Why does this cost almost same as the WD's Black model? What are their differences in between?
346720
The SE edition is better equipped for NAS units, and is TRIM-capable. Using a WD Black in a RAID array is likely to result in timeout errors, and array rebuilds. Otherwise, it's effectively the same drive - only the chipset is changed, not the platters themselves. If you just need bulk storage for a workstation, go with either one. However, if you need storage for a NAS and/or RAID array, the SE is a more effective bet.
346721
Building on the answer provided by Erin, the Western Digital SE model is an Enterprise class hard drive specifically designed for SMB NAS six to twelve drive bay devices. The Black drive has the five year warranty and a version of vibration control but the Black drive is not meant to spin continuously under load in a NAS or RAID environment. The Black drive is designed as a stand-alone, single drive implementation unit. The Black drives lack the RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER). This prevents drive fallout caused by the extended hard drive error-recovery processes common to desktop drives, such as the Black drive. The new metric for drive selection is really workload. The Western Digital RED drives for light workload, SE for Medium, and RE for Heavy workloads. The workload is determined by the amount of data transfer to the drive (and the ability to dissipate the heat that is generated by the frequency of the transfers.) An SE Drive is rated for approximately 180TB/year of Data Transfer while an RE is rated for approximately 550TB/year of Data Transfer. Most Desktop Drives, even the Black, will have a significantly shortened life if placed in to a NAS or RAID environment due to the sustained workload. When a vendor integrates a Desktop drive in to a NAS or Low End Server, the vendor (i.e. Dell) will usually reduce the warranty of the Desktop hard drive to one year due to the increased stress on the Desktop drive and the almost certain premature drive failure irrespective of the manufacturers actual hard drive warranty. (When drives ship with a system, the warranty is usually provided by the vendor of the system and not the drive manufacturer.)
272541
Oh Ya...Price I paid $53 ea, shorter warranty...well your call if it's worth it or not! No WD warranty
1126407
WD says that greens will work and nothing else. I have a feeling that has to do with the lower power consumption. I have heard horror stories about green drives and WD software has said my drives have gone bad, but the drives read and write just fine. I love the raid setup and dont know why anyone else hasn't continued this setup at this price point ( I bought mine used for a little less than $100)
270141
They are the same. if you look at Pioneer's website you will see "W" for white, "S" for silver and "B" for black. http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Computer/Computer+Drives
882158
J. Welch is right. I own 6 WD Blacks and they are 5 year warranty. Don't forget to register the drive on WD's website. You will register for an account login and password. But you can check the status of all your drive warranties there, from now on.
1256617
If I recall, the Newegg WD Reds sold closer to release and had firmware issues. I had the same questions and came to the conclusion that Amazon got a later batch. Try sorting the Newegg reviews by date.
1855829
well the hd models are pretty close to the price of the non hd, so go for the hd
1128361
You're right, I did get the 5400 rpm unit. I bought it in April and when I click on the link for the item I bought, it goes directly to the 7200 rpm unit for $98.45.But, the 5400 does just fine and I don't notice it any slower than my older 500 mb, 7200 rpm unit it replaced. WD Blue 1 TB Mobile Hard Drive: 2.5 Inch, 5400 RPM, SATA II, 8 MB Cache (WD10JPVT) (Old Model)
2126487
Yes it is. But don't think you should go for it. WD is much much better. Trust me.
2129242
for my use case it works faster that WD. I transfer files over LAN. Wifi will be slow.
525711
This particular drive has a very low real-world failure rate, as verified by an ongoing study by a company known as Backblaze. WD generally doesn't fair as well, though 2TB WD drives are not currently part of the study. You can see the September 2014 update from Backblaze here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-update-september-2014/ In addition, any time you have two drives that have the same form factor (3.5" in this case) running at the same RPM (7200) and with the same cache, but one is higher capacity than the other, the higher capacity drive will almost always have higher sustained read/write rates. The reason is better areal density: more bits packed into the same space means more will pass the read/write head with every rotation of the platters. This makes higher capacity drives desirable not only for their increased storage capacity, but also increased speed. Finally, just because this drive has "NAS" written on the box, doesn't mean it's not well suited for desktop use. It's not cutting corners in this case, it's actually shooting for higher standards. NAS can be a punishing workload for drives, with lots of continuous access. Typical desktop use will be a walk in the park in comparison. In short, if you're after a reliable, speedy, high capacity drive, this is an excellent choice.
2017566
You can see the comparison at the bottom of the Elements page. Only thing that separates the two is some crappy software. Save your money buy the WD Element.
1487743
As someone mentioned, WD Purple is specifically designed for your exact purpose. As far as brands go, I have found WD to be extremely reliable.Search this one on Amazon if you still need a hard drive. At the moment a 2TB WD Purple is also under $100:WD 2 TB WD Purple SATA III Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM AV Hard Drive 2 sata_6_0_gb 64 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare or OEM Drives WD20PURX
756896
WD Black is much higher performance and you can use it for the boot drive and have all 4 Terabytes show up unless your computer and your operating system are still in the stone age. However if your OS is 64 bit, then your computer is going to see all 4. The WD Blacks are all I've used for years and this newest one is the BEST and FASTEST OF ALL THE Wd's on the market today. You can use it for any purpose and you'll get the best performance over any others.
382732
Not that I know of..... The item you mention was not available when I purchased my WD Element. I am still veryhappy with my original purchase, but may go ahead and get the less expensive one just to have another.
61586
Yes, but you may have problems with configuring the wd black. I eventually return mind for my alienware m17
1263238
Confusing right? They sell just the hardware and shell. You have to buy the drives. I went with WD Red series. I would recommend you buy two drives ; one to make a mirror backup of the main drive. If yuh have a lot of home videos, buy two 3 TB drives or higher. My analysis suggests that this is the best price point. It is, overall, a $500 investment. But, it's worth it for pictures, phones and computer backup.