Advice on a 3-4TB Internal drive.

Metalman · 9 Sep 2015 at 22:17

Hello to all,

Am in the need of a big internal hdd and cant really find opinions on such large sizes. I ve had my eyes on WD Red or Green. Only thing I need is big storage and reliability. Dont really care about performance or read or write speeds as this a for PURE storage. Really going for the best bang(TBs) for buck here.

Would really appreciate some suggestions and/or personal experiences!

Nutella33 · 9 Sep 2015 at 23:55

Bang for buck has got to be the green's.

Metalman · 10 Sep 2015 at 00:14

Hmmm thought so. Would you say they are reliable enough though? What about cheaper brands like hitachi, toshiba, seagate for 4TBs?

The drive is gonna be a secondary drive to my main ssd. I will only be directly downloading storing and playing music and videos on it. Its not gonna run an OS or programs but its gonna be used quite frequently. Is the green up for such use? Am really not into the idea of buying a second one just to keep a back up of 4TBs...

Nutella33 · 10 Sep 2015 at 00:23

From past experience and comments here, hard drives at the moment are having very similar failure rates, there's not much in the brands any more or particularly stand out bad models (like the old deathstars of old) going around.

The greens at OCuk are the same price as the equivalent "cheaper" brands such as the seagate ST4000DM000 when looking at 4TB. I would say there is very little between them. You only really start paying extra for NAS or Network storage features or higher capacities and from what you've said I dont think the extra 30 quid will be worth spending for the equivalent Red with those features as you have no special requirements from them.

I'm currently running a ST4000DM000 but I've ran the greens in the past. No drama's with either.

Metalman · 10 Sep 2015 at 00:41

Nutella33 said:
From past experience and comments here, hard drives at the moment are having very similar failure rates, there's not much in the brands any more or particularly stand out bad models (like the old deathstars of old) going around.

The greens at OCuk are the same price as the equivalent "cheaper" brands such as the seagate ST4000DM000 when looking at 4TB. I would say there is very little between them. You only really start paying extra for NAS or Network storage features or higher capacities and from what you've said I dont think the extra 30 quid will be worth spending for the equivalent Red with those features as you have no special requirements from them.

I'm currently running a ST4000DM000 but I've ran the greens in the past. No drama's with either.

I was going straight for the green but reading various reviews people said that greens shine and make the most out of them when they are off amd not doing anything. My concern is that even if am not running an os or apps from it, constant downloading(writing) and playback(reading) could wear the green down very easily and break too soon. Is this a thing or is this considered an ok use for such a drive and its all in my head?
Thanks for clearing out so many things about the red and other brands mate, much appreciated!

demon8991 · 10 Sep 2015 at 02:22

Personally I would go for a Western Digital Red, they have an extra year warranty over the Green drives and I have used them in both an everyday PC environment and my NAS that is on 24/7. They have less aggressive head parking compared to Greens as well. I have 2 x 3TB Reds and 2 x 6TB Reds just for the record.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 6TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB CacheTB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM WD60EFRX £209.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 5TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM WD50EFRX £174.95
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 4TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM WD40EFRX £137.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM WD30EFRX £94.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM WD20EFRX £77.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (WD10EFRX) £58.99
Total : £754.90 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

John24 · 10 Sep 2015 at 20:58

FYI head parking can be adjusted or disabled completely.

If it's not for a NAS I'd go with the greens, less waranty yes but if it doesn't die in the first few months it's likely to keep going for years. The green are a bit quieter aswell.