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Does anyone have experience running WHS using "green" hard drives? What have your experiences been?

Normally I wouldn't touch them for a server that has even moderate use but they are also much cheaper.

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Google up some benchmarks, and make your decision based on your findings - not on others' (subjective) results. Unless you need your computer to boot up in less then 30 seconds or need data transfer rates over 100 MB/s, then don't worry. – Breakthrough Jul 26 '11 at 1:16
A question with criteria might have stayed open. "Are 'green' drives fast/reliable/large enough for WHS?" with details about your constraints: load, data size, power requirements, etc. – Jay Bazuzi Jul 26 '11 at 21:50

closed as not constructive by Breakthrough, techie007, Sathya♦ Jul 26 '11 at 12:08

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4 Answers

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Don't see a difference least with the Western Digital Caviar GP, least as shown here, in either power consumption, or performance. It is worth it, they conclude, but its not a large difference.

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For a period of a year it seems like, they were considered the favorite for home servers because they made for an affordable RAID array and their platter density gave performance that rivaled the faster mainstream lines, like the Caviar Blues and Blacks.

I would use em cause of their affordability in a RAID array.

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On a pedantic note, the acronym RAID contains the word array, so you only need to refer to it as a RAID, or a disk array. – Hydaral Jul 26 '11 at 1:48
This is true. I'm slacking due I talk to a bunch of non-It folks all day. . . – surfasb Jul 26 '11 at 2:11
If you buy your RAID array with cash money from an automated ATM machine, then it's OK. – Jay Bazuzi Jul 26 '11 at 21:49
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I've been using "Green" drives from Samsung and Western Digital for quite a while now in my home file server. I've been pretty pleased so far. Typically your speed barrier on a machine will be your network unless you have gigabit everywhere. Even then, I get pretty respectable transfer rates moving files from my Mac Pro (Western Digital Blacks) to my file server (Samsung 5400RPM "Green" drives).

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I have used 3 TB Western Digital "Green" drives in my NAS for several months without issues. They seem to be fine for typical home use. (Primarily streaming of A/V media & backups)

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