Western Digital Green Vs Red for Server

warrmr · 2013-03-02 16:00

(2013-03-02 09:58)PatrickVogeli Wrote: Hi there!

I resurrect this thread to ask if somebody has some more info for the Green vs Red debate. In the next month or 2 I will be buying 2 3TB drives, and I'm set on the WD Green or Red, but I don't what to do, price difference is about 20€ I think.

This will go into a linux server (Flexraid or Snapraid, running on top of linux mint). I saw the green drives do have problems with LCC getting very high, which are solved using their own wdidle3 tool to set the park time from 8seconds to 5minutes. I understand what this does is completely stopping the drive (at the mechanical level) after 5 minutes of no use (8 seconds if you don't change it), but does this feature work independently of the OS you are using? Can the OS bypass that feature?

What happens with the Red? I have read they don't have this intellipark stuff, they are rated for 24/7 operation and have some improved design to minimize vibration and so on. But what happens when the drive is not being used? I've read you have to set the OS to park heads when idle, true? That's done via HDPARM, right?

I'm interested in the power consumption, which one would be lower? Which one would you get and why, considering the mentioned 20€ that the red costs more? The 20€ are fine, but I want to make sure the Red is a better suited drive for my needs and that it won't cost me a fortune in electricity.

Thanks!

Hey Patrick,

I have a WD Green drive in my NAS that has been running pretty much 24/7 for the past 3 years and it is only just showing signs of failure(loud seeking, SATA resets in the syslog etc.)

I have just dropped some cash on a pair of 2tb WD reds to swap out my old drives in my NAS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv...dyy6o&NR=1

Code:

Feb 25 18:56:32 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [189878.848450] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6

Feb 25 18:56:32 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [189878.887895] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x5

Feb 25 18:56:32 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [189878.913310] ata1.00: cmd 35/00:00:32:f9:b2/00:04:57:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out

Feb 25 18:56:32 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [189878.913310]          res 51/84:00:32:f9:b2/84:04:57:00:00/e0 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)

Feb 25 18:56:32 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [189879.007287] ata1: soft resetting link

Feb 25 18:56:32 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [189879.348825] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133

Feb 25 18:56:32 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [189879.375201] ata1: EH complete

Feb 25 19:05:40 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [190427.271659] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6

Feb 25 19:05:40 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [190427.310900] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x5

Feb 25 19:05:40 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [190427.332445] ata1.00: cmd 35/00:00:12:c8:b8/00:04:60:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out

Feb 25 19:05:40 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [190427.332445]          res 51/84:00:12:c8:b8/84:04:60:00:00/e0 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)

Feb 25 19:05:40 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [190427.426462] ata1: soft resetting link

Feb 25 19:05:40 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [190427.640325] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133

Feb 25 19:05:40 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [190427.666676] ata1: EH complete

Feb 25 20:13:18 NAS4220B daemon.info smartd[2268]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], is back in ACTIVE or IDLE mode, resuming checks (5 checks skipped)

Feb 25 20:13:18 NAS4220B daemon.info smartd[2268]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], Temperature 42 Celsius reached limit of 40 Celsius (Min/Max 41/42)

Feb 25 22:09:37 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [201463.793245] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6

Feb 25 22:09:37 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [201463.834274] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x5

Feb 25 22:09:37 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [201463.856172] ata1.00: cmd 35/00:00:da:d8:1b/00:04:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out

Feb 25 22:09:37 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [201463.856172]          res 51/84:00:da:d8:1b/84:04:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)

Feb 25 22:09:37 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [201463.950307] ata1: soft resetting link

Feb 25 22:09:37 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [201464.165488] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133

Feb 25 22:09:37 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [201464.191835] ata1: EH complete

Feb 25 22:46:26 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [203673.197404] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6

Feb 25 22:46:26 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [203673.236825] ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x5

Feb 25 22:46:26 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [203673.258383] ata1.00: cmd 35/00:00:8a:50:52/00:04:1d:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 524288 out

Feb 25 22:46:26 NAS4220B user.err kernel: [203673.258383]          res 51/84:00:8a:50:52/84:04:1d:00:00/e0 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)

Feb 25 22:46:26 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [203673.352338] ata1: soft resetting link

Feb 25 22:46:26 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [203673.575351] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133

Feb 25 22:46:26 NAS4220B user.info kernel: [203673.601717] ata1: EH complete

thethirdnut · 2013-03-02 18:25

If price differential not too great go for the Red.

Also, wdidle can be used to disable the Intellipark with no ill affects - I've done this on all my WD Green drives. 'WDIDLE3.exe /D'

This is independent of the OS, however, before / after you do this monitor the load_cycle_count .. I've had a couple where I had to run wdidle more than once for it to stick.