New WD Green or old WD Black as storage drive?

[gx_saurav]

I moved to SSD in 2012 and currently use Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB for OS and boot drive with a 500 GB Western digital Black, 7200 RPM, SATA 2 hard disk which I purchased in 2010.

The WD hard disk is used only for storage of videos, music, downloading files etc since last 3 years. I don't store movies, TV shows etc for long so storage space is not a concern. Even on this 500 GB HDD more than 350 GB is empty. I also have a 1 tb external hard disk for backup purpose.

I am wondering if I should switch to a 250 GB, Western Digital Green, 5400 RPM, SATA 3 Hard disk? 250 GB is enough for my needs.

I am inclining towards WD Green due to their low power and silent operation. Yes, they are not fast like WD Blue or Black edition drives but it no longer matters because all OS and apps are stored on SSD.

Does this kind of upgrade makes sense or should I keep my existing WD Black HDD? Is anyone using WD green here as a storage drive? How is your experience? I can sell my WD black for $15 easily and new WD Green 250 Gb is costing me $ 30 so it will be a difference of $10 only to buy a new one.

 

[JimmiG]

No need to change out a drive that works perfectly fine. However when I purchase new drives nowadays I always go for the low-power 5,400 - 5,900 RPM ones. They run slightly cooler, slightly quieter, use slightly less power, and I imagine they might be a bit more reliable and durable due to less stress on the components @ the lower rotation speed. HDD's are just used for archiving data nowadays, so I don't need the lower access time of 7,200 RPM. If I need the io performance, I put the files on one of my SSD's.

The difference are subtle, so again, no reason to throw out a perfectly good 7,200 RPM drive.

 

[AlienTech]

At idle you are talking about saving like a watt and during use it is like 3-4 watts.. Not a lot of usage there to matter but you will notice the speed difference with the faster drive. This matters when you have 20 drives in the system as you need fans for the heat and a bigger power supply etc.. Also in externals there is no ventillation so either you have to use a fan on it or get a green drive but I notice the greens also get very hot. Only that it takes longer for it to get hot. Because the faster drive copys files faster, it gets hot faster but then cools down, the slower drive gets hoter slower but takes longer to copy the files... Over all I prefer the faster one from experience.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Seriously, I believe that the power savings of a WD Green drive are a bit ... overstated? The most "green" thing that you could probably do, is continue to use your 500GB WD Black drive until it fails on you.

And if you are considering getting a new Green drive, get a 2TB one for $70, rather than $30 for 250GB. Much better capacity / $.

Still, WD Green drives don't have very good reviews, at least on Newegg. One guy said his caught on fire(!). Crazy stuff.

WD Black are like the gold standard for PC harddrive reliability. I would personally keep the Black.

 

[Soulkeeper]

That black drive is likely a single platter design as well, so it's power usage should be relatively low. I've never been a fan of the green drives. I remember how dog slow the 5400rpm drives were back in the 10GB days, I still can't shake that memory.
Not using the full capacity of the drive is actually a good thing. Most your data will be on the outside faster part of the platter.
Another vote for keeping the black.

 

[coercitiv]

Keep current drive for now, when a very good SSD deal comes along buy another 250GB drive and completely eliminate HDD storage from your system.

 

[JimmiG]

At idle you are talking about saving like a watt and during use it is like 3-4 watts.. Not a lot of usage there to matter but you will notice the speed difference with the faster drive. This matters when you have 20 drives in the system as you need fans for the heat and a bigger power supply etc.. Also in externals there is no ventillation so either you have to use a fan on it or get a green drive but I notice the greens also get very hot. Only that it takes longer for it to get hot. Because the faster drive copys files faster, it gets hot faster but then cools down, the slower drive gets hoter slower but takes longer to copy the files... Over all I prefer the faster one from experience.

It depends on the case too. If you have 4+ drives stacked on top of each other with poor ventilation, they will run pretty hot. All my HDDs run cooler after I put the 7200 RPM ones on top so they don't heat up the slower ones. The spinning platters are what cause my drives to get warmer, not the motion of the r/w heads. So unless I use aggressive power saving to shut them down when idle, 5x00 RPM drives definitely make a difference.

