Is WD Green good enough to pair up with SSD?

[Mellon Head]

When accessing a file in WD Green vs WD Black, can you guys notice the difference/lag between these 2 drives? Do you actually feel the difference that much that you know you are accessing a file in a WD Green or WD Black.

I use a 1 TB green for Windows 8.1 program storage. The OS is on an SSD. So essentially, I do what you want to do...

I notice no difference between the speed of access on my green drive and my black drive which is program storage for my Windows 7 Install. They are the same with one exception:

The first file that you access on the green drive is slow, because it has to wake up. Any further access on the drive is at normal speeds and no different from the black drive, as long as it doesn't go back to sleep/park in the meantime.

So unless you need the extra warranty, or are that concerned about speed, a green will do you just fine.

EDIT: Actually, a blue or black drive would be a better choice for the speed factor.

 

[Mellon Head]

If I download a file and save it to a WD Green vs WD Black, is there a difference of time it will take to download finish?

Lets say downloading a 1GB file takes 1 hour to save to WD Black, does it take a longer time (maybe 1 hour 30mins) to save into WD Green?

No. The write speed differences are in milliseconds. You'll never notice the difference.

 

[pcwin]

The first file that you access on the green drive is slow, because it has to wake up. Any further access on the drive is at normal speeds and no different from the black drive, as long as it doesn't go back to sleep/park in the meantime.

So unless you need the extra warranty, or are that concerned about speed, a green will do you just fine.

I thought after 8 seconds of idling, the green will park its head, and any file you access on the green after 8 seconds idle will be considered a first file? Does it mean every 8 seconds of idle, when you access a file on the green, it will be considered as a first file, and it is slow.

 

[Mellon Head]

If you access the drive after a long period of inactivity (more than 8 seconds) the first file that the drive reads will be slow (around 1 - 2 seconds access time, it seems). After that file is accessed, any more reads or writes are just as fast as any other drive running at 5400 RPM, as long as the drive doesn't go back to sleep or park itself in the meantime.

So, long sustained writes and reads, or multiple file reads are as fast as any other drive after the first file.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The first file that you access on the green drive is slow, because it has to wake up. Any further access on the drive is at normal speeds and no different from the black drive, as long as it doesn't go back to sleep/park in the meantime.

So unless you need the extra warranty, or are that concerned about speed, a green will do you just fine.

I thought after 8 seconds of idling, the green will park its head, and any file you access on the green after 8 seconds idle will be considered a first file? Does it mean every 8 seconds of idle, when you access a file on the green, it will be considered as a first file, and it is slow.

You're going to be disappointed with the green. If you bought it, you'd continue to think that if only you'd bought something else, performance would be better. You're in a lose-lose situation. I can't imagine you'd buy the green and be glad you did considering what you've read, what you think, and what you believe.

Look for a blue, a black, a red, or a Hitachi.

 

[Mellon Head]

You're going to be disappointed with the green. If you bought it, you'd continue to think that if only you'd bought something else, performance would be better. You're in a lose-lose situation. I can't imagine you'd buy the green and be glad you did considering what you've read, what you think, and what you believe.

Look for a blue, a black, a red, or a Hitachi.

Good point. I was thinking in terms of power consumption because I just spent an evening writing a report on it.

A blue or black would be a much better choice for the OP.

 

[pcwin]

If you access the drive after a long period of inactivity (more than 8 seconds) the first file that the drive reads will be slow (around 1 - 2 seconds access time, it seems). After that file is accessed, any more reads or writes are just as fast as any other drive running at 5400 RPM, as long as the drive doesn't go back to sleep or park itself in the meantime.

So, long sustained writes and reads, or multiple file reads are as fast as any other drive after the first file.

I am just trying to understand better. Hope you don't mind.

Lets say I have FileA and FileB

I just switch on the PC and I access first file FileA and it is slow because it is the first file. I went to the toilet for 30 seconds, after that I then access second file FileB.
Q1 Would the FileB be as slow as the FileA?
Q2 Would FileB be considered as as a first file since the WD Green has been idle for more than 8 seconds? (I assume every 8 seconds of inactivity, WD Green would park/sleep)

 

[Mellon Head]

Q1: Yes
Q2: Yes

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If I download a file and save it to a WD Green vs WD Black, is there a difference of time it will take to download finish?

Lets say downloading a 1GB file takes 1 hour to save to WD Black, does it take a longer time (maybe 1 hour 30mins) to save into WD Green?

I'm guessing more like maybe an hour and ten or fifteen minutes maybe; I never actually timed it (btw, a 1GB file shouldn't take anywhere nearly as long as those times). The difference that is noticeable between Blacks and Greens is when you first access a file. The Green has to "wake" up if it's been more than 8 seconds since the drive had last been read or written to and has parked the heads and has had time to be spun down to idle speed. Unparking the heads is almost instantaneous but spinning it back up is where the noticeable lag occurs. It's subtle but definitely noticeable: I notice it all the time when I have a Green in my computer's Hot swap bay, which connects directly to a SATA port on the MOBO without going through a bridge chip, and I'm looking at files on both the Black and on the Green.

This doesn't mean a Green is too slow for anything. They are fast enough to be able to stream all but the largest video files.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The first file that you access on the green drive is slow, because it has to wake up. Any further access on the drive is at normal speeds and no different from the black drive, as long as it doesn't go back to sleep/park in the meantime.

So unless you need the extra warranty, or are that concerned about speed, a green will do you just fine.

I thought after 8 seconds of idling, the green will park its head, and any file you access on the green after 8 seconds idle will be considered a first file? Does it mean every 8 seconds of idle, when you access a file on the green, it will be considered as a first file, and it is slow.

You're going to be disappointed with the green. If you bought it, you'd continue to think that if only you'd bought something else, performance would be better. You're in a lose-lose situation. I can't imagine you'd buy the green and be glad you did considering what you've read, what you think, and what you believe.

Look for a blue, a black, a red, or a Hitachi.

I would avoid the Reds. I would use a Green before I would use a Red. The Blues are pretty good despite the two year warranty but top out at only 1TB.

 

[GokAy]

I fail to understand how a green has longer time while downloading (at least from the Internet). A typical harddisk can perform at 90-100MB/s which is much faster than a 100Mbps connection (12 MB/s). Unless you are doing many copy paste operations between your machines, it is unimportant.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I fail to understand how a green has longer time while downloading (at least from the Internet). A typical harddisk can perform at 90-100MB/s which is much faster than a 100Mbps connection (12 MB/s). Unless you are doing many copy paste operations between your machines, it is unimportant.

I was thinking in terms of downloading something in terms of downloading something being pasted into a file, such as a Word doc and saving it from there instead of directly to a HDD (my bad; sorry). If downloading and saving directly to the HDD, then, yes, the HDD speed is negligible since the internet connection speed would be the chokepoint.