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WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 17th, 2009 8:47 am
by attonbitusira
Hi,

I'm trying to find details on the differences between these two western digital hard drives. Seems to just be the warranty and the cache.

WD6400AAKS
-------------
Caviar Blue
16MB cache
3 year warranty


WD6400AALS
-------------
Caviar Black
32MB cache
5 year warranty

Is there a really large performance increase from blue to black for the price?
I found a lot of benchmarks on the caviar black, but none comparing the two. Input is appreciated.

Re: WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 17th, 2009 9:16 am
by CodecX81
The extra cache speeds it up by bit.

WD6400AAKS
[IMG]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk40 ... KS-65A.png[/IMG]

WD6401AALS
[IMG]http://gergin.net/posts/HD%20Benchmarks ... 0v2.55.jpg[/IMG]

Black is supposed to have a more advanced plate stabilizing system to keep a more consistent spin.. but.. I think that is kinda marketing jargon. Get whatever is cheaper.. Really only going to see benefits out of the black vs blue if you RAID them.

Re: WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 17th, 2009 10:18 am
by ASharp
I don't even know if the speed is much of a difference as I've seen 640GB Blue drives reach ~95MB/s as well. Also, it might be worth nothing that you can pick up a blue for just $58.88. ;)

Re: WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 17th, 2009 5:57 pm
by willy
WD 'Black' drives have dual processors.

Re: WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 17th, 2009 6:25 pm
by vdub07
I was willing to pay a couple more bucks for more warranty.

Re: WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 17th, 2009 9:49 pm
by Silver Bullet
I guess it comes down to if you'll even notice. Personally I'll go with the black for the warranty.


P.S. - drop me a PM when you empty your inbox, it's full.

Re: WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 18th, 2009 12:34 am
by Amourek
Black --- Blue --- Green
<--- power consumption
<--- performance
<--- noise

Re: WD6400AAKS vs. WD6400AALS

Posted: Jun 20th, 2009 1:25 am
by intx
vdub07 wrote: I was willing to pay a couple more bucks for more warranty.
I've owned both. Warranty should be the primary reason to get the black.

There is very little difference between the drives. The benchmark posted above likely shows the black is faster because he's using the blue as his operating system drive.

Original poster, please correct me if I'm wrong there.

I've personally benched both drives an read rates were exactly the same. Noise actually had the blue being slightly louder, but I chalk that off to sample variance. The average is probably the same.