WD Caviar Green 3TB or Red 3TB

Mark H

Mark H

Mark H

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14 Nov 2008
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Hi all,

Ever since the price of hard drives rocketed I've needed a new hard drive for storing stuff on like my steam apps and video recordings. Anyway I can't hold out any longer so am looking at the WD Red and Green 3TB.

Basically I'm not sure which to go for. I see the Red is designed for NAS 24/7 use and while my PC is on probably 15 hours a day at least I shut it down every night. What attracts me to the Red over the green though is the extra year warranty for just £20 more than the green. Plus a couple of reviews seem to indicate the red is a newer version of the green.

What worries me about the Red though is because it is designed for 24/7 use will it be ok turning it on and off do you think each night?

Your advice would be great.
Mark

P.S Other brands I see have either less warranty or are Seagate which of the 4 drives of theirs I have had have all failed on me rather quickly.
 
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The red has firmware designed for NAS usage with tweaks designed for better error recovery in RAID. I wouldn't put it in a desktop PC, green would be better.
 
I'm in the same boat needing to pick up a new drive for my N40L tomorrow as pretty much used up the 2x WD Green array currently in there. As the server is on 24x7 doing stuff then it's easy for me to plump for a 3TB Red to bung in there after looking at the current pricing. I'd say the Red at its original price wasn't worth it's substantially larger price tag and I would've gone Green, but now it's come down to only 20 quid more, it's worth that for the better drive with an extra 12 months warranty.
 
I think the Red has a high (slow) access time, which makes it fine for server use but bad for storing your steam collection on.
 
Harbz said:
I think the Red has a high (slow) access time, which makes it fine for server use but bad for storing your steam collection on.
Click to expand...

True, but same goes for the Green which was his other choice and that itself is a bit slower than the Red and designed for bulk storage rather than performance.

So yeah, if the OP wants it for mainly Steam use then don't look at the low power offerings.
 
Neither of those drives on their own will be suitable for both of your requirements. OS and Steam apps will run terribly slow on anything below a 7200rpm HDD.

Option 1:
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £93.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £107.99
Total : £211.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Option 2:
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £93.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EARX) HDD £79.99
Total : £183.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Option 3:
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £69.98
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EARX) HDD £79.99
Total : £158.68 (includes shipping : £7.25).
 
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I'd go for an SSD boot drive for OS, Apps and the Steam games you are currently playing. Then use a large 2 or 3TB as storage for music, videos and steam games you are not currently playing. I've got all my Steam games downloaded and stored on a mechanical drive, when I want to play that isn't part of my current collection, I just transfer it to the Steam folder on my SSD and install it. Much much quicker than downloading and I also don't need a 1TB SSD.

I agree with MagicBoy, Green over the Red if you are not using it in a NAS style environment.
 
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Speed said:
I'd go for an SSD boot drive for OS, Apps and the Steam games you are currently playing. Then use a large 2 or 3TB as storage for music, videos and steam games you are not currently playing. I've got all my Steam games downloaded and stored on a mechanical drive, when I want to play that isn't part of my current collection, I just transfer it to the Steam folder on my SSD and install it. Much much quicker than downloading and I also don't need a 1TB SSD.

I agree with MagicBoy, Green over the Red if you are not using it in a NAS style environment.
Click to expand...

How have you done that? Install in the normal fashion, and then just move out of their original file location? Does that not upset Steam?
 
Yes, that is right. I've downloaded each game then made a copy of the Steamapps folder as a store on my NAS. Then deleted the ones I'm not playing off the SSD, should I want to play a game I copy the source files from the mechanical storage drive in my NAS to my SSDs steam folder, press install in Steam, it discovers the files and saves me waiting for the download to complete.

It isn't a perfect system, but it works for me as I don't have a huge amount of games installed. I'd rather wait 5 minutes copying over a game I've decided to play than lose the quick loading times by putting the Steam directory on a mechanical drive completely.
 
My gaming rig setup has a Crucial M4 SSD for boot, then 2x500GB discs in RAID0 for games. All my Steam games are on it, and thanks to the SSD it all boots really quickly, and thanks to the stripe the games load quick enough for me too. Seemed like a good halfway house as copying data to and from a D to a C partition before loading from SSD will be slower than just running from a simple or RAIDed D:.
 
Not sure if this is an option but ive just noticed you can pick up Western Digital My Book Essential 4TB.

model: WDBACW0040HBK-UESN

for around £156-170, Its bigger then the 3tbs and a bit more expensive but @ if the 3td reds are around £120-130ish its not too much extra for the 4tb.

Sadly cant find any info if its a Green drive, but looking online WD dont seem to have 4tb Greens ? Only see there 4tb 7200rpm drives.
 
No warranty if you crack open an external.

Longer warranty is one of the positives regarding the Reds.
 
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