[QuotedForTruth]

Usually its not easy to tell. There are often less ports and other obvious features, but who knows whats inside. I dont think anyone has ever done a component level breakdown like they do for storage.

>These derivative models are toned down versions of standard ones, perhaps offering a reduced number of HDMI ports or lower quality components. However, it's hard to say -- it can even be hard to tell which specific TVs are derivatives, requiring a careful scan of a model number which could total eight or nine digits.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/benzingainsights/2012/11/21/why...

[cwizou]

While this happens on TVs (and other consumer goods, mattresses is another example of different SKUs for different retailers), this is not common at all for performance sensitive components in PC hardware industry.

Making different SKUs (with same generic marketing name) can happen (which WD did NOT do here) for good reasons, but most of the time you get better performance out of it.

What WD did is really shameful and very much not the norm in this industry.