Question NAS: WD Blue or Green?

[piokos]

I'm getting a Synology NAS in few weeks (DS220j, probably).
For the time being I'd like to use some of the HDDs I have around. I'll get something new (and larger) later on.

I have four 1TB HDDs to choose from:
2x WD10EZEX (Blue)
2x WD10EZRX (Green)

Originally, Greens were classified as "universal" (for desktop and NAS use). Blues are more desktop-focused.
I bet the differences are minimal, but since I have a choice, why not do it best way possible.

Is there any reason why one of them would perform a lot worse (or die faster) in a NAS? Head parking etc?
I won't use RAID, but there will certainly be a lot of operations.

Sequential read/write is not an issue. They're both faster than what the SoC in DS220j can handle.

Of course noise will be an important factor and I'll test both options when the NAS arrives. From personal experience, the Greens did vibrate a lot less (in a PC).

 

[mxnerd]

WD10EZEX (Blue) 7200 RPM
WD10EZRX (Green) 5400 RMP

Blue will die faster because it spin faster and will be hotter. The no.1 enemy of electronics is the heat. Especially you are going to run them 24/7.

I have a Samsung 5400RPM 1.5TB still in use after 11 years.

If speed is not an issue, choose NAS HDDs that have slower RPM.

 

[piokos]

Blue will die faster because it spin faster and will be hotter. The no.1 enemy of electronics is the heat. Especially you are going to run them 24/7.

Well, these are both single platter drives and really cool even running at 100% for a long time. I don't worry about longevity that much.

But you're obviously right: lower RPM should lead to less heat - thus making the NAS fan spin a bit slower and quieter. At least that's the theory.

If speed is not an issue, choose NAS HDDs that have slower RPM.

As I said: both drives are faster than what the SoC can handle.
But since I'll use the other 2 drives as offline backups, that's where the extra speed can be put to better use.

It does seem like the Green makes more sense in the NAS. And it was officially destined for NAS (unlike Blue), so there should be no unexpected quirks.
So it's mostly a matter of noise. Blue drives are faster, but also younger. This could go both ways.

 

[KentState]

Neither of those are a good choice. They are meant for desktops that run during the day, have at the most 2 drives and then sit quiet at night. Put four of those in an enclosure and spin them 24/7 and you will see them both die faster than expected. Then again, greens are dirt cheap in 1TB so buy a spare or two so that you are covered for when they go out for RMA.

 

[piokos]

Neither of those are a good choice. They are meant for desktops that run during the day, have at the most 2 drives and then sit quiet at night. Put four of those in an enclosure and spin them 24/7 and you will see them both die faster than expected. Then again, greens are dirt cheap in 1TB so buy a spare or two so that you are covered for when they go out for RMA.

Well, as I said: WD Green was the consumer NAS lineup before WD added Red.
So even if not perfectly focused and optimized, they're definitely meant to be used 24/7 (at least in a home system, so few hours a day of actual I/O).

Also, I generally take care of my HDDs and have very good experience in general (at least since I started using WD exclusively).
The last HDD that died was a Barracuda 7200.12 (bought in 2010, lasted 3 years).
My PC runs for about 100h/week on average and it's basically a data processing / ML workstation on budget.

I bought my WD Greens in 2013 and I used them as main PC drives until 2017. I use them as backup drives to this day.
WD Blue are with me since 2017 and work as PC storage drives. No problems, S.M.A.R.T. as new.

Sure, if you put 4 drives in a highly-utilized NAS with RAID, they'll probably die much sooner.
But I'm going for 2 drives, no RAID and it won't be used more than my PC storage is. So I kind of hope to see similar longevity.

 

[KentState]

Well, as I said: WD Green was the consumer NAS lineup before WD added Red.
So even if not perfectly focused and optimized, they're definitely meant to be used 24/7 (at least in a home system, so few hours a day of actual I/O).

Also, I generally take care of my HDDs and have very good experience in general (at least since I started using WD exclusively).
The last HDD that died was a Barracuda 7200.12 (bought in 2010, lasted 3 years).
My PC runs for about 100h/week on average and it's basically a data processing / ML workstation on budget.

I bought my WD Greens in 2013 and I used them as main PC drives until 2017. I use them as backup drives to this day.
WD Blue are with me since 2017 and work as PC storage drives. No problems, S.M.A.R.T. as new.

Sure, if you put 4 drives in a highly-utilized NAS with RAID, they'll probably die much sooner.
But I'm going for 2 drives, no RAID and it won't be used more than my PC storage is. So I kind of hope to see similar longevity.

That is not true. Before Red was RE2 and RE4 drives. Green from the beginning was the cheap bulk storage/backup drives not meant for 24/7 usage.

 

[mxnerd]

InelliPark featue might kill your WD Green?