If the drive is only going to be used for video files, downloads etc. then I don't see the point of 7200 RPM. As a secondary gaming HDD for example, 7200 RPM makes more sense. But of course for the OP, replacing a perfectly fine drive with anything else makes no sense.

 

[Charlie98]

I have a 500GB WD Green in AV use, while it's been a very reliable drive, especially considering it's in 24/7/365 use writing surveillance video, it's noisy. I have the unit in my master bed closet, about 25' away, and sometimes I can hear it writing at night.

I'm not a big fan of Green drives (any manufacturer) and prefer either 7200RPM drives or SSD's. I would keep your current drive, although I like the idea coercitiv threw out... eventually swap it out for a reasonably sized SSD and get true quiet/cool/efficient.

 

[gx_saurav]

I have a 500GB WD Green in AV use, while it's been a very reliable drive, especially considering it's in 24/7/365 use writing surveillance video, it's noisy. I have the unit in my master bed closet, about 25' away, and sometimes I can hear it writing at night.

I'm not a big fan of Green drives (any manufacturer) and prefer either 7200RPM drives or SSD's. I would keep your current drive, although I like the idea coercitiv threw out... eventually swap it out for a reasonably sized SSD and get true quiet/cool/efficient.

As a matter of fact, I can do that right now too. My current Samsung 850 Evo has an effective 232 GB space out of which around 20 GB is currently used for TurboWrite, I am left with 212 GB space.

I can easily make a 40 GB partition for Windows and rest 172 GB can be used for D:\ drive meant only for storing music permanently because I use that, some pictures, games, some software, and videos before I watch and delete them.

However, then my concern is that I will be wasting write cycles on the SSD by downloading files, copying data on it. Samsung claims that 850 Evo is fine for upto 75 TB throughout its life and it will take me more than 4 years to fill it with my current style of usage so should I even be worried about this?

 

[Charlie98]

As a matter of fact, I can do that right now too. My current Samsung 850 Evo has an effective 232 GB space out of which around 20 GB is currently used for TurboWrite, I am left with 212 GB space.

I can easily make a 40 GB partition for Windows and rest 172 GB can be used for D:\ drive meant only for storing music permanently because I use that, some pictures, games, some software, and videos before I watch and delete them.

However, then my concern is that I will be wasting write cycles on the SSD by downloading files, copying data on it. Samsung claims that 850 Evo is fine for upto 75 TB throughout its life and it will take me more than 4 years to fill it with my current style of usage so should I even be worried about this?

I wouldn't get too excited about wear on your SSD... I used to worry myself over it, but now I just use it like it was intended. Understand that an SSD is a consumable tool... some day it will need replacing, just like brakes on a car or a refrigerator... it's not meant to last forever. Personally, I would put everything on the SSD, and then just use the WD Black as a backup drive to store images of your entire SSD; I personally use this setup, making full backup copies of my SSD every night. It's worth noting that any SSD can fail at any time, not just after x amount of writes... I have personal experience with this and my 840Pro. No matter what you wind up with, you need to be backing up at least your OS (unless it's just some sort of basic install and you don't have any valuable data on it.)

 

[gx_saurav]

I wouldn't get too excited about wear on your SSD... I used to worry myself over it, but now I just use it like it was intended. Understand that an SSD is a consumable tool... some day it will need replacing, just like brakes on a car or a refrigerator... it's not meant to last forever. Personally, I would put everything on the SSD, and then just use the WD Black as a backup drive to store images of your entire SSD; I personally use this setup, making full backup copies of my SSD every night. It's worth noting that any SSD can fail at any time, not just after x amount of writes... I have personal experience with this and my 840Pro. No matter what you wind up with, you need to be backing up at least your OS (unless it's just some sort of basic install and you don't have any valuable data on it.)

My OS drive doesn't have much data in it and everything valuable is in OneDrive/External hard disk. As I said, this 500 GB HDD is used only for storing files.

Oh! well, its not hurting me right now and I don't see any point in spending money on a new hard disk right now. I am going to stick to my current setup until my HDD dies, in which case I will switch to SSD. With my current usage my 850 Evo should last many years to come.