WD Black Cavs Still Worth the Extra? – 318 days old

[Bad Haircut]

Hard drives are annoying at the moment, seem to be caught in perpetual no man's land regarding price / value for both SSD and regular flavours. All I want is a small drive to put a couple of OSes and apps on, 120 GB SSD ain't gunna cut it. So I'm looking at the 500GB WD WD5002AALX (3.5" SATA-III, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache) which are still pricier than any other brand equivalent here - or I'm also considering a 300GB Raptor for 30 goats more, but I'm still not sure I'd ever notice the difference. Any other none Raptor type drives worth a consider?

[Dark Angel]

Good quality hardware is always worth the money if you can afford it.

[Grogan]

I've been seeing a lot of the Western Digital "Blue" series drives fail lately. Both Caviar (3.5 inch desktop) and Scorpio (2.5 inch laptop)

I haven't seen the Blacks failing, but then they aren't as common out there. OEMs don't use them (cheap bastards) and most techs would buy a cheaper replacement so they can charge more for labour. I know one other shop that uses them (the place where I get them). None the less, until proven otherwise, I still believe that WD Caviar/Scorpio Black drives are of better quality. They are certainly faster, but I also believe that they are less likely to fail. I've been using them for several years now and I haven't yet seen a failure. Of course that doesn't mean they don't, but it can't be common. (or I would have)

Actually I did have a 2 Tb Caviar Black that was defective but not failing. It caused i/o blockage for split seconds when being accessed. It was annoying. I didn't even realize it was the drive for a few months... the problem had me chasing my tail. The drive passed all tests... natch. That model wasn't even available anymore a few months later and I wonder if that model was a lemon. The replacement (newer model, same size) I bought, and the replacement that eventually did arrive from the RMA are both good.

[Fingerle]

WD Caviar Black all the way. Nice and reliable Worth the $$.

[edit] Have a couple 500gb models here been spinning damn near non stop for over four years.

[MSUredux]

Caviar Black all the way here too. I do have a VelociRaptor though. And to tell you the truth, the Caviar Blacks are almost as fast. So I'd not go the extra cost, for less space, for a VelociRaptor.

[Troy]

Once you go black......
Got to agree with the others, WD Black.

[ZemaTalon]

Always bet on black I have a ton of them, mostly 1TB models, but also a couple 2TB's, and I've installed them in many other people's machines over the years, all still going strong.

[Fingerle]

I still haven't opted for a 2tb yet. Got 5 of the 1tb ones.

[Bad Haircut]

LOL. Seems quite unanimous. Black Cav it is then. I'll bag that 500GB. Surprised the VRaptor doesn't run away with performance tho, I thought it might, but I keep reading the opposite. Thanks all.

[Dark Angel]

From what I read the VRaptors USED to the performance kings, but the rest of the HDD world has pretty much caught up, one way or another. If you REALLY want high performance storage it's SATA III (or direct PCI-e x16) SSDs these days ... but don't tell your wallet I said that or it'll put a hit out on me!

[Fingerle]

Thought about getting a raptor a while back. Then I asked myself. "Do I really need my game to load 3 seconds faster?" The answer was no. So I bought two 1TB Caviars instead. ROFL!