Green Harddrives

[seekermeister]

It is said that these drives use less electricity, so I assume that they must also run cooler...yes? If so, how much. Normally, I don't care about saving power, but if I get one of these, it will go into an external enclosure, which tends to run a little hotter.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Yes, the green drives typically run cooler. I believe I have a green drive that runs about 10C cooler.

 

[seekermeister]

10C would be good, that would more than offset the hotter environment. Do you think that temp difference would be typical? What I'm thinking about is a 2TB WDC drive that is on sale.

 

[Jonathan_King]

You looking at that drive on TigerDirect?

I'd say that drive would work well in an enclosure.

 

[seekermeister]

Exactly.

EDIT: Somewhere in the back of my mind, it seems that there is a problem with running that large of a drive with Windows 7...true?

 

[pparks1]

Going with the cooler drive in an enclosure is not a bad idea. Not to mention, you won't ever get the performance benefits of the non-green drive with an external enclosure...even with USB3.

 

[seekermeister]

I'm not sure what you mean by "performance benefits", please explain. The enclosure that I have is eSATA, if that makes any difference.

 

[pparks1]

I'm not sure what you mean by "performance benefits", please explain. The enclosure that I have is eSATA, if that makes any difference.

"green" drives usually spin at 5,400 RPM and thus cannot transfer data quite as quickly as a 7,200RPM model. That's all I was getting at. I wouldn't usually suggest using it as an OS drive...but for an external enclosure it's just fine.

 

[fseal]

Exactly.

EDIT: Somewhere in the back of my mind, it seems that there is a problem with running that large of a drive with Windows 7...true?

I believe that that was XP... with older storage drivers.

Vista and 7 have NO problem with that and possibly soon to be much larger drives...

 

[pparks1]

The only issue that I have seen with the 1TB+ hard drives is that they seem to have quite a high failure rate for some reason. In reading on sites like NewEgg and such, it just seems that the 1.5 and 2TB drives just seem to die more. Of course, i personally don't have any real world experience with them failing. 1TB drives have been sufficient for my needs, so I have just stuck with them.

 

[Bill2]

Very handy comparisons including temps at the site below.

Benchmark Results: Temperature And Sound Level : 1.5 TB Low-Power HDDs: Green Gets Big

These beauties deem to run pretty cool, all of them.

 

[sergiogarcia9]

I've heard that these "green drive" have some kind of hibernation program when they are not used, can someone confirm if thats true? Kinda being the reason i haven't even considered a green drive lol

 

[pparks1]

I believe some drives spin at 7,200 when used, but slow down to 5,400 when not in use.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Yes, the green drives spin down sooner when not in use, to save power. Unfortunately, that also puts additional wear and tear on the drive.

 

[pparks1]

Yes, the green drives spin down sooner when not in use, to save power. Unfortunately, that also puts additional wear and tear on the drive.

Of course, so does using the drive, formatting the drive, defragmenting the drive, etc.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Yes, the green drives spin down sooner when not in use, to save power. Unfortunately, that also puts additional wear and tear on the drive.

Of course, so does using the drive, formatting the drive, defragmenting the drive, etc.

Yes, I agree, but what is your point?

 

[seekermeister]

After pondering the points in this article, I think that I'm going to go black, instead of green:

http://hothardware.com/Articles/WDs...vanced-Format-Windows-XP-Users-Pay-Attention/

Looking at the temps in Bill2's screenshot, it doesn't appear that they are running any cooler than my current drives. Of course, I have no way of knowing the environment, or the method of the tests.

 

[sergiogarcia9]

Yes, the green drives spin down sooner when not in use, to save power. Unfortunately, that also puts additional wear and tear on the drive.

Of course, so does using the drive, formatting the drive, defragmenting the drive, etc.

While that might be the case, Green drives would, die faster, because they slow down in speed when they are not in use. That makes sence to me

 

[pparks1]

Yes, I agree, but what is your point?

My point is that I don't think worrying about this excess wear and tear is really worth it. My reservation about getting a "green" drive, would strictly be based on reduced performance.