Getting an SSD. WD Black or Green for storage?

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Howie

Limp Gawd
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Oct 24, 2009
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I know the black vs green question gets asked often and I read a lot of threads on it, but there doesn't seem to be any consensus.

I am getting the OCZ 60gb Agility for OS. I am looking at getting either the WD Cavair Black or Green (either 640gb or 1tb whichever is better) for storage. I will have video files and games on this drive. People say Green for storage, but is the Black really not as desirable here in this application? I've owned 5400RPM drives before (way back in the day) and found it awefully slow. Obviously drives are much faster today. Everything will be in an Antec P182 in a "quiet" gaming HTPC build. Should I get the Black or Green? And in the 640gb size or 1tb? Obviously there's not much price difference between the two.
 
I've got a 1TB Green and two 1TB Blacks. The Blacks are noticeably faster. It's not a night and day difference, but I wouldn't say it's subtle either. I guess I would just say that it's a nice difference in overall performance and responsiveness for the few extra bucks (not to mention the extra 2 yrs of warranty which was another factor in me paying a bit more for the Blacks).

However, keep in mind the Blacks are a bit noisier which is one reason many people use Green drives in HTPCs.

If you were just going to keep video files on it I would suggest the Green, but if it were me and I was going to have games on there I would want the Black.
 
I'd suggest putting the games on the SSD on as well if you have the space. It'll help with loading quite a bit. If you're like me, I only install a couple of games at a time, and once I'm done, I uninstall them.

As for the black vs. green, go with the cheaper green if you're just using it for storage.
 
If you will have programs/games on the large hard drive, go for the 1TB Black. If you will be using it purely as a storage drive (i.e. photos, music, movies), the Green is more than suitable.
 
I'd go for a Blue or a Black, if you like have more than a handful of games installed at any given time you're invariably gonna end up w/some of them on the HDD... No reason to gimp load times to save $10-20 (I doubt the difference is more than that).

Note that you can install all your games on the HDD by default and use symbolic links to move whatever you're currently playing to the SSD w/o screwing up the install (you can even piece individual games out of your Steam folder this way). As far as the game is concerned (or any update service, or even the OS itself), it's still residing on the HDD, or it looks like it is... But it's really on your SSD. It's very simple to do too, just move the directory manually, then enter a command at the command prompt and you're done.
 
Thanks for the reply. I think I'm going with the Black. I'm not too concerned about saving bucks, just want to choose the best component for my needs.

Is the 640gb Black any faster and or less noisy than the 1tb version?
 
They both use platters of similar size/density, so the speed should be comparable. I found this chart which indicates they're very close...that's only one benchmark but I wouldn't expect there to be a very noticeable difference. Noise should be comparable as well since their internal structure & design should be very similar with the 1TB having an extra platter.
 
I keep games on the Black, Files on the Green, and fast access/OS stuff on my SSD.
 
imyourzero said:
They both use platters of similar size/density, so the speed should be comparable. I found this chart which indicates they're very close...that's only one benchmark but I wouldn't expect there to be a very noticeable difference. Noise should be comparable as well since their internal structure & design should be very similar with the 1TB having an extra platter.
Click to expand...

Noise is not comparable. The black is click click click clack whirl tack tack tack. The green powers down and winds up when accessed.

The difference is probably 2x-10x the actually sound level, but both are low enough that if you can hear it, then your system is already very quiet, and it should be no be a bother.
 
I was talking about the difference in noise between the 640GB and 1TB Black, not the Black and Green.

Howie said:
Is the 640gb Black any faster and or less noisy than the 1tb version?
Click to expand...
 
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