing. In that case I would go with the Black. Its the fastest spinning drive that they make. If you are just going to use it for general media storage and so on then maybe a WD Green drive will do. They are slower than the Black but this would be unnoticeable under everyday use. The Blue drive is mainly an OEM drive, but still a great drive. Versions that are larger than 1TB are 5400 RPM so keep that in mind. Now with all that being said my drive manufacturer of choice is HGST. They are owned by WD and their drives are fantastic. They have the fewest number of failures amongst other makers. They also tend to be the fastest in their class. Back Blaze has a great write up on them. I would stay away from Seagate if you have important data. Ive had a number of them fail in the past couple of years mainly the notoriously failure prone 3TB models but still.

Ive never heard of HGST, Ill have to read up on them. I was thinking about going with a black drive, but I really only need storage for music, photos, and apps like Photoshop. Ive heard about the Seagate problems as well, so I will go with a WD drive, or the HGST you mentioned. Thanks.

 

[kohlson]

I've always factored performance and warranty. Often, for only a few dollars more you can get a 5-year warranty. It may/not mean much - only time will tell - but if there's an issue I can get the drive replaced.

 

[The.316]

I've always factored performance and warranty. Often, for only a few dollars more you can get a 5-year warranty. It may/not mean much - only time will tell - but if there's an issue I can get the drive replaced.

I know. I had a black drive already, but it was only 1tb. I want to at least double it now. I already have a 2tb drive already installed (Green), but its just not working to my liking.

 

[The.316]

So I ended up ordering a 2 TB WD Black drive. They didnt have any in stock, so I will get it in a few days. 120€ was a pretty decent price.