Tree Hugging Hard Drives!

[One4yu2c]

With rolling blackouts and increasing energy costs, it's not a bad idea to think about building a power saving PC. You can start with an energy efficient power supply boasting active PFC, add a low wattage processor, ditch that aging CRT monitor for an LCD panel, and coming soon from Western Digital, you'll be able to own an eco-friendly hard drive!
Paul "One4yu2c" Lilly

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[Pete]

Nice article

[Panda Man]

digged and dugged! Nice article :D

[Stormcrow]

Lets see, RAM has been going down in voltage, as processor dies shrink so does their power usage, and now we have eco-friendly hard drives. Just add 8800 to completely screw up the power saving part If only we can get ATi and nVidia to focus on reducing PCB sizes and power guzzling as well, alas.

[Redleg]

The only thing scary about the article, are those 3 buzz words. Well, the beginnings of them anyway. M$ uses it also, as in Intelli-mouse/Intelli-pointer.

Good read tho, thanks Paul.

[Sumgai]

With power requirements growing exponentially through the generations of computer hardware, manufacturers really have no choice but to find ways to trim down the wattage of their parts. Really, to put it in perspective, today's top end gaming rig consumes as much power as a 6000 BTU window unit air conditioner. If I told you that fact 10 years ago, you'd probably call me crazy. Consequently, the hours per-month usage for that window unit (~120-720) isn't too far from the total most of us here rack up each month. Okay...720 hours is a bit extreme for most; but seriously, that all adds up to a potential 40 bucks per month- just to run your computer. I'm glad to see manufacturers taking steps to decrease overall power usage, because now I won't have to add an entire new leg onto my house just to run my next gaming rig.

[robodude666]

I hear you sumgai.

My computer is fairly mid-range and requires about 400-500w of power. I had my computer running for the last oh say month or two with minimum of F@H, MSN, Trillian, skype, apache, mysql 24/7. I noticed that the energy bill went up around 15-20$/m compared to me only using the computer for 10-16 hours a day.

I'd turn off my computer at night, but thats 6 hours I could be folding >_<

[gvblake22]

Interesting, but how much power does the typical HDD usually require anyway? Probably not much. A savings of 4-5 watts isn't really very much unless you have like 5 of them. I also wonder what kind of performance category are these in anyway? I can't seem to find anything even indicating what rpm these drives will run at, so I have a bad feeling that the "solid performance" they mention is nothing exciting. I also noticed that the 60.5 Kg of CO2 emissions per year they mentioned are based on the drives running for 8760 hours. Well, you would have to have the computer on every hour for an entire year, because that is the exact number of hours in a single year. I guess I can understand that large business with many, many computers running all the time might yield some savings, but for the average home user, the difference doesn't seem like it would be anything to write home about.

But clever marketing aside, it's always nice to see companies taking steps (big or small) toward a more efficient, environmentally friendly world. Thanks for the news bit Paul, I always like reading your editorials!

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

I also wonder what kind of performance category are these in anyway? I can't seem to find anything even indicating what rpm these drives will run at, so I have a bad feeling that the "solid performance" they mention is nothing exciting.

Blake, they're starting off with their 1TB drive, which is 7200RPM, after which they're moving on down the line to 320GB. This will include the Caviar line, with 16MB cache and rotational speed of 7200RPM at full throttle, and down to 5400RPM when the 'IntelliPower' kicks in. You can select the specific drives from HERE and glance over the specs.

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Interesting, but how much power does the typical HDD usually require anyway? Probably not much. A savings of 4-5 watts isn't really very much unless you have like 5 of them[...]I guess I can understand that large business with many, many computers running all the time might yield some savings, but for the average home user, the difference doesn't seem like it would be anything to write home about.

Atta boy, Captain Obvious...

But you're right, the main beneficiaries are data heavy businesses that employ oodles of hard drives, (look at the graph on this page). For home users, I see it more of a sum of all parts concept, like system tweaking. No one tweak (or power saving trick) is the end-all-be-all, but a series of smaller ones added together to combine for a bigger whole.

One thing I should have touched on too, is the potential for lower heat output. Especially for those running two or more hard drives, that equates to roughly 10W+ less, which could conceivably have an interesting effect on system temps.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

Blake, they're starting off with their 1TB drive, which is 7200RPM, after which they're moving on down the line to 320GB. This will include the Caviar line, with 16MB cache and rotational speed of 7200RPM at full throttle, and down to 5400RPM when the 'IntelliPower' kicks in. You can select the specific drives from HERE and glance over the specs.

DOH! I figured there had to be a more detailed specifications page somewhere, but I guess that's what I get for trying to do research at 1am
Thanks for the linkage Paul!

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

Atta boy, Captain Obvious...

HAHAHA, yeah, I'm quick like that...