Western Digital IntelliPower hard drives

Jetster · Jan 3, 2013, 01:40 AM

Anyone using these drives? I just ordered one

Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"

Just curious what users think or if anyone has had issues.

"IntelliPower - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance."

"Advanced Format (AF) - Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AF is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities."

natr0n · Jan 3, 2013, 01:56 AM

The intellipower drives spin at around 5000 rpm to save power.

I have a few.

serratedauto · Jan 3, 2013, 02:03 AM

I almost exclusively use western digital drives. I have 3x 2TB (WD20EARX and WD20EARS) and 3x 3TB (WD30EZRX and a seagate barracuda XT). I haven't had a single problem with the western digitals, whereas I've been having a lot of issues with data corruption on the seagate barracuda XT 3TB.

My only issue with the "green" drives from western digital is that for the older WD20EARS drives I had to run the wdidle3 utility to set the spin down time to 500 seconds instead of the default 30 seconds. Other than that I love my WD drives!

Frag Maniac · Jan 3, 2013, 02:21 AM

I'm considering going with WD's opposite end of the spectrum, the 1TB Velociraptor. Sure they cost about $220, but are blazing fast and built like tanks.

I was considering a 2TB Hitachi 7K3000 at one point, which can peak at 158Mb/s sequential write speed, but then the prices went up due to the flood, and now the only affordable ones are lower grade with lesser warranty.

The way I look at it, a super fast 1TB would pay for itself in the long run. With it's faster speed it wouldn't really be a problem to keep only so many games on it and uninstall the older ones when newer ones come out.

I currently have a Seagate 1TB Barracuda, and it's speed goes down quite a bit as it fills up, which is annoying.

Jetster · Jan 3, 2013, 02:36 AM

I'm only concern with the IntelliPower drives. Im aware of WDs history. The Red drive are IntelliPower also. I have an opportunity to get quite a few at a good price. So I ordered one and Im going to put it threw its paces. They claim speed and power saving

newtekie1 · Jan 3, 2013, 02:41 AM

They're slower than true 7200RPM drives, but they're ok for data storage.

xkm1948 · Jan 3, 2013, 02:41 AM

I wish you good luck. My experience with WD so far has been a total disaster. But of course I am only talking about WD's recent quality control problems.

Jetster · Jan 3, 2013, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xkm1948

WD's recent quality control problems.

I haven't heard anything. What are you referring to?

xkm1948 · Jan 3, 2013, 03:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jetster

I haven't heard anything. What are you referring to?

Check the newegg review for WD's black series drives. WD's reliability is horrible. I am experiencing it first hand right now.

One dead in just one year 3 months. They sent me a refurbished one for RMA which is getting unusual high Raw Read Error and Pending Sectors.

Frick · Jan 3, 2013, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xkm1948

Check the newegg review for WD's black series drives. WD's reliability is horrible. I am experiencing it first hand right now.

One dead in just one year 3 months. They sent me a refurbished one for RMA which is getting unusual high Raw Read Error and Pending Sectors.

Oh yes a couple of dozen bad reviews = bad controls. And you had one die on you? The evidence is mounting; WD officially have QC problems.

Jstn7477 · Jan 3, 2013, 03:47 AM

I had 3 Seagates die last year and a Toshiba die today. All HDDs pretty much suck.

Jetster · Jan 3, 2013, 03:49 AM

There are no black IntelliPower drives so please only IntelliPower drives

Widjaja · Jan 3, 2013, 04:42 AM

I understand your concern if you are remembering the issue with the WD Greens and the head park issue which appeared to give grief for some.

I have a WD Green 2TB which has intelli power technology.
In readouts on HDTune the head park count could pose an alarm to some but this is the way the power saving series is designed.

Having whats considered a high head park count is far better than seeing a CRC error count.

All intelli-power seems to do besides 'save power' is keep the hard drive cool.
Bare in mind this is my internal storage drive which is primarily used for applications, drivers and media but does get used on a daily basis due to media.
Had this drive for over a couple of years now I think.

RejZoR · Jan 3, 2013, 07:02 AM

I have less than stellar experience with Seagate and Samsung HDD's. Can't say anything bad about WD really. I have my 2TB Caviar Black for ages. Sister had a 160GB Caviar Blue in notebook which was like 5 or 6 years old. Have placed it in an enclosure as external drive which she still uses. Replaced it with another Caviar Blue, this time 500GB version. I think it's 2 years old now.

