Western Digital Red or WD Green?

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Tony Giangreco

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@TG-TIS,

Even for a small NAS, I'd go with RED.

How about for an external USB enclosure, not a small NAS?

Tony Giangreco

If you intend in leaving the Pc turned on for longer than normal rune times, the RED is still the better way to go.

Simple methodology
black - Performance
Blue - Standard
Green - Eco Friendly
Red - Optimized for Network Attached Storage

ASKER

Thanks, Joe, TG and ve3.

@ve3: Yes, that's what I've read but unfortunately there isn't much info on whether WD Red is being used with an USB enclosure.

If possible, could you guys please suggest an external enclosure for WD Red? I have a 2.5" HDD Enclosure from Vantec and am pretty satisfied with the brand.

There are so many at Amazon. :( My laptops don't support USB 3.0 but I assume it's better to get an enclosure that supports it, right? I usually upgrade computers once in few years.

Thanks again.

Tony Giangreco

I would say if you already have Vantec enclosures and they workl well for you, I'd see what they have for the 3.5" WD red drives.

Here is a large selection

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_sabc?url=search-alias%3Daps&pageMinusResults=1&suo=1361317576293#/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=vantec%20external%20hard%20drive%20enclosure&sprefix=vantec%20external%20%2Caps%2C220&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Avantec%20external%20hard%20drive%20enclosure

The enclosure really doesn't matter.. I like the Vantec Enclosures as well (drives tend to run a bit hotter than I'd prefer but I still like them but not the price. Go with the green as the red won't offer any more performance.

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Thanks again guys..

Great recommendation, Joe! Nice reviews..

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Thanks for your detailed post, garycase.

Could you please let us know what you do as part of your initial testing on a Green and Red?

Also, the enclosure that you'd use for a WD Red, if it were you please?

Would love to know what you feel about Seagate Backup Plus 3 TB drives if possible, please? I have a couple that I picked up from Costco but yet to open them as I'm wary of Seagates!

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We are pretty much stuck with either seagate or WD (industry consolidation) , I used to like the samsung spinpoint drives, and the hitachi drives but they are getting hard to find.

I also used to like Spinpoints ... they were very quiet, tended to run very cool, and were fairly reliable. But they had some serious QC issues about 5 years or so ago, and have pretty much faded away.

The Hitachi 4TB drives are very good -- but note they're now owned by WD :-)

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Frosty555

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Drives used to have a 5 year warranty but the pricing squeeze made the companies reduce their warranty periods.. At one time they did use MiB vs MB -> TiB vs TB i.e. 1TiB = 931MB and it was formatted capacity rather than unformatted capacity.

In actual usage I've found some bad lots of hard drives. It could have been a bad production plant.. Sometimes you get drives from the same company manufactured in different locations. As will all electronics the first 30 days are the most critical as that is when most failures will occur.

Also it doesn't matter green/red/black the drive WILL eventually fail, it could be 1 day/Month/Year/Decade you never know.

ASKER

Thanks so much for the detailed posts, Gary, Frosty and ve3.. Since I got the Red at a decent price ($140), I'll keep it considering it's only $30 more than the WD Green external drive. If possible, I'd love to know how much you guys paid for your Reds.

@gary: The case that you mentioned says it supports only upto 2TB?

I really like the case recommended by joewinograd:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-3-5in-SuperSpeed-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B003F5NS9W/

I'd love to hear your opinions on the enclosure if possible and I'd be glad to close this question. My only requirement is that the enclosure should support USB 3.0 and be reliable.

Thanks everyone for your time.

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Raven,
In addition to the link at Amazon, here's the link for that enclosure at the StarTech site:

http://www.startech.com/HDD/Enclosures/35in-SuperSpeed-USB-3-SATA-External-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-with-Fan~SAT3510BU3

The Technical Specifications tab has additional info beyond the Amazon listing, and the Drivers & Downloads tab has a Datasheet/spec-sheet and a very recent revision of the Instruction Manual (31-Jan-2013). Regards, Joe

".... The case that you mentioned says it supports only upto 2TB? " ==> You're absolutely right. I went too fast when I went to Newegg and copied the link. The units I use are these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153146

But if you want an enclosed drive and won't be switching the drives, then the Startech case noted above is very nice.