When it comes to HDDs or hard disk drives, Seagate and Western Digital (WD), along with Toshiba, dominate the HDD space since they are pretty much the only brands that still offer them. In the SSD category, they aren’t the most popular, but they still offer quality products that are worth considering. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the two brands’ most popular and affordable storage solution lineups—the Seagate Barracuda and the WD Blue. If you are looking to get an internal drive, which brand do you go with? Below is our comparison.
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Seagate Barracuda vs WD Blue Comparison Chart
| Model | Seagate Barracuda | WD Blue |
 |  | |
| Price | Check price at Amazon | Check price at Amazon |
| Form Factor | 3.5-inch 2.5-inch | 3.5-inch 2.5-inch |
| Capacity | 500GB – 8TB | 320GB – 8TB |
| Interface | SATA | SATA |
| RPM | 5400 7200 | 5400 7200 |
| Data Transfer Rate | 185 – 220MB/s | 150 – 180MB/s |
| Cache | 32MB, 64MB, 128MB.,256MB | 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB |
| Warranty | 2 years | 2 years |
Form Factor
Seagate HDDs are lighter, but both are durable.
Both Seagate and Western Digital offer their Barracuda and Blue hard disk drives in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors. The 2.5-inch HDDs can be installed in laptops and desktop PCs, whereas the 3.5-inch HDDs are strictly for desktop PCs. These hard drives feature SATA interfaces with supported transfer rates of 6Gb/s.
Size-wise, they are pretty much the same, with the Seagate measuring 5.79 x 4 x 0.79 inches and the Western Digital at 5.79 x 4 x 1.03. Western Digital Blue hard drives are slightly thicker, but the difference is minimal. Seagate Barracuda hard disk drives weigh less than the WD Blue HDDs. The weight of the drive depends on the platter inside. Higher capacity hard drives will weigh more than lower capacity ones, but the difference is not really that drastic.
Storage Capacity
Seagate and Western Digital offer similar storage size options of up to 8TB, but the former has a Barracuda Pro line that offers 12TB and 14TB options.
Seagate Barracuda 2.5-inch hard disk drives have storage capacities of 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB and 5TB while the 3.5-inch variant’s capacity ranges from 500GB to 8TB. Meanwhile, Western Digital 2.5-inch HDDs have capacities of 320GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB, while the 3.5-inch variant’s capacity ranges from 500GB to 8TB.
Both lineups have a maximum storage capacity of 8TB, but Seagate offers more variants with their 2.5-inch HDDs. Since these hard disk drives are designed for personal and home use, 8TB will be more than enough for most users. That said, Seagate does offer 12TB and 14TB HDD capacities with their Barracuda Pro line, for users that need higher capacity HDDs. However, these are very expensive.
Performance and Reliability
Seagate Barracuda hard disk drives are better performers than WD Blue HDDs.
When it comes to overall performance, Seagate Barracuda HDDs have the advantage over Western Digital Blue hard drives. They have a faster data transfer rate at 185 – 220MB/s, making them more ideal for heavier workload. In comparison, WD Blue hard drives have a data transfer rate of 150 – 180MB/s. Seagate Barracuda HDDs are good for workloads such as gaming, whereas WD Blue hard disk drives are better suited for storing data and files.
A feature that elevates the performance of Seagate Barracuda HDDs over WD Blue hard drives is the brand’s Multi-tier caching technology. With this feature, loading and application startup times are improved due to optimized data flow with various layers of DRAM, cache and NAND Flash technologies.
As for cache buffer size, Seagate also holds the advantage. Barracuda hard drives are equipped with 256MB cache, except for the 3.5-inch 1TB and 500GB variants, which have 64MB and 32MB cache, respectively. Their 2.5-inch HDDs have 128MB cache.
Meanwhile, WD Blue HDDs have 64MB cache, except for the 6TB variant which is equipped with 256MB cache and the 500GB variant which only has 32MB. Same with Seagate, their 2.5-inch HDDs have 128MB cache.
Reliability
Hard drives will fail sometime in the future, this is just how they are designed. Many factors such as shipping and handling, temperature, your PC’s conditions and how you handle the HDD will also contribute to how well the HDD will age.
While Seagate offers a higher TBW value than WD, the latter offers a no-touch ramp load technology that protects your data in the event that your HDD fails. With this feature, WD put the recording head outside the disk surface, so you’ll have an easier time recovering files when the HDD fails.
Pricing
Western Digital Blue HDDs are cheaper than Seagate Barracuda hard drives.
Western Digital Blue hard disk drives are usually cheaper than their Seagate Barracuda counterparts. The price difference is around $5 to $20, depending on if there are any ongoing promotions. If you are looking to get the best bang for your buck and you don’t care much for performance, Western Digital Blue hard drives are better.
Both brands offer 2 years warranty for their HDDs.
Verdict
Seagate Barracuda hard drives are better performers, but WD Blue HDDs are cheaper and more reliable.
Speed is not really a strong suit of HDDs, so in that regard, Seagate Barracuda hard drives being faster is not that huge of an advantage. If you want to see significant speed upgrades, you should definitely consider getting an SSD instead, something like the Crucial MX500 or Samsung EVO. In the case of Seagate Barracuda vs WD Blue HDDs, we recommend that you go with whatever’s cheaper at the time of purchase, leaning slightly towards WD Blue HDDs since they offer an easier time recovering data and files in the event of hard disk failure.
FAQs
It depends on which factors you consider more important. In terms of pricing and reliability, WD Blue hard drives are better. However, Seagate Barracuda HDDs offer better performance.
All hard drives will fail some time in the future. That said, Seagate Barracuda HDDs have been less reliable than WD Blue HDDs as reported by many users.
Yes, they are good enough for personal and home use. However, they aren’t the fastest.
They are good enough if you are on a budget or if you value getting more storage capacity for the money.