Samsung 750GB started with hiccups after just 2 years and Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB is also going funky in CrystalDiskInfo. It works ok but CDI is reporting issues with transfers, apparently electronics are going all wonky.

Jetster · Jan 3, 2013, 05:57 PM

First test results
Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower 64 MB SATA 6.0

Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0

What I was able to find out is that the IntelliPower drives are variable speed from 5200 to 7200

The IntelliPower drive was quieter also but not by much

Jetster · Jan 3, 2013, 06:12 PM

Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower 64 MB SATA 6.0

Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0

xkm1948 · Jan 3, 2013, 06:52 PM

That is one solid drive. My WD Black 2TB only gets average 108MB/s in HDTune read tests. Seems I should have bought the green instead of the Black.

Jan 3, 2013, 01:40 AM	#1
Jetster Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Oregon Posts: 2,851 (2.34/day) Thanks: 923 Thanked 851 Times in 624 Posts System Specs	Western Digital IntelliPower hard drives Anyone using these drives? I just ordered one Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Just curious what users think or if anyone has had issues. "IntelliPower - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance." "Advanced Format (AF) - Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AF is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities." Last edited by Jetster; Jan 3, 2013 at 03:52 AM.

System Name:	Delta // HTPC
Processor:	Intel i7 3770K // Intel i3 550 3.2Ghz
Motherboard:	ASRock Z77 Extreme6 // Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H Socket 1156
Cooling:	Corsair H100 // SILVERSTONE NT07-1156 90mm
Memory:	Corsair Vengeance 1866 16gb //Corsair DDR3 1600 4 Gb
Video Card:	HIS 7950 3 Gb //Sapphire 6670 1 Gb
Hard Disk:	Samsung 840 250 SSD, WD Caviar Blue 500// Corsair M4 64 Gb Solid State, SAMSUNG F4 2 Tb, WD 1 Tb
Optical Drive:	LG DVDR 24X // Lite on DVDR 24X
CRT/LCD Model:	HP 23xi IPS 1080p" // 50" Samsung Plasma 720p
Case:	Corsair Obsidian Series 550D // Silverstone Granada GD05
Sound Card:	ASUS Xonar DS // HDMI Bit Stream to Yamaha RX V571
PSU:	Corsair TX650 // Corsair CX 430
Software:	Windows 7 64bit // Windows 7 64bit with XBMC Eden
Benchmarks:	I scored P8756 in 3DMark 11

Jan 3, 2013, 01:56 AM	#2
natr0n Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: FL,USA Posts: 1,115 (2.35/day) Thanks: 241 Thanked 573 Times in 293 Posts System Specs	The intellipower drives spin at around 5000 rpm to save power. I have a few. __________________ My Youtube Channel

Processor:	Phenom II X6 1100T @ 3.5 GHz/NB @ 3.0 GHz
Motherboard:	Asrock 770 Extreme 3
Cooling:	Thermalright Ultra120 eXtreme + Dual Fans
Memory:	Gskill Ripjaws X 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 @1667
Video Card:	MSI 7870 HAWK GHz Edition
Hard Disk:	10101010101010101010101010101010
Optical Drive:	Sony DVDRW
CRT/LCD Model:	Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX 23"-2048x1152 + Dell E171FPb 17"-1280x1024
Case:	Sunbeam Transformer Silver
Sound Card:	X-Fi Extreme Music + Dual Speakers/Dual Subs
PSU:	Corsair TX650
Software:	Win7Pro64 / WinXP64 + (Services Tuned)

System Name:	HP Z800
Processor:	Intel Xeon X5560 @2.8 GHz (dual processor)
Motherboard:	HP
Cooling:	OEM
Memory:	6x Hynix PC3-10700 4GB ECC Buffered RAM, 24GB total
Video Card:	Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 465 (SLI)
Hard Disk:	Dual RAID0 Western Digital 10K RPM SAS drives
Optical Drive:	HP Blu-ray reader/writer
CRT/LCD Model:	1x Samsung 27" LCD, 1x Samsung 24" LED
Case:	HP
Sound Card:	Creative Sound Blaster Xi-Fi
PSU:	1.1KW HP Power Supply
Software:	Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Jan 3, 2013, 02:03 AM	#3
serratedauto Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 8 (0.03/day) Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts System Specs	I almost exclusively use western digital drives. I have 3x 2TB (WD20EARX and WD20EARS) and 3x 3TB (WD30EZRX and a seagate barracuda XT). I haven't had a single problem with the western digitals, whereas I've been having a lot of issues with data corruption on the seagate barracuda XT 3TB. My only issue with the "green" drives from western digital is that for the older WD20EARS drives I had to run the wdidle3 utility to set the spin down time to 500 seconds instead of the default 30 seconds. Other than that I love my WD drives!

