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    2TB HDD Western Digital "Green" vs 2TB HDD Western Digital " Red"

    Discussion in 'Accessories' started by saziz111, Mar 7, 2013.

  1. saziz111

    saziz111 Newbie

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    What differences if any are there between the two hard disk drives mentioned above? I am looking for an HD for my NAS.
    Thanks
     
    saziz111, Mar 7, 2013
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  2. coercitiv

    coercitiv Notebook Consultant

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    Some info on Red drives in this Anandtech review. Drive specs for Red and Green directly from WD.

    There are several differences between the Reds and the Greens:
    • The Red consumes less power under load than the Green drive. There are two 2TB Green models, one conumes less power in idle than the Red, the other one consumes more.
    • Red drives are advertised as being more reliable and WD backs that claim with an increased warranty, from 2 to 3 years. (load cycle count is increased from 300k to 600k)
    • Red generates less noise and probably less vibration too.
    • Head parking is disabled on the Red drives. Green drives will park their heads after 8 seconds of inactivity.
    When it comes to reliability, Reds have every reason to perform better.

    <del>FYI: If you choose to go with a 2TB Green drive please check the exact model you're buying: WD20EARX or WD20EZRX. The WD20EARX uses more power and has lower sustained data transfer rate. This probably means it is using more platters.</del>

    Edit: on second look i realised i have mixed up power usage and sustained data trasfer for the 2TB EZRX and EARX. Deleted conclusion above.
     
    coercitiv, Mar 7, 2013
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  3. Peon

    Peon Notebook Virtuoso

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    The most important difference is that the Reds support RAID, whereas the Greens don't. There are many horror stories of people who unknowingly tried to RAID WD Greens, only to have drives drop out of the array on a constant basis.
     
    Peon, Mar 9, 2013
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  4. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Plus the WD Greens have a shorter warranty. WD reduced it to 2 years, while Reds still have a 3 year warranty. I don't have the exact numbers but on my systems the Green drives simply had a higher failure rate than any other drive I've used, so now I avoid them.
     
    Greg, Mar 10, 2013
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  5. coercitiv

    coercitiv Notebook Consultant

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    Good to know. It seems i mixed up the numbers though, and i cannot clearly corelate power usage to better performance between EZRX and EARX drives. This means i was wrong on the platter count difference.
     
    coercitiv, Mar 11, 2013
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