WD intellipark disable

I plan to buy a 2TB HD used. I thought about WD Green, but I know that they often break down because of IntelliPark. If I disable this feature the HD lasts longer? Has anyone tried to disable this function? How to know if the disk is already spoiled by IntelliPark? Thank you

forums.tomshardware.com

TLTR. I also do not own any WD drives.

Hacking WD Greens (and Reds) with WDIDLE3.exe

*NOTE*: Some of this info applies to WD Reds. So if you have WD Reds you may want to read this and see if this applies to you. *Update 12/26/2014*: It has been confirmed that some WD Blues and WD Blacks that are 2.5" drives have an 8 second delay to park and WDIDLE3.exe *does* allow users to...

www.ixsystems.com

 

[pauldun170]

I'm getting a Synology NAS in few weeks (DS220j, probably).
For the time being I'd like to use some of the HDDs I have around. I'll get something new (and larger) later on.

I have four 1TB HDDs to choose from:
2x WD10EZEX (Blue)
2x WD10EZRX (Green)

Originally, Greens were classified as "universal" (for desktop and NAS use). Blues are more desktop-focused.
I bet the differences are minimal, but since I have a choice, why not do it best way possible.

Is there any reason why one of them would perform a lot worse (or die faster) in a NAS? Head parking etc?
I won't use RAID, but there will certainly be a lot of operations.

Sequential read/write is not an issue. They're both faster than what the SoC in DS220j can handle.

Of course noise will be an important factor and I'll test both options when the NAS arrives. From personal experience, the Greens did vibrate a lot less (in a PC).

What sort of operations?

If these are going to be temporary, and you wont be raiding them I would not overthink it too much.
My NAS is an ancient 2 bay Sharecenter. I've had everything from WD Blacks to Greens and now there are a pair of 4tb blues (WD40EZRZ-00GXCB0) sitting in there. Drives were replaced based on storage needs, not failures.

Assuming that you are backing up everything, I would toss the WD Blues in there and call it day. When you get ready to put the permanent drives in there, that would be the time to overthink your purchase and that's easy. Whatever drive with NAS features that has the best warranty at the price you want pay.

As for the Greens....have some fun and toss them into an enclosure. Plug them into the USB ports on the Sysnology?

 

[piokos]

That is not true. Before Red was RE2 and RE4 drives. Green from the beginning was the cheap bulk storage/backup drives not meant for 24/7 usage.

RE2 and RE4 were enterprise products - they were replaced by Red Pro. WD decided to unify NAS drives under a single colour, but they kept 2 separate branches for consumers and pros.

It's not like we have to rely on our memory either.

Here's a WD Green datasheet from January 2012:

http://products.wdc.com/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701229.pdf

WD Red drives launched in mid 2012.

Here's a revised ( ) WD Green datasheet (2014):

http://products.wdc.com/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800026.pdf

 

[piokos]

If these are going to be temporary, and you wont be raiding them I would not overthink it too much.

Well, it's just about choosing the better option, so not exactly "overthinking". I don't spend anything either way.

As for the Greens....have some fun and toss them into an enclosure. Plug them into the USB ports on the Sysnology?

It's slightly against the idea of NAS, at least for me. I want a sleek box that does the job. It's not meant to be a fun project - nor do I want to cover the living room with cables.

InelliPark featue might kill your WD Green?

Very unlikely. Synology configures the drive for you. It's usually not recommended to apply any modifications.
After all you're mostly paying for their software and support.

So if a drive is on a compatibility list and Intellipark is harmful (I don't know), NAS should switch it off.

Now, the issue here is obvious: WD's officially doesn't recommend Green and Blue HDDs for NAS (post above).
Synology (much like other NAS makers) generally follows HDD makers' recommendations.

HOWEVER
If we looked at an older NAS, it's a different story altogether. Example:

Compatibility List | Synology Inc.

Synology strives to improve product compatibility. Check out our compatibility list before purchasing the peripherals you need.

www.synology.com

Not only are Blue and Green drives listed as compatible, but Synology actually says what modifications they're applying:
- EZEX (Blue): "To ensure compatibility, the hibernation function is disabled on this drive"
- EADS, EARS (Green, older): "The write cache feature on this drive has been disabled to ensure system stability"
- EZRX (Green): "After installing a new drive, reboot your Synology server to enable power management settings" - this looks a lot like Intellipark altering (wdidle3 changes are also applied after a reboot).

 

[mxnerd]

I never used an NAS. I use my PC as NAS. I used to have 4 3.5" 7200RPM Seagate drives that runs hot and all of them die early since the case did not have good ventilation.

Then I went through several 3.5" SATA drives and I finally settle with 2.5" drives except that 3.5" Samsung. I keep the PC case open most of the time and the drives are always cool.

I'm not saying WD Green will definitely die early, just pass along what I found on the internet. My personal opinion actually is as long as you keep them cool, they probably will last a very long time.