Jan 3, 2013, 02:21 AM	#4
Frag Maniac Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,409 (1.53/day) Thanks: 9 Thanked 230 Times in 201 Posts System Specs	I'm considering going with WD's opposite end of the spectrum, the 1TB Velociraptor. Sure they cost about $220, but are blazing fast and built like tanks. I was considering a 2TB Hitachi 7K3000 at one point, which can peak at 158Mb/s sequential write speed, but then the prices went up due to the flood, and now the only affordable ones are lower grade with lesser warranty. The way I look at it, a super fast 1TB would pay for itself in the long run. With it's faster speed it wouldn't really be a problem to keep only so many games on it and uninstall the older ones when newer ones come out. I currently have a Seagate 1TB Barracuda, and it's speed goes down quite a bit as it fills up, which is annoying. Last edited by Frag Maniac; Jan 3, 2013 at 02:27 AM.

Processor:	Intel i7 950 @ 3.2GHz
Motherboard:	ASUS P6X58D-E
Cooling:	Corsair H50 push/pull
Memory:	Kingston HyperX 1600 6GB
Video Card:	Sapphire HD 7970 OC @ 1000 Core
Hard Disk:	Plextor M5P 128GB/Seagate 1TB Barracuda
Optical Drive:	ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS
CRT/LCD Model:	Panasonic TC-L32U3
Case:	Antec DF-85
Sound Card:	Yamaha RX-V371 AVR
PSU:	XFX 850w Black Edition
Software:	W7 Ultimate 64 bit

Jan 3, 2013, 02:36 AM	#5
Jetster Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Oregon Posts: 2,851 (2.34/day) Thanks: 923 Thanked 851 Times in 624 Posts System Specs	I'm only concern with the IntelliPower drives. Im aware of WDs history. The Red drive are IntelliPower also. I have an opportunity to get quite a few at a good price. So I ordered one and Im going to put it threw its paces. They claim speed and power saving

Jan 3, 2013, 02:41 AM	#6
newtekie1 Semi-Retired Folder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Indiana Posts: 17,738 (6.49/day) Thanks: 780 Thanked 5,112 Times in 3,703 Posts System Specs	They're slower than true 7200RPM drives, but they're ok for data storage. __________________ Rig1: System Specs. Rig2: A8-5600K@4.4GHz / AsRock FM2A75 Pro4 / 8GB Corsair DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 / HD7560D / Samsung DVD-Burner / 1.5TB WD Green + 3x3TB WD RED in RAID5 Rig3: Athlon X2 4200+ / M4A79 Deluxe / 4GB G.Skill Pi DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 / GT430 / Sony DVD-Burner / 500GB WD Rig4: Phenom II x6 1605T @ 3.6GHz / Asus M5A99X Evo / 8GB PNY DDR3-1600 9-9-9 / GTX470 & GTX470 / Samsung DVD-Burner / 1.5TB Seagate

Processor:	Intel Core i7 875K@4.0GHz(200x20)
Motherboard:	eVGA P55 FTW 200
Cooling:	Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme w/ Corsair SP120 High Performance Edition
Memory:	8GB Corsair DDR3-1600 7-7-7-20
Video Card:	ASUS GTX 670 4GB DirectCU II @ 1015/3600
Hard Disk:	1TB Seagate 7200.12(OS), 3x 1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 in RAID 5
Optical Drive:	Lite-On Blu-Ray Combo Drive IHES108
CRT/LCD Model:	HP 25" 2509m 1080p LCD
Case:	Lian-Li Lancool Metal Boned K7 w/ Windowed Side Panel
Sound Card:	Onboard is good enough for me
PSU:	Corsair HX850
Software:	Windows 7 x64 Professional

Jan 3, 2013, 02:41 AM	#7
xkm1948 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: eugene Posts: 316 (0.17/day) Thanks: 15 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts System Specs	I wish you good luck. My experience with WD so far has been a total disaster. But of course I am only talking about WD's recent quality control problems.

