Question: about low power usage Hard drive

[ov2rey]

WDC Caviar Green Power 3.5inch 7200RPM

*Reduced power consumption - WD has reduced power consumption by up to 40 percent compared to competitors’ drives with the combination of WD's IntelliSeek™, IntelliPark™, and IntelliPower™ technologies.

&

WDC 500GB 2.5inh 5400RPM 8MB


this 2 hard drive, which one has lesser power consumption?

i looking for a super low power usage Hard drive for my new Build Intel Atom HTPC to replace my old Intel G31 HTPC

[95Viper]

The 500GB 2.5 mobile probably draws less current and uses less wattage.

Did not really know which models you are speaking of, but you can find the info on their website; under the spec tabs on the drive's page.

Here is a couple of examples.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=338
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=506

SSD should save you the most but isn't worth the expense if you're mainly worried about the electricity bill. Plus, idle power consumption isn't much lower - http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2...-Idle,921.html. Actually, the 2.5 inch drive seems to have even lower power usage than any of the reasonably priced SSD's. Those guys with the sub 1 watt power usage look like they're all SLC modules rather than MLC's.

[angelkiller]

If you're looking for absolute low power consumption, the 2.5in drive will draw less power than a 5400rpm 3.5in drive. A Greenpower draws at best 4W, 6W typical, at idle while a 2.5in HDD draws less than 3W on load.

However, if you factor cost and capacity into the equation, the Greenpower drives are superior imo. You can get a 500GB laptop drive for about the same as a 1TB Greepower. The GP will draw about 4W extra over a 2.5in HDD while providing twice the capacity at the same price (or halving the cost/GB) 4W is worth 2x the capacity imo, but like I said earlier, if you're going for lowest possible power consumption, the 2.5in HDD is the way to go. SSD's arn't worth the cost imo if all you want is low power.

[ov2rey]

thanks alot!

i think i will go for 2.5inch