Is WD Green good enough to pair up with SSD?

WD Greens are excellent for storage, I use one myself. I only use Blacks for games, VMs and such where performance is needed. Greens also tend to run a fair bit cooler than Blacks.

You'll be fine with a Green.

I personally prefer WD Blacks for storage in my desktop machine (but, then again, I run it 24/7) and use the Greens only for backups. The Blacks do run a tad warmer than the Greens but it only takes a little air flow over them to keep them reasonably cool. The Blacks are noticeably snappier than the Greens but the main reason I prefer the Blacks is the five year warranty instead of the two year warranty the Greens have.

pcwin said:

I heard there is a 8 seconds head parking or something in WD Green, accessing/opening a file after idling for 8 seconds, would require a few seconds for the WD Green to "wake up". Is that true?

Yes, that is part of the noticeable reduction in snappiness between the Blacks and the Greens. I'm not saying you can't use a Green but you may be a bit disappointed with its performance and, if you access the drive frequently, it could reduce its life.

If budget is an issue and you don't need more than 1TB, a WD Blue is a good alternative to the Greens.

One that hasn't been discussed... Do you plan on backing up your new drive and, if so, how?

I have a year old 3 TB green that has not exhibited any head parking issues and I do monitor it. There is a WD application that can supposedly cure the head parking issue if it ever appears.

The greens with 1 TB platters are faster than the typical "fast 7200 rpm" drives of say 2011 or 2012 vintage.

If you need more than 1 TB total capacity and did not intend to put an OS on it, I'd go with greens or maybe reds.

If you do NOT need more than 1 TB total capacity, I'd go with blues.

If money is not a big deal, I'd look at the Hitachi line if I wanted more than 1 TB total capacity. More expensive, but anecdotally more reliable.

Not sure why I'd ever use a black in this day and age when SSDs are the best idea for an OS and apps regardless. If you have to put an OS on a spinner for whatever reason, then yeah, maybe a black.

Warranty terms can differ a bit, so pay attention to that if you would ever even consider returning a bad drive to the manufacturer or vendor. I would not, so I don't care about warranties--at least for data drives.

pcwin said:

I heard there is a 8 seconds head parking or something in WD Green, accessing/opening a file after idling for 8 seconds, would require a few seconds for the WD Green to "wake up". Is that true?

And head parking causes more wear and tear?

I think that is a valid point. You can install a batch program that keeps the Green awake but I use them (3 2TB Greens for backup using a docking station). I'd go for the WD Black or Blue for installed drives. In terms of reliability you might want to consider Hitachi. The drives that get the most reliability criticism are Seagates yet I have quite a number of them still going strong.

Most would point you to Macrium, with maybe Aomei in second place.

No need to use Macrium for data drives though.

Unlikely you'd need the paid version of Macrium either.

Be sure to test your Macrium recovery disk.