What's the deal with the big hype around "green" hard drives?

[AdamK47]

12 Watts max was too much? We had to have them down to 6 Watts max? A single GTX 280 consumes a max of 236 Watts. My system has two of them. Who really gives a flop about the 6 Watts of power they are saving?

 

[brblx]

there's no real reason to have them. people generally want lower heat rather than care about the smidgen of power they save. personally, i'd rather have the extra speed.

the only thing that would interest me as a side effect is longer life, and i somehow doubt any of them will last significantly longer. that's of course not even taking into account WD's early firmware which caused slightly self-destructive heads. i would hope they've increased the time before parking considerably.

 

[fleshconsumed]

It's not just power savings. They run quieter, and require zero cooling unlike 7200rpm hard drives. They are perfect for HTPC or storage. If I ever get SSD for OS, I'll also get "green" drive for storage.

 

[KILLER_K]

They make a tool to stop it from going to low energy mode. That will keep it running full speed all the time. But if you want that you should buy a regular hd and not a green..................

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: AdamK47
12 Watts max was too much? We had to have them down to 6 Watts max? A single GTX 280 consumes a max of 236 Watts. My system has two of them. Who really gives a flop about the 6 Watts of power they are saving?

Wow, an extreme power consumer. Kewl.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: AdamK47
12 Watts max was too much? We had to have them down to 6 Watts max? A single GTX 280 consumes a max of 236 Watts. My system has two of them. Who really gives a flop about the 6 Watts of power they are saving?

What if you've got 1000 of em in a data centre. Thats extra 6 kwatts of power consumption.
So for individual user no its almost non existent difference. On a larger scale its quite a bit.

I got 3 WD greens for storage and a vraptor for os where performance does matter. I don't see a performance difference between the wd greens for this purpose and say Samsung F1s (also have 3 of them) but they do run noticeably quieter.

 

[VaultDweller]

Originally posted by: fleshconsumed
It's not just power savings. They run quieter, and require zero cooling unlike 7200rpm hard drives. They are perfect for HTPC or storage. If I ever get SSD for OS, I'll also get "green" drive for storage.

Those are my reasons. I have 11 hard drives in my home file server, so any reduction in heat and noise is appreciated.

 

[Old Hippie]

I got 3 WD greens for storage and a vraptor for os where performance does matter.

I have something similar in my WHS, a first gen. Raptor for the OS and 2 WD 1TB blacks for storage.

When I added another WD 1TB green for storage, all my transfers to the server became noticeably slower.

My first and probably last, green drive.

They make a tool to stop it from going to low energy mode.

Got a link?

 

[1999TL]

Aren't the green drives not recommended for Raid systems as well? I'm looking into buying some hard drives for my raid 5 setup and I read that it wouldn't be good for my workstation since I'm opting for Raid.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: 1999TL
Aren't the green drives not recommended for Raid systems as well? I'm looking into buying some hard drives for my raid 5 setup and I read that it wouldn't be good for my workstation since I'm opting for Raid.

Probably because of the TLER issue.

Here's a little discussion and a fix should you decide to go that route.

 

[1999TL]

Thanks. So would you recommend WD green drives for a Raid setup?

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: 1999TL
Thanks. So would you recommend WD green drives for a Raid setup?

I don't RAID unless it's a cookie jar but hopefully someone else will jump in to help you.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: 1999TL
Thanks. So would you recommend WD green drives for a Raid setup?

Damn 199TL, 7 yrs and 3 posts. You're an uber lurker!

 

[magreen]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

Originally posted by: 1999TL
Thanks. So would you recommend WD green drives for a Raid setup?

Damn 199TL, 7 yrs and 3 posts. You're an uber lurker!

and two of 'em are in this thread :laugh:
who can find the first?

 

[Old Hippie]

who can find the first?

Knot Eye.

 

[1999TL]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

Originally posted by: 1999TL
Thanks. So would you recommend WD green drives for a Raid setup?

Damn 199TL, 7 yrs and 3 posts. You're an uber lurker!

That's pretty funny. I'm Just looking into building a workstation so I'm migrating from lurker to poster

 

[Old Hippie]

That's pretty funny. I'm Just looking into building a workstation so I'm migrating from lurker to poster

Like magreen mentioned, the important question here is where's you first post?

Inquiring Magreens and Old Hippies wanna know!

 

[tcsenter]

What's the deal with the big hype around "green" hard drives?

Same hype with all the other 'green' products - its sells. The public has been bamboozled into believing it will make one wit of difference in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Well for storage drives I think these "green" drives are very good candidates. Low noise, lots of space, and low power.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

LOL anybody using these green drives in a datacenter would get fired in a heartbeat.

The green thing is nothing more than marketing, a way to sell these cheaper (to manufacture) drives. There's a market for them (see tcsenter's reply) so they market to it.

 

[Bl0cks]

Honestly, I don't see the big picture. As far as 1tb drives are currently, greens drives are priced cost about the same as 7200rpm drives.

 

[Emulex]

no active fan necessary for usb d2d2d; doesn't get so hot.

 

[drizek]

Noise is usually my main concern when choosing components. The more platters you have, the louder and hotter your drive is. Since WD Green 2TB drive is a 4 platter drive, if you need 2TB of space but dont want a loud drive, the only option is to go to 5400rpm. I don't actually need that much, and I'm happy with my 7200rpm dual platter 640GB drive. It is silent(I have it suspended in my Antec Solo case), doesn't get hot, has lots of storage and is still one of the fastest mechanical hard drives you can buy.