Western Digital Mainstream Hard Drives: Cutting Costs or Just New Marketing?

Published by John on November 7, 2015 Under Computer Repair

Due to all the anguish that I’ve had and seen at the hands of Seagate Harddrives, my preference is Western Digital, specifically their Western Digital Black Line. WD Blacks have always treated me well and are backed by one of the better hardware warranties(@5 Years) you can get when compared to other hard drive brands.

Anecdotally, it is safe to say that I have replaced more dead Seagate Hardrives in laptops/desktops than other brands. When I come across a computer with a no boot disk error, it is much more common for me to see a Seagate Baracuda or Momentus drive in it than a WD Drive.

Whether this is due to a higher failure rate in Seagate drives, due to how common Seagates are in HP’s and HP’s slipping quality standards, that they are more common in low end laptops, or simply my own personal confirmation bias, I really don’t have the data to say, so there definitely could be other factors that explain this.

While I almost always try to go back with a Western Digital Black drive, I recently needed something with at least 1 Terrabyte and I believe the largest they make in Black is 750GB. Since I didn’t want to wait, I headed down to Best Buy(knowing I could price match Amazon) to look for a Western Digital Blue The Western Digital Blue drive is a step down from their Black line.

When I arrived, I noticed Best Buy didn’t have any WD Blue Drives, but did have a WD Mainstream drive. The same was true of Office Max, where I ended up having to head as BB was out of stock.

I’m always a bit wary of lower-cost models of electronics that piggyback off a popular model, as it sometimes means that the manufacturer has lowered their standards to get the price lower. For instance, it is common for Walmart to use it’s purchasing power to get a lower price from electronic manufacturers, who as a result lower the quality or standards of one of their existing products specifically for Walmart. So, even though that cheap Walmart Toshiba Laptop looks like it is the same and just a better price, if you check the model number it is actually a bit different from what other retailers are selling. So, I did a bit of research on them.

So, the new branding worried me a bit and I did a bit of research on it.

Western Digital Blue vs Mainstream

Based off the part number(WDBMYH0010BNC) and the box, this appears to be new branding for their Blue Line. I don’t think the box itself even has the word Mainstream on it, instead it just says WD Blue. However, it is marketed at Best Buy and Office Max as a WD Mainstream. and they did not have traditional WD Blue.

On Western Digital’s website, they list their Mainstream line under a separate Retail Kit section and appear to also be using the phrasing Laptop Everyday to describe them. The Blue line still appears separately from their Internal Retail Kit section under both the Mobile and Desktop hard drive sections.

Spec and Price wise, the Mainstream appears to be very similar to the WD Blue drive and they even use the phrase WD Blue when describing it. There are a couple difference in how they are described though. For instance, the Mainstream drive is described as having low power consumption, although the power dissipation is identical to that of the Blue. There also appears to be a bit more marketing text on the Laptop Everyday line than the others.

Spec wise, the main difference between the WD Blue and the WD Mainstream/Laptop Everyday model is its weight and Transfer Rate. The Mainstream is slightly lighter than the traditional Blue drive and has a interface of 3 Gb/s compared to the 6 Gb/s rate of the WD BLue. Otherwise, they are both similar, including running at 5400 RPM, with an 8MB cache.

Similarly, if you compare the Desktop Performance drive to the equivalent WD Black drive, they appear quite similar, including the warranty. However, again the WD Black is a bit heavier than the equivalent Mainstream Black.

So, while these are marketed differently, spec wise they are still comparable to the tradtional WD Blue.

Differences in Sata Data Connection

One thing that jumped out at me right away was the Sata data connection appeared to be a bit different from their other hard-drives. However, these seems to be something relatively new in both their WDBMYH0010BNC and WD10JPVX blue drives.

The WD Mainstream and WD10JPVX Blue use a different shape to the Sata data Connectors, which allows them to use a slightly smaller amount of gold on each terminal. Rather than the standard rectangle shape, they start and end with small strips of gold, widening out to the traditional width in the center. I’ve included some pictures below and a WD Black drive for comparison(which uses the more common connector style) :

This is from a WD Mainstream. Note the shape of the 7 gold Sata Data Connectors on the right.

This is from a WD Black. Note the shape of the 7 gold Sata Data Connectors on the right.

Since I usually purchase WD Black (and sometimes WD Red) drives, it is possible they have been doing this for awhile now. However, this is the first time I have noticed it and have purchased several other Blue drives this year. While I am sure they have tested this and had some very smart engineers work on it, almost certainly the small reduction in gold is a motivating factor. I have a number of old broken Seagate Drives and they use the standard full rectangle shape, however I haven’t bought a new one in awhile, so it is possible this is a new trend for all hard-drive manufacturers.

Weight Reductions and Final Thoughts

The mainstream line appears to be quite similar to WD’s normal line of hard drives, even down to the warranty. However, they are clearly different drives, as they have different model numbers(WD10JPVX vs WDBMYH0010BNC,) different interface speeds(6Gb/s vs 3Gb/s,) and a different weight(~120 Grams vs ~110 Grams.) The Mainstream also isn’t easy to find on their main site, where they currently just list Blue, Blue SSD, Green, and Black. However, when you goto their shopping portal, they appear under a separate Retail Kit section.

One of the most interesting differences for me was that in both comparisons, the weight of the Blue/Black drive is a bit more than the Mainstream. Given the sata connector, surely at least some of this weight reduction comes as a cost savings mechanism…even if it is just a few micro-grams of gold. I would think the obvious place for such a significant weight reduction(~10 Grams) would be in the Aluminum case or possibly the top stainless steel cover, although there are other components(such as the spindle or magnets) that could also account for this. I look forward to tearing apart one of these drives, so I can see were else this weight loss is coming from.

Again, while I would be surprised if they would make this change without researching it and finding that it is a well thought out/safe move, I do worry that this might have impact on reliability, especially with lower end sata cables. And since it appears to be an indication that they are looking to lower their manufacturing costs, they may extend this to other areas of their hardware.

Since these are somewhat new drives, I’m not sure that there is a lot of data on their reliability, other than simply knowing that traditionally the WD Blue and WD Black drives are fairly reliable and they appear to be marketed as very similar to their Blue/Black equivalent. I have yet to see one break down and likely won’t buy one just to tear it apart, so it may be awhile until I can provide a more detailed review to determine the weight difference.

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