Western Digital Blue, Black, Red, Gold, or Purple: The best internal HDD for your PC

The hard drive is a trusty component used to store a lot of content on your PC. Available in sizes that can go all the way up to 16TB (that's 16,000GB), and different models are available from various vendors. Western Digital is one such company that offers both mechanical and solid-state drive (SSD) storage, but it can be a little confusing as to which one you should go with. Western Digital has the Blue, Black, Red, and Gold brands for mechanical drives.

It's always recommended that you go with an SSD for Windows 10 and other software to be installed on, leaving a mechanical drive free for storing games and files. The Western Digital Blue is the hard-disk drive (HDD) built for the desktop, while the Black takes things to the next level for professionals and gamers. Enterprise and server owners have the Gold series to look through and the Red series of drives are specifically designed for NAS use.

Here's a spec comparison of Western Digital drives.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
CategoryWD BlueWD BlackWD RedWD GoldWD Purple
Capacity500GB to 6TB500GB to 6TB750GB to 10TB1TB to 12TB500GB to 10TB
InterfaceSATA IIISATA IIISATA IIISATA IIISATA III
Form factor2.5-inch3.5-inch2.5-inch3.5-inch3.5-inch3.5-inch3.5-inch
Data transfer175MB/s (6 TB)218MB/s (6TB)178MB/s (8 TB)200MB/s (12 TB)210MB/s (10TB)
Cache64MB64MB to 256MB16MB to 256MB128MB to 256MB64MB to 256MB
Speed5,400 RPM7,200 RPM7,200 RPM5,400 RPM7,200 RPM5,400 RPM
UseHomeWork and gamingNASEnterpriseSurveillance
WarrantyTwo yearsFive yearsThree yearsFive yearsThree years
PriceFrom $43.99From $63.99From $62.99From $79.99From $53.49

Pricing is fairly competitive between vendors and Western Digital's family of drives, thanks to the affordability of mechanical drives. You should go for the fastest drive with the most cache and capacity you can afford. This specification comparison should help you get started.

Further reading

Best SSD for Windows PCs

Updated March 20, 2018: Added the Purple family of Western Digital drives to our specifications comparison table.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.