Is there really a big difference between in performance or longevity between the red and the greens.  I'm planning on upgrading my parity drive from a 2tb green to a 3TB as I'm starting run out of space both in my case and storage wise.  All of the drives I have now are either WD 2TB greens or the now defunct Hitachi Deskstar 2TB's.  Just wondering if I should continue with buying greens or start switching to the reds?

 

Thanks

Is there really a big difference between in performance or longevity between the red and the greens.  I'm planning on upgrading my parity drive from a 2tb green to a 3TB as I'm starting run out of space both in my case and storage wise.  All of the drives I have now are either WD 2TB greens or the now defunct Hitachi Deskstar 2TB's.  Just wondering if I should continue with buying greens or start switching to the reds?

 

Thanks

You will likely not see much of a difference.  I think the Red as a longer warranty but don't quote me on that.

 

I will say: if you can afford to get a 4TB drive go with one of those instead of a 3TB.

Thanks, I don't think my mobo will recognize an MBR larger than 3TB.  I'll go with the reds then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing

 

If it recognizes 3TB it will recognize 4TB. The issue was crossing beyond 2TB.

For me, I won't buy another Green drive ever again. I've gone through 8 in about 2 years. In my environment, I keep my file server on 24/7/365.  The Greens aren't rated to handle that. Greens are desktop level drives, whereas, according to WD Marketing, Red are rated for RAID and are supposed to handle 24/7/365. If you plan on having your file server operate like that, then I'd recommend staying away from the Greens. (There's other Marketing fluff about how Reds are specially built for RAID situations and therefore won't take down a complete RAID array, but, I can't comment on that. Besides.. this is UnRAID!). Now, I haven't had my Reds for 2 years yet, so I may change my opinion of them, but my opinion of the Greens won't change. I won't buy another one.

For me, I won't buy another Green drive ever again. I've gone through 8 in about 2 years. In my environment, I keep my file server on 24/7/365.  The Greens aren't rated to handle that. Greens are desktop level drives, whereas, according to WD Marketing, Red are rated for RAID and are supposed to handle 24/7/365.

 

The greens are perfectly fine. I've gone through 0 green drives in the past 5 years and I keep my file server on 24/7/365. I have had some that never survived 3 passes of preclear, but that's why you stress test them before you trust them with your data.

Not sure if this is a point to consider or a question .....

 

I have 2 servers and they are both on 24/7 BUT the drives are spun down for a significant amount of time, in particular on the media server with films etc as its not like I am watching films 24/7 (works sees to that !). I have just gone for 2 new 4TB green drives (Upgrade for parity and one for data - 3 preclears each before fitting) as I do not see the point in paying extra for red's as the % split between stopped and spinning is low for me.

 

So I guess the question here is "is 24/7/365 referring to spinning time / activity on the drives or being in a box which is powered on but the drives are spun down"?

So I guess the question here is "is 24/7/365 referring to spinning time / activity on the drives or being in a box which is powered on but the drives are spun down"?

I would guess here that 24/7/365 would mean that your drive is spinning and active for 24/7/365.

 

On a side note, I seem to have one drive now that when it tries to spin up I hear the "spin up" noise for about 3 seconds when it's normally 1 second. It's an original Samsung 2TB drive. Those drives you can distinctly hear the "power up" motor. I suppose if I checked the SMART I'd see the Spin Up flag set a bit high due to long power ups.

 

I've seen some drives with 1000 to 3000 spin ups in SMART. YMMV..

 

For me, I won't buy another Green drive ever again. I've gone through 8 in about 2 years. In my environment, I keep my file server on 24/7/365.  The Greens aren't rated to handle that. Greens are desktop level drives, whereas, according to WD Marketing, Red are rated for RAID and are supposed to handle 24/7/365. If you plan on having your file server operate like that, then I'd recommend staying away from the Greens. (There's other Marketing fluff about how Reds are specially built for RAID situations and therefore won't take down a complete RAID array, but, I can't comment on that. Besides.. this is UnRAID!). Now, I haven't had my Reds for 2 years yet, so I may change my opinion of them, but my opinion of the Greens won't change. I won't buy another one.

 

Same here for me with the greens, ran 10 degs higher than the reds plus the fail rate was atrocious, went through 6 before replacing with reds, no fails so far in 2 years

I've found both to be very good drives;  but HAVE had a few failures with the Greens and absolutely no issues with the Reds [i did have a couple DOA Reds, but I attribute that to poor packaging from the shipping (Newegg - they're very significantly improved their drive packaging in the last year)].

 

The Reds run notably cooler; use less power; and have a longer warranty.  Certainly worth a few extra $/TB in my opinion.

 

Hmmm - although my 4TB greens are fine and are not spun up very often i accept much better knowlege and experience than mine so when i next need to buy a drive i will go for a 4TB RED and put it in as parity and do the same as drives are needed or replaced. Until whatever comes along after RED's of course.