Western Digital Green storage drive

[Hardwareman]

Western Digital just upped the capacity ante with a mind-blowing one-terabye internal hard drive.This drive uses reduced power at least partly by varying its rotational speed as needed.This hard drive incorporates WD’s GreenPower technology, which yields lower operating temperatures and low acoustics, best for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives use.As hard drive capacities increase, the power required to run those drives increases as well.

WD Caviar Green drives make it possible for energy-conscious customers to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, ensured reliability, and energy conservation.The 1TB Caviar Green has two 500GB platters spinning at variable rates between 5,400 and 7,200rpm, with a 32MB cache, and an areal density per platter of 400Gb/square inch.

WD Caviar Green drives yield an average drive power savings of 4-5 watts over standard desktop drives making it possible for our energy-conscious customers to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, ensured reliability, and energy conservation. You see, although Western Digital won't reveal the GreenPower's exact spindle speed, they did tell us that it varies depending on capacity. This power savings equates to reducing CO2 emission by up to 13.8 kilograms per drive per year - the equivalent of taking a car off the road for 3 days each year.

By using environmentally-conscious PCs with our WD Caviar Green drives on board, large organizations with many desktop computers can minimize their carbon footprint and save real money on electricity costs.The GP is available in capacities of 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB, each of which has a different spindle speed designed to maximize the drive's overall energy efficiency.

[Hardwareman]

WD Caviar Green drives make it possible for energy-conscious customers to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, ensured reliability, and energy conservation.According to the comparison today, we pit Seagate's 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 ES.2 against Western Digital's 1TB Caviar GP, along with updated results from the Hitachi 1TB drive.

Western Digital Green Features:

• Reduced power consumption
  
  • WD has reduced power consumption by up to 40 percent compared to standard desktop drives with the combination of WD's IntelliSeek, IntelliPark, and IntelliPower technologies.
  
  
  
• Cool and Quiet
  
  • WD GreenPower Technology yields lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and low acoustics for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives.
  
  
  
• Perfect for external drives
  
  • External drive manufacturers can eliminate the need for a fan in a high-capacity product with a WD Caviar Green drive, the coolest and quietest in its class. External drives with WD Caviar Green drives on board can save up to $14.00 per year in electricity costs.
  
  
  
  
• IntelliPower
  
  • A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. Additionally, WD Caviar Green drives consume less current during startup allowing lower peak loads on systems as they are booted.
  
  
  
• IntelliSeek
  
  • Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.
  
  
  
• NoTouch ramp load technology
  
  • The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
  
  
  
• StableTrac
• The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking, during read and write operations.

[labman]

Specification

Physical Specifications
Formatted Capacity -- 1,000,204 MB
Capacity -- 1 TB
Interface -- SATA 3 Gb/s
User Sectors Per Drive -- 1,953,525,168

Vibration

• Operating

Linear -- 20-300 Hz, .75G (0 to peak)
Random -- 10-300 Hz, 0.008 g² / Hz

• Non-operating

Low Frequency -- 5-20 Hz, 0.195 inches (double amplitude)
High Frequency -- 20-500 Hz, 4.0G (0 to peak)

Power Dissipation
Read/Write -- 5.4 Watts
Idle -- 2.8 Watts
Standby -- 0.40 Watts
Sleep -- 0.40 Watts

[Kraker999]

With its spindle speed shrouded in mystery, we couldn't help but wonder whether the Caviar GP's performance leans more toward the Tesla Roadster or the Toyota Prius. I bought two of these drives for PC of the Pendulum of Gentoo Linux that I've built, which in 24 / 7 and for hardware and software mainly used. I use a main drive, and another in an external attachment that supports the main drive and can quickly be exchanged as the main drive is missing.