WD green - really quieter then WD blue?

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mimp
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:37 am

WD green - really quieter then WD blue?

Post by mimp » Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:37 pm

Apologies for starting yet another thread about this drive, but just wanted to check before taking the plunge.

Just had a look at the reviews for the wd green 1.5TB drive and the WD blue 500GB, and apparently the green measured in at 1dB lower.

Is it really that quiet? I've currently got a 160GB WD blue 2.5" laptop drive elastically suspended. The only other sources of noise in the computer are a corsair PSU and a couple of undervolted 120mm fans so that the whole system is basically inaudible in an acoustically treated (but not sound proof) room. There is a very slight whine from the fans but it's below the level of the hiss from a pair of studio monitors.

Anyway, 160GB is getting a bit on the small side, i was just planning to replace with another, slight larger (maybe 500-750GB) 5400RPM laptop drive, but if this really compares that well I may as well save myself the expense. the last thing I want to do however is raise the level of noise.

So is it really, really that good?

Just doesn't seem right somehow :-)

speedboxx
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:13 am
Location: Canada

Post by speedboxx » Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:00 pm

From my experience with these drives, roughly the level of noise from quietest to noisiest (spinning noise):

WD Blue 2.5" < WD Green 3.5" < WD Blue 3.5"

I would say for the 3.5" drives, the WD Green is noticeably quieter then the Blue. However, both the WD Green and the WD Blue 2.5" parks their heads very aggressively, which makes a little click and that is noticeable. The head parks on the WD Green is louder than the WD Blue 2.5". The WD Blue 3.5" might be noisier when spinning, but it doesnt have the sporadic head parking noise.

audiojar
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Location: Seattle, WA

Post by audiojar » Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:01 pm

Make sure to also look at the vibration rating that SPCR gives, the Green has the lowest vibration of any 3.5" drive.

It would be more fair to compare the 3.5" Green to the 3.5" Blue, in which case yes the Green is a good amount quieter. Laptop drives are their own class and if you are looking for the quietest laptop drive that is a different question.

mimp
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:37 am

Post by mimp » Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:17 pm

audiojar wrote:if you are looking for the quietest laptop drive that is a different question.
I suppose I'm looking for the best price/capacity drive that is no louder then the setup I currently have (WD1600BEVS). I don't care if it's 2.5" or 3.5" I just don't want to make my computer any louder then it currently is.

I've not noticed a clicking coming from it, but it's the system drive so perhaps doesn't get a chance to park that often.

From speedboxx's post it looks like the green is a bit louder while working, so it may not be the drive for me, although i guess it all depends how much louder. Wonder if putting it in an enclosure would reduce it to a comparable level.

Need to find a shop with a favourable exchange/return policy I suspect..

Telstar
Posts: 140
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:20 pm
Location: Italy

Post by Telstar » Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:05 am

I'm in need of more capacity (to slowly replace my 1TB drives with 1.5 and 2TB ones).

At the moment the sweet spot pricewise is the 1,5TB, which is enough for a couple of units.

I noticed that there is a new series with 64MB cache.
The power in Watt seems the same accordign to WD specs, but what about the current driven?

The machine is powered by the 120W dc-dc psu by electrodacus which i just got. I'll use the same day to replace the HDDs, remove the case fan and install a different OS.

So, my question is about the drawn current.
All system has:
E5300 cpu at default
intel x4500 onboard video
pci soundcard
2x2gb dimm at default speed
1x SSD
1x BD-rom sata drive
2x 1,5 TB WD GP disks (currently 1x1TB, 32MB).

Faster_Madman
Posts: 81
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:34 pm
Location: Denmark

Post by Faster_Madman » Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:29 am

I can't compare the Green WD drives to any notebook drives as i don't have any of those except the old one in my laptop, nor can i tell anything about the power draw but i can tell that the WD15EARS, the 1.5TB 64MB cache kind, that i put in my main rig the other day is significantly quieter than the WD5000AAKS's that it replaced.
Both because it simply is more quiet and also because it vibrates a lot less.
It has meant that my rig is now even more quiet than it was before, the only noise being the undervolted Scythe and Noctua fans.

mfeller
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 7:49 am

Re: WD green - really quieter then WD blue?

Post by mfeller » Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:42 pm

mimp wrote:Apologies for starting yet another thread about this drive, but just wanted to check before taking the plunge.

Just had a look at the reviews for the wd green 1.5TB drive and the WD blue 500GB, and apparently the green measured in at 1dB lower.

Is it really that quiet? I've currently got a 160GB WD blue 2.5" laptop drive elastically suspended. The only other sources of noise in the computer are a corsair PSU and a couple of undervolted 120mm fans so that the whole system is basically inaudible in an acoustically treated (but not sound proof) room. There is a very slight whine from the fans but it's below the level of the hiss from a pair of studio monitors.

Anyway, 160GB is getting a bit on the small side, i was just planning to replace with another, slight larger (maybe 500-750GB) 5400RPM laptop drive, but if this really compares that well I may as well save myself the expense. the last thing I want to do however is raise the level of noise.

So is it really, really that good?

Just doesn't seem right somehow :-)
A bit of a different direction: if your network speed requirements can be met by 802.11n wireless, put a server with larger disks in a closet or another room, and connect to your storage wirelessly.

RBBOT
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 9:02 am

Post by RBBOT » Wed Jan 20, 2010 3:37 pm

Theoretically the WD Green drives with the 64mb cache should be quieter for a different reason. They are the first of a new generation of drives that have 4kb sectors instead of the traditional 512 byte sectors that were a hangover from floppy disks! (this needs vista or newer).

Larger sectors = reduced number of seeks = less noise

I have 2 in raid 1 and can't hear them over the other fans in the box even right now while I'm copying 400gb of data from my old machine.

whiic
Posts: 575
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:48 pm
Location: Finland

Post by whiic » Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:30 pm

Theoretically the WD Green drives with the 64mb cache should be quieter for a different reason. They are the first of a new generation of drives that have 4kb sectors instead of the traditional 512 byte sectors that were a hangover from floppy disks! (this needs vista or newer).

Larger sectors = reduced number of seeks = less noise
Not true. HDD is still accessed with logical 512 byte sectors for compatibility reasons. 4096 bytes was chosen for new sector size because most OSes (even XP) request data chunks of at least 4096 bytes at a time. Increasing physical sector size doesn't change the number of seeks.

The requirement to have Vista or newer Windows is to prevent misalignment of partitions. This is caused by the partitioning tool built-in to both Windows and Windows pre-installation partitioning tool on Win XP CDrom.

While Win XP disk management doesn't align partitions properly, you can use a third-party tool to realign the partition... or you can use a third-party partitioning tool to create an aligned partition from scratch. You can even align your Win XP installation partition after installing the OS! There will be running the OS even when partition C: starts from non-default LBA.

And, problem caused by misaligned partition is performance only. No reliability problems should arise from it.

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