Western Digital 'Green' hard drives now available in capacities up to 6TB

[Shawn Knight]

Look no further than a solid state drive for breakneck speed. If a large-capacity drive for storage is what you're after, however, traditional spinning hard drives are still the best bet in terms of price per GB. And if you need a whole heck of a lot of storage, Western Digital's two new budget-minded drives might be right up your alley.

The Western Digital Green line of cool and quiet hard drives now has a couