WD20EARX vs WD20EZRX

thenewoc · 27 Feb 2013 at 14:20

Title says it all really, just wondering what the difference is between these, i've googled about but can't find a lot.

darael · 27 Feb 2013 at 16:33

The WD20EARX seems to consume less power, has a faster "host to drive" speed and has a SATA latching connector.

Sources: WD20EARX WD20EZRX

thenewoc · 27 Feb 2013 at 16:47

hi, it seems the EZRX has the faster transfer rate at 145 MB/s compared to 110 MB/s on the EARX although as you say the latter has slightly lower power consumption. I've seen some posts elsewhere that elude to the EZRX having 1TB platters and am assuming the EARX is a slightly older product using 666 GB platters.

Phil2008 · 27 Feb 2013 at 22:46

Ive just bought a WD20EZRX 2TB HDD and here's my benchmark. Not bad for a Green

Phil2008 · 27 Feb 2013 at 23:20

Heres a benchmark done in HD Tune Pro, because apparently the free version is not accurate.

Rubicant · 27 Feb 2013 at 23:56

thenewoc said:
hi, it seems the EZRX has the faster transfer rate at 145 MB/s compared to 110 MB/s on the EARX although as you say the latter has slightly lower power consumption. I've seen some posts elsewhere that elude to the EZRX having 1GB platters and am assuming the EARX is a slightly older product using 666 MB platters.

Speeds on EZRX would be consistent with the increased areal density. Im curious about noise. How do they compare to EARX? Lookn forward to a review!

thenewoc · 28 Feb 2013 at 10:41

Looks good Phil2008 thanks for sharing, it seems you have a dual platter model resulting in similar performance to the caviar blacks. It does seem from having a search yesterday though that there could be a couple of versions of the WD20EZRX floating around, one of which is triple platter rather than dual.

It seems the way to tell is by the weight, with 644 grams being the dual platter and ~730 grams being triple.

http://rml527.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/hdd-platter-database-western-digital-35_1109.html

It also seems the current caviar blacks are now EOL so there may be a dual platter caviar black out soon too.

Phil2008 · 28 Feb 2013 at 16:55

thenewoc said:
Looks good Phil2008 thanks for sharing, it seems you have a dual platter model resulting in similar performance to the caviar blacks. It does seem from having a search yesterday though that there could be a couple of versions of the WD20EZRX floating around, one of which is triple platter rather than dual.

It seems the way to tell is by the weight, with 644 grams being the dual platter and ~730 grams being triple.

http://rml527.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/hdd-platter-database-western-digital-35_1109.html

It also seems the current caviar blacks are now EOL so there may be a dual platter caviar black out soon too.

Im only using my 2tb hdd for media as I stream tv stuff,music thoughout the house.

I need to upgrade my old wd black 640GB hdd that I use for games, downloads and stuff, as thats showing its age now. But I only need another 640gb hdd max as Im only using 80gb of it, so a 1tb+ hdd would be a total waste. But I see this tasty hdd that might do the job perfectly http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-392-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940

My current WD Black 640gb speed

thenewoc · 28 Feb 2013 at 17:38

Aren't you running your games off your SSD? Would it not be better to upgrade that and use some space on your new Green. You could then retire the old black and save the power, heat and noise it currently generates.

Ordered a WD20EZRX so hoping to get a dual platter version, should make a good partner to my SSD as I'll use game save manager to shunt most popular games to SSD and then back if I get short of SSD space.

Phil2008 · 28 Feb 2013 at 18:26

thenewoc said:
Aren't you running your games off your SSD? Would it not be better to upgrade that and use some space on your new Green. You could then retire the old black and save the power, heat and noise it currently generates.

My SSD wouldnt be much faster for games, as it uses compressible data for its speed, and games are already compressed. I would upgrade my current 80gb SSD for a larger one, so to have games on it aswell,, but backing up the SSD boot drive is so much quicker without the games on it, plus using a lot less room to backup

My 2tb hdd is my shared/media drive that I dont want to use it for anything else.

You could say Im a tad set in my ways like a old man

metalmackey · 28 Feb 2013 at 19:27

Phil2008 said:
You could say Im a tad set in my ways like a old man

Aint that the truth LOL.

