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WD 1TB external USB 2.0 hard drive $99.99-$25+2 = $78

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Despite what the website says these drives are not 7200 RPM. They are essentially 5400 RPM drives (green drive). I actually bought one and they're pretty slow with file transfers over USB2.0 interface. I ended up returning it not only because it was slow, but the reviews on amazon had many negative reviews because of drive failures.
 
Originally posted by: dualsmp
Despite what the website says these drives are not 7200 RPM. They are essentially 5400 RPM drives (green drive). I actually bought one and they're pretty slow with file transfers over USB2.0 interface. I ended up returning it not only because it was slow, but the reviews on amazon had many negative reviews because of drive failures.
Click to expand...

Maybe, Debbie Downer (;-) Even so - was the xfer rate that much slower on USB2?


 
This drive has been around for awhile at this price with $25off75 coupon, so not really anything new. There's another thread on this drive and it's ~5400 RPM. WD doesn't officially publish the RPM on these green drives (definitely not 7200 RPM). As far as speed it might be ok if your accustomed to slower notebook drives. As far as reliability, there is only a 1 year warranty on this drive for a reason.
 
actually if it is a green drive then its rpm is variable (5400-7200), I am not entirely sure as to exactly how it varies the rpm (how much time at 5400,7200 and between) but most benchmarks suggest that the drives preform closer to 7200 then 5400, but definitely slower then pure 7200rpm drives. For an esata drive you would notice the difference (though even with internal sata the new 500gb per plater green drives are about the same as the blue and not that far from the black ones), but on usb2.0 any of these drives should saturate the interface so it shouldn't matter (5400 vs 7200, 320gig platers vs 500, even 64 vs 32 vs 16 megs for cache).
 
It doesn't actually vary the RPM. Just think about how the drive is constructed. The heads are designed to read about specific speeds and the damn thing would wear out pretty quick and waste a lot of power constantly ramping speed up and down.

The whole variable speed thing is a market ploy that WD has started backing away from.

If you see a "variable speed" drive, you're quite safe in assuming it only operates at the lowest speed in the stated range.
 
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