I don't even know if the IntelliPark is a thing. The reasaon I don't like WD drives is because they are noisy when seeking data.

 

[pauldun170]

Well, it's just about choosing the better option, so not exactly "overthinking". I don't spend anything either way.

It's slightly against the idea of NAS, at least for me. I want a sleek box that does the job. It's not meant to be a fun project - nor do I want to cover the living room with cables.

Very unlikely. Synology configures the drive for you. It's usually not recommended to apply any modifications.
After all you're mostly paying for their software and support.

So if a drive is on a compatibility list and Intellipark is harmful (I don't know), NAS should switch it off.

Now, the issue here is obvious: WD's officially doesn't recommend Green and Blue HDDs for NAS (post above).
Synology (much like other NAS makers) generally follows HDD makers' recommendations.

HOWEVER
If we looked at an older NAS, it's a different story altogether. Example:

Compatibility List | Synology Inc.

Synology strives to improve product compatibility. Check out our compatibility list before purchasing the peripherals you need.

www.synology.com

Not only are Blue and Green drives listed as compatible, but Synology actually says what modifications they're applying:
- EZEX (Blue): "To ensure compatibility, the hibernation function is disabled on this drive"
- EADS, EARS (Green, older): "The write cache feature on this drive has been disabled to ensure system stability"
- EZRX (Green): "After installing a new drive, reboot your Synology server to enable power management settings" - this looks a lot like Intellipark altering (wdidle3 changes are also applied after a reboot).

I vote use the blue

 

[piokos]

I never used an NAS. I use my PC as NAS.

You probably don't need a NAS if a desktop is your main (and especially: only) PC.

But my household has 5 PCs and 3 smartphones - spread between 2 users.
Keeping the desktop running just to share files makes very little sense.

Also, point of view changes when you don't have a desktop (I'm removing mine later this year), which makes you very dependent on external storage anyway.

I used to have 4 3.5" 7200RPM Seagate drives that runs hot and all of them die early since the case did not have good ventilation.

A lot of people today have issues with HDD temperatures (and failures).
It stems from how modern cases are often designed.
In towers you usually have HDD mounted near the bottom and intake fans put above them (to make space for radiators).
And sometimes drive bays are put in weird, airflow-isolated places, which case makers market as "hidden". So suddenly cooking disks becomes a feature.

We didn't have this problem in the past. Standard ATX towers had 5.25" bays on top, so everyone put intake fans next to the HDD bays.

The reasaon I don't like WD drives is because they are noisy when seeking data.

Honestly, I've never noticed. My WD drives are acceptably quiet, fast (for HDDs) and - most importantly for a disk - all work properly.
I'm OK with HDDs dying after 5 years and the last WD one that didn't make it was WD800JB (80GB, PATA...).
The last Seagate I had lasted for 3 years and was very irritating all the way.

 

[aigomorla]

I would probably not use those drives, and just pick up larger ones.

1TB drives are sort of a joke of a space even my SSD's are larger then 1TB), and when you need to do a upgrade, you will have to off load that data somewhere.
IMO its too much of a time hassle over you just getting new drives from the start.

I recommend you getting HGST Refurbs, since u will probably want to do a Mirror for fault protection, you can pick up 2 x 4TB HGST Ultrastar refurbs for fairly cheap, and if one fails, replace it with another refurb for less then what you would of paid for new, even after you have replaced both drives.
Also rebuilding a Mirror Raid, does not take long so it wont even be as much of a hassle.

If you like WD these guys:

Amazon.com: Western Digital Gold WD4002FYYZ 4TB Enterprise Class Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch Datacenter Hard Drive - 5 Years Warranty (Renewed): Electronics

Buy Western Digital Gold WD4002FYYZ 4TB Enterprise Class Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM Class SATA 6 Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch Datacenter Hard Drive - 5 Years Warranty (Renewed): Internal Hard Drives - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I personally like these guys tho.

Amazon.com: HGST Ultrastar HUS726040ALA614 (0F23102) 4TB 7200RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5inch Internal Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty (Renewed): Electronics

Buy HGST Ultrastar HUS726040ALA614 (0F23102) 4TB 7200RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5inch Internal Hard Drive - 3 Year Warranty (Renewed): Internal Hard Drives - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[Shmee]

I like Reds and Red pros. Just avoid the SMR drives.

 

[aigomorla]

I like Reds and Red pros. Just avoid the SMR drives.

I like Gold's because u can find them refurb'd.
I think Red Pro's are still new, so its difficult to find them in the size you want, and refurb's.

But enterprise drives are all good even tho they are renew'd / refurb'd unless u intend to throw them back into enterprise enviorments, which then i don't think you will be concerned about price / reliability.

But both the Red Pro and Gold cost an arm and a leg, and a kidney even.
Which is why i recommend refurbs. They will probably outlast Red (normal) Black Blue Green Purple, New even, because they are enterprise standard.