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1. Blue vs Black
2. Drive Specifics

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During our previous reviews of new and upcoming storage drives, I have tried to include the best offerings from each of the three categories of storage drives: Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD), and Solid State Drive (SSD). Previously, a comparison between the individual subsets of storage media was difficult without looking at the specific ways in which the drive was meant to be used. Was this drive meant to be installed in a pc or laptop? If the drive was for a laptop, was it meant for an ultrabook or a normal laptop? The purchasing of a simple storage drive became a minefield of size specifications, data transfer technologies, and application. Luckily, this has begun to change.

With the storage drive market continuing to embrace the flash technology that makes SSD and SSHD drives fast and increasingly less expensive, the storage device market has become easier to navigate. Yes, the subsets, sizes, and applications are still there, but the lines have begun to blur. Gone are the days where a PC desktop user was forced to comply with a 3.5” form and the drives specific to it. Now, if a drive is cheap, fast and small, that drive will work for just about any hardware that it will plug into.

That brings us to the Western Digital WD Blue 1TB Hard Drive. In the past, I have reviewed the big WD Black 4TB monster drive and the announcement that Western Digital WD and SanDisk will be joining forces to create a new line of SSHD drives. Now we have the Western Digital WD Blue 1TB 7mm drive. The people at WD have shrunk a huge amount of storage capability into a very small package, making this new Blue 1TB drive compatible with most ultrathin applications and their larger PC brethren.

Blue vs Black

What makes a WD drive a black or a blue, you ask? Essentially, the Blue categories of drives are the little brothers to the Black category. For example, if there is 32mb of cache on a WD Black drive, the WB Blue may have only 16mb but the WD Blue drive will be almost a third less in cost.

Overall, having a Western Digital WD Blue entry into the super-slim 7mm category will be a boon to PC users who are looking for a reliable and inexpensive upgrade or replacement option. Take a look at the Western Digital WD Blue 1TB Hard Drive specification below to find out more about the new drive.

Drive Specifics

Posted by Frank Lambright

As a computer enthusiast and an English major, Frank has melded both of his interests into writing about the latest trends in electronics and how data loss can affect our every day lives.

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