With graphics cards and CPUs using a lot more power, I don't belive having a green instead of a black will save that much power , unless you have it working most of the day, in which case the black or RE would be better anyway 'cos of the 5 year warrenty.

Just my 2P's worth LOL.

Phil2008 · 28 Feb 2013 at 21:16

metalmackey said:
Aint that the truth LOL.

With graphics cards and CPUs using a lot more power, I don't belive having a green instead of a black will save that much power , unless you have it working most of the day, in which case the black or RE would be better anyway 'cos of the 5 year warrenty.

Just my 2P's worth LOL.

Green hdd are good when there sitting doing nothing as they slow right down, and I dont access the hdd very much.. I say, get the correct hdd for the job its going to do, but thats just me. My green hdd is like 4-5c cooler then my black, but then again the black is quite old now.

Phil2008 · 28 Feb 2013 at 21:29

Also it wont save your data if your hdd fails no matter how large the warranty is. Its a nice reason to buy another if your hdd fails when warranty runs out, cos by then there will be bigger and better things. :cool:

metalmackey · 28 Feb 2013 at 21:37

Like a 4tb black LOL, which is at 23 C at this moment. Man I could cook toast on it its so hot LOL

thenewoc · 28 Feb 2013 at 22:29

I think the point some might be missing is comparable if not better performance and half the cost. The Greens are 2 year warranty opposed to 5 year on the Blacks but apart from that the Greens seem to be good VFM IMO and have Advanced Format. The Greens seem good for a supporting role to an SSD, large cheap storage for media as my system is an all round PC come HTPC.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) HDD £149.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD £76.99
Total : £237.78 (includes shipping : £9.00).

WD2002FAEX | WD20EZRX

Phil2008 · 1 Mar 2013 at 01:29

thenewoc said:
I think the point some might be missing is comparable if not better performance and half the cost. The Greens are 2 year warranty opposed to 5 year on the Blacks but apart from that the Greens seem to be good VFM IMO and have Advanced Format. The Greens seem good for a supporting role to an SSD, large cheap storage for media as my system is an all round PC come HTPC.

I guess the Greens are similar to the Reds, accept 3 yr instead of 2 yr warranty?

thenewoc · 1 Mar 2013 at 10:12

The Reds are intended for NAS/RAID though where reliability of always being on is their aim, so not so much power saving. NAS performance is going to be down to network speed, even on Gigabit your still going to have an overhead adding to seek. There not intended for standalone desktop use so I doubt they would perform as well in that use as a Blue, Green or Black.

thenewoc · 21 Mar 2013 at 16:43

Just thought I'd try a test on my WD20EZRX as I've had it installed a couple of weeks or so now and have transferred user data on to it, around 330GB, and am using iRST 11.6.0.1030 with the rig in my sig.

I confirmed mine is a twin platter version as the weight checked out with what I had read about it being around 644 grams.

Here's a comparison to my outgoing Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB (HD502HJ):

@Phil2008, was your bench on the WD20EZRX before you put any data on it?

Merlin5 · 21 Mar 2013 at 20:06

Phil2008 said:
Also it wont save your data if your hdd fails no matter how large the warranty is.

Doesn't a longer warranty on the black suggest that WD are more confident in its reliability, meaning that it's probably less likely to fail than a green?

DennisMenace · 22 Mar 2013 at 00:33

Merlin5 said:
Doesn't a longer warranty on the black suggest that WD are more confident in its reliability, meaning that it's probably less likely to fail than a green?

Not really, at twice the price it means they can afford to replace it more times.
(OK it is a better drive, but twice the price/warranty does not necessarily mean twice the reliability).

I'd rather have 2 mirrored Green drives than 1 Black (for the same price). Better still, a Black drive (for performance) regularly backed up to a Green drive (just in case). Even better, 2 mirrored Black drives backed up to 2 more mirrored Black drives AND a NAS/cloud backup... and so on.

TBH for 99% of users, a fast 120/250gb SSD + 1-3tb HDD (Green/Black) with a decent backup plan should be good enough. And if you can afford more/better, do it (eg NAS/RAID etc).