They are made for different scenarios in the long run.

Like WD purple AE and WD Green not a fair comparison, but security drives(purple) tend to be active and have power down modes.

The difference in black/blue in longevity and usually noise to be fair since they are both consumer drives.

I believe it's down to storage and the RPMs. Blue's can be either 7200 RPM or 5400 RPM, with the 7200 RPM seeming to be on lower end storage, typically 1 TB or lower. Anything above 1TB I've only seen as 5400 RPM. Black's on the other hand can be 2, 3, 4 TB and be 7200 RPM. You probably won't notice a difference either way between the two. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I believe a 5400 RPM would be smarter/better suited for storing large files such as back ups or those movies you totally didn't torrent and bought legit; where as the 7200 RPM would be better suited used for a system drive or wanting to open applications that rely more on latency such as gaming.

I can't say for sure on the noise with the two, I've had Blues in the past and never noticed them being quieter or louder than the Blacks, but then again when I had those HDDs, I was using the Fractal R5 case which had the noise dampening foam where I couldn't hear much noise inside the case.

Have a read on this and refer to the screenshot below - [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

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Shiv wrote Have a read on this and refer to the screenshot below - [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

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Out-dated. I'm almost certain WD Greens aren't 5400RPM any more.

OP- no noticeable difference in performance. For 99% of users, a WD Black is a waste of money. Get the cheapest 7200RPM HDD you can in your required capacity.