Processor:	QX9650@4GHz(333x12)
Motherboard:	ASUS Maxmium Formula
Cooling:	Noctua NH-C14
Memory:	GSKill 8GB DDR2-1000
Video Card:	Sappire 5870@900 core/5GHz mem
Hard Disk:	Seagate 7200.11 500GB; WD Black 1.5TB
Optical Drive:	Pioneer 20X
CRT/LCD Model:	SAMSUNG 226BW
Case:	TT Armor
PSU:	Antec TP3-550
Benchmarks:	3DMark Vantage Performance: 18638 3DMark 11 Performance: 4683

System Name:	Ongoing scavanging
Processor:	Sempron 140
Motherboard:	MSI 760GM-P23 (FX)
Cooling:	Somesuch
Memory:	2GB DDR3
Video Card:	HD 2400 Pro
Hard Disk:	160GB + 1TB
Optical Drive:	Yes
CRT/LCD Model:	19" 1280 x 1024

Jan 3, 2013, 03:47 AM	#11
Jstn7477 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Sarasota, Florida, USA Posts: 3,114 (2.29/day) Thanks: 384 Thanked 1,177 Times in 799 Posts System Specs	I had 3 Seagates die last year and a Toshiba die today. All HDDs pretty much suck. __________________ Intel Crunchers (30 threads): 2x 3770K 4.3GHz, 2600K 4GHz, X3210, P-M 735A, P4 3GHz, AMD Crunchers (20 cores):FX-8150 (4t), 1100T 3.6GHz, 1045T 3.4GHz, X3 8550 2.5GHz, T64 ML-37 AMD Folders (6272 GCN cores): 2x 7950 1125/1475, 7970 1150/1650, 7770 NV Folders (2336 GF10x + 1344 GK104 cores):GTX 470 & 465 720/1715, 4x 460 768MB 825/2000, GTS 450, 660Ti 1228/6000 HEATWARE

System Name:	Awesomesauce \| Laptop (Toshiba A665D-S6091) \| "The Shoebox"
Processor:	Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.3GHz/1.18v \| AMD PII Mobile X4 X920 @ 2.3GHz\|AMD E-350 APU
Motherboard:	ASRock Z77 Extreme6 \| NWQAE S1G4 (880G/SB850) \| Gigabyte E350N-USB3
Cooling:	Thermaltake Water 2.0 Performer, 2x Cougar CF-V12HB + 5 Rosewill RFA-120-RL
Memory:	G.Skill RJ-X 16GB DDR3-2000 CL11 \| Stock 2*2GB DDR3-1066 CL7 \| 4GB DDR3-1333
Video Card:	XFX DD HD7950 3GB 1175/1500 1.2v w/ Accelero Xtreme 7970 \| ATI MR 5650 1GB DDR3 @ 550/900 \| 6310 IGP
Hard Disk:	Mushkin Chronos 240GB + Seagate Green 2TB \| WD Scorpio Black 750GB \| Samsung F1 1TB
Optical Drive:	ASUS 24x SATA \| Sony Optiarc AD-7703S 8x Labelflash \| Samsung Writemaster 22x SATA
CRT/LCD Model:	ASUS VG236HE 23" 120Hz 1080p \| 16.0" 1366*768 LED laptop glossy LCD \| Samsung 940BW
Case:	NZXT Source 210 \| Toshiba A665D \| Rosewill MI-01-BK ITX "shoebox"
Sound Card:	Realtek ALC898 \| Realtek ALC269 with harman/kardon speakers \| Realtek ALC892
PSU:	Rosewill CAPSTONE 550w (80Plus Gold) \| 75W 19.5v brick \| Seasonic 350w ITX
Software:	Windows 7 Pro x64 + Ubuntu 12.10 \| Windows 8 Pro x64 (laptop)
Benchmarks:	120FPS in the games I play? :P

Jan 3, 2013, 03:49 AM	#12
Jetster Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Oregon Posts: 2,851 (2.34/day) Thanks: 923 Thanked 851 Times in 624 Posts System Specs	There are no black IntelliPower drives so please only IntelliPower drives

Jan 3, 2013, 04:42 AM	#13
Widjaja Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Wangas, New Zealand Posts: 4,017 (1.85/day) Thanks: 239 Thanked 617 Times in 534 Posts System Specs	I understand your concern if you are remembering the issue with the WD Greens and the head park issue which appeared to give grief for some. I have a WD Green 2TB which has intelli power technology. In readouts on HDTune the head park count could pose an alarm to some but this is the way the power saving series is designed. Having whats considered a high head park count is far better than seeing a CRC error count. All intelli-power seems to do besides 'save power' is keep the hard drive cool. Bare in mind this is my internal storage drive which is primarily used for applications, drivers and media but does get used on a daily basis due to media. Had this drive for over a couple of years now I think.

