• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Western Digital Green Drives

Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Messages
2,188 (0.42/day)
Location
England
I'm a going to the store tomorrow to pick up a new HDD, and it will only ever be used as storage drive, but will be used regularly for accessing (mainly) music, and also video's + photo's, that kind of thing.

So I know the Green edition of the WD range use a slower drive than even my current storage drive, is this an issue, or should it be? I'm really just wanting to know the differences between the WD green drives, let's say Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB vs Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB

Both are one's I'm considering.
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2007
Messages
5,106 (0.83/day)
Location
Kansas
Processor Core i5 3570K
Motherboard AsRock z77 Pro4
Cooling Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Memory 2x4GB GSkill Sniper
Video Card(s) MSI GTX970 Gaming
Storage 240GB OCZ ARC 100, Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Display(s) LG 23" 1920x1080
Case Antec P100
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Antec Edge 750W
Software Windows 8.1 Pro 64
Speed doesn't matter much for storage drives. If your OS isn't on it, it could be hamster wheel powered and you'd be okay.
 
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Messages
2,188 (0.42/day)
Location
England
Speed doesn't matter much for storage drives. If your OS isn't on it, it could be hamster wheel powered and you'd be okay.

So I shouldn't see any difference whatsoever as long as they are used for what they're designed for (storage)?
 

Bo$$

Lab Extraordinaire
Joined
May 7, 2009
Messages
5,656 (1.04/day)
Location
London, UK
System Name Desktop | Server
Processor Intel i7 2700k @ 4.6GHZ | AMD 5350 @ 2500MHZ
Motherboard Asus P7Z77-V Pro | Asus AM1I-A
Cooling Corsair H60v2 | Stock Air
Memory Crucial Ballistix 2x8GB CL8 1600MHZ | Corsair Vengence 2x4GB CL9 1600MHZ
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX 1060 6GB | PNY GTX 750Ti
Storage Samsung 840 EVO 250GB + 4TB WD Red | 2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB
Display(s) Samsung S27D390H + Asus VE276Q | Headless
Case Fractal Design R5 | CM Elite 110
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar D1 w/Otone Stilo 5.1 and Creative Fatal1ty headset
Power Supply EVGA Supernova 850 G2| Corsair CX430M
Mouse Razer Imperator 2012
Keyboard Corsair K90
Software Windows 7 SP1 X64 | Ubuntu 16.04LTS
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Messages
2,188 (0.42/day)
Location
England

I did already, but I can't afford it right now and I need the the Samsung drive out my current rig for another rig, so will be using my 500Gb as my main OS drive ... (never used it for anything more than storage so I'm hoping I won't run into any problems with that, not that I should).
 
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Messages
4 (0.00/day)
Processor Intel Core2Quad Q6600
Motherboard Asus P5K-E WiFi AP
Memory Transcend AXE-Ram 1200Mhz DDR2
Video Card(s) ATI HD2900XT 512MB
Storage 2x Seagate Barracuda 250GB, 2x WD Caviar Green 1TB
Display(s) LG Flatron W2442PA
Case Thermaltake Shark
Audio Device(s) X-FI Fatality FPS
Power Supply Tagan 580W
Software Windows 7 Ultimate
It don't matter really since it will be 4 storage only... but the Samsung Spinpoint F3 is the faster drive...
 

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
17,865 (2.99/day)
Location
Quantum Well UK
System Name Quantumville™
Processor Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory 16GB (2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance Black DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 2080 SUPER Gaming X Trio
Storage Samsung 850 Pro 256GB | WD Black 4TB | WD Blue 6TB
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) | Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i
Mouse Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard Yes
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
These green drives may be "slow", but that depends on how you compare them.

I bought a Green Power 1.5T drive quite some time ago (when 2T was still expensive) for data backups. Just for giggles, I installed Windows 7 on it, to see just how bad it was as a boot drive. And you know what? It wasn't bad at all. The OS didn't feel slow and it booted up quite quickly.

The reason is the high platter density making the data rate, at least near the outside edge, quite fast. The head access of course remains slower. Obviously if you compare it to something like a Caviar Black it's a lot slower, but it still wouldn't feel all that obvious without comparative benching.

So no, don't worry about the performance, especially for your data only use. Enjoy. :toast:
 
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Messages
2,188 (0.42/day)
Location
England
These green drives may be "slow", but that depends on how you compare them.

I bought a Green Power 1.5T drive quite some time ago (when 2T was still expensive) for data backups. Just for giggles, I installed Windows 7 on it, to see just how bad it was as a boot drive. And you know what? It wasn't bad at all. The OS didn't feel slow and it booted up quite quickly.

The reason is the high platter density making the data rate, at least near the outside edge, quite fast. The head access of course remains slower. Obviously if you compare it to something like a Caviar Black it's a lot slower, but it still wouldn't feel all that obvious without comparative benching.

So no, don't worry about the performance, especially for your data only use. Enjoy. :toast:

Figures :toast:

Here's is 2 graphs showing my OS drive and my storage drive...

OS Maxtor STM3500 (500Gb 7900rpm)


Storage Western Diginal Green (1Tb 5600rpm)

The graphs speaks for themselfs.
 
Top