help me choose a drive for my external enclosure

[cmge]

i want to replace my old 500gb hdd in my antec mx-1 enclosure and im kinda stuck between choosing the Caviar Green or Black 1tb... i realize that the black is all performance, runs hot and it has a 5yr warranty and the green the exact opposite of black and only 3yr warranty... now i only really use my enclosure every now and again to back things up and its never really on for more than a few hours...

would i benefit much if i was to go black or should i go green?... cooling the the drive isnt much of a problem since my antec mx-1 provides adequate cooling when its in use

n e help or suggestions would be appreciated... thanks

[DougLite]

You've already pretty well fleshed out most of the differences. The only thing I will add is the Caviar Green's total dependence on write caching for write performance in this thread (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1430221) - the OP in that thread only got 5MB/sec write speeds without write caching on. Given this is for an external, you may desire to turn write caching off, making the Caviar Green a poor choice.

[capreppy]

The Antec MX-1 definitely has enough cooling capabilities to keep any of the current iteration of drives cool.

For the price, the Black is a better option. Depending on your usage the drive, you may not even experience the "savings" of using a green vs. the black. Assuming you are using the eSATA connection, your transfer speeds may be (others can chime in here) faster with the Black.

The warranty on the cheaper Black is also something to consider. Although before the warranty expires, it is likely newer / faster / higher capacity drives will be on the market and you'll probably upgrade again.