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GodfatherB wrote:I use my B3 frequently for DLNA and up/downloads... I guess disks are in use quite a lot, right? I've read through the post "Finding out what's using disk" and I saw you made a significant progress, but since disk will be spining in my case, I am better of with Red, right?
What I actually think is that there is no difference. The specs on the Red drive are very similar to the Green drives - difference being the loading/offloading of the heads (load cycle) in the Green drives to allow for less resistance during idling. The trouble with the Green drives is that this loading/offloading mechanism targets to incidental (large) writes and reads which is not the case when running an OS from it. When running an unpatched Green drive in your B3 you'll likely see the load cycle count (LCC) increment at a rate that can be as high as 100 per hour where the specs appear to indicate that the rate average should not exceed 10-15 per hour. Looking at my "production" B3 I can see that ever since the firmware on the drive was patched the LCC has not incremented anymore, meaning that the drive has been active ever since and thus effectively has become a Red drive.
i.e. if the choice is between WD Red or WD Green, get the one that is the cheapest.
Except, as far as I understand these descriptions, the Red drives have a design that keeps the heat away from the plates. In this respect I would guess the Red is better.
I have another question though... I have seen mentioned in the posts the LCC and start/stop cycles... what is the command (or commands) to see these figures?
This command is not part of the standard installation though. You need to install the smartmontools package.
Start/stop cycles will be the same as the number of (re)boots you did, because the drive actually never stops unless you tell it to go into standby, which requires hdparm which is also not part of the standard installation (when idling the drive moves the heads away to reduce friction and its "intellispeed" supposedly slows down to a speed from where it can - almost - instantly get back to operational speed).
I don't really know whether the red disks will show lower temperatures inside the B3 casing. So far no numbers have been shared about their behaviour. Could be interesting. I'd also be interested to know what it does to power usage.
Thank you for the command... will give it a try (and install the necesary prerequesites).
At the begining of this post you will find people describing their experience with Red disks, the disk temperature being 1 - 2 degrees lower than on Greens, one even stated 4 degrees lower.
GodfatherB wrote:Thank you for the command... will give it a try (and install the necesary prerequesites).
At the begining of this post you will find people describing their experience with Red disks, the disk temperature being 1 - 2 degrees lower than on Greens, one even stated 4 degrees lower.
I don't really know how to interpret those claims. On the new B3 where I perform my tests I get ~36°C straight after waking from standby. My guess is that the mobo is responsible for that offset.
On the older B3 that I have got running for two years now I see ~50°C, but I don't think this one is ever idling and it's location next to the utility meters will probably mean that the casing will dissipate less heat to the air than when sitting on someone's desk or a window sill.
Did anyone ever investigate whether there is a difference in heat production when the B3 is positioned on its side instead of lying flat? In theory this would mean more surface exposed to air and that could mean that the unit will feel cooler (it will obviously still produce just as much heat).
The point in those statements is... 1-2 degrees (or 4 degress in one case) lower then before (meaning in comparison to original Green disks) - I imagine the B3 setting/position was the same before and after (its just speculation though).
The thing that bothers me on the second statement that was made there is that I already have the 36⁰C when the drive is not spinning - shamefully the drive starts up when you request those parameters, which I don't really get. It's like you order a margarita and they bring you a calzone.
First not all the WD Green are the same.
as I understand it:
1. Only WD Green AV (WD AV-GP) that rated for 24/7 are comparable to WD Red.
2. The main difference between WD Green AV and WD Red is in a RAID Array.
I don't have RAID array and for me I don't see any significant difference between the two.
I bought the WD Red because the WD AV-GP was not in stock.
I can't see any difference in noise level nor in performance between to two.
The temperature is down up to 2 degrees in my setup.
Same location same workload.
I don't think that it is a big difference form 45c to 43c.
If I could choose I would buy the cheeper one.
That said I do think that the WD Red is very good product and I will recommend it
If the price difference between the WD AV-GP and WD Red is not big and you get more warranty for the Red I would consider the WD Red.