System Name:	Darth Obsidious
Processor:	Intel i5 2500K
Motherboard:	ASUS P8Z68-V/Gen3
Cooling:	Cooler Master Hyper 212+ in Push Pull
Memory:	2X4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600
Video Card:	ASUS HD7870 Direct CU II
Hard Disk:	128GB Samsung 830 SSD, 1TB WD Black, 2TB WD Green
Optical Drive:	ASUS BC-12B1ST 12X Blu-ray Combo
CRT/LCD Model:	LG IPS234V-PN
Case:	Corsair Obsidian 650D
Sound Card:	Infrasonic Quartet
PSU:	Corsair HX650w
Software:	Windows 7 64bit and Windows XP Home
Benchmarks:	2cm mark on bench with a razor blade.

Jan 3, 2013, 07:02 AM	#14
RejZoR Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Europe/Slovenia Posts: 3,963 (1.26/day) Thanks: 39 Thanked 752 Times in 540 Posts System Specs	I have less than stellar experience with Seagate and Samsung HDD's. Can't say anything bad about WD really. I have my 2TB Caviar Black for ages. Sister had a 160GB Caviar Blue in notebook which was like 5 or 6 years old. Have placed it in an enclosure as external drive which she still uses. Replaced it with another Caviar Blue, this time 500GB version. I think it's 2 years old now. Samsung 750GB started with hiccups after just 2 years and Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB is also going funky in CrystalDiskInfo. It works ok but CDI is reporting issues with transfers, apparently electronics are going all wonky. __________________ RejZoR's Little Secrets @ rejzor dot tk

System Name:	The BlackBox 3
Processor:	Intel Core i7 920 4,2 GHz
Motherboard:	ASUS Rampage II Gene + 2x Noiseblocker XM2 on chipset/VRM
Cooling:	ANTEC H2O 920 + 2x Noiseblocker M12-S3HS
Memory:	6GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz
Video Card:	GIGABYTE RADEON HD7950 3GB WindForce 3X (1100/6000)
Hard Disk:	WD Caviar Black 2TB 64MB
Optical Drive:	SAMSUNG SH-S223F
CRT/LCD Model:	SAMSUNG SyncMaster 931c
Case:	Lian Li PC-V354 Black
Sound Card:	Creative Sound Blaster Z + Altec Lansing MX5021
PSU:	Corsair HX750 + Noiseblocker BlackSilent XR2
Software:	Windows 8 Professional x64
Benchmarks:	It can run 3DMark and all...

Jan 3, 2013, 05:57 PM	#15
Jetster Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Oregon Posts: 2,851 (2.34/day) Thanks: 923 Thanked 851 Times in 624 Posts System Specs	First test results Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower 64 MB SATA 6.0 Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0 What I was able to find out is that the IntelliPower drives are variable speed from 5200 to 7200 The IntelliPower drive was quieter also but not by much

Jan 3, 2013, 06:12 PM	#16
Jetster Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Oregon Posts: 2,851 (2.34/day) Thanks: 923 Thanked 851 Times in 624 Posts System Specs	Western Digital WD Green WD10EZRX 1TB IntelliPower 64 MB SATA 6.0 Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0

Jan 3, 2013, 06:52 PM	#17
xkm1948 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: eugene Posts: 316 (0.17/day) Thanks: 15 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts System Specs	That is one solid drive. My WD Black 2TB only gets average 108MB/s in HDTune read tests. Seems I should have bought the green instead of the Black.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[FS][US] 4 2TB Western Digital Hard Drives	ViZioN207	Buy/Sell/Trade/Giveaway Forum	7	Jan 12, 2013 12:11 AM
Western Digital Launches 4 TB WD RE SAS, WD RE SATA Hard Drives	Cristian_25H	News	14	Sep 30, 2012 08:26 AM
Western Digital Introduces RE2-GreenPower Enterprise Hard Drives	malware	News	3	Nov 12, 2007 06:15 PM
2TB My Book External Hard Drives By Western Digital	HellasVagabond	News	1	Jul 26, 2007 12:24 AM
GreenPower™ Hard Drives By Western Digital	HellasVagabond	News	15	Jul 24, 2007 03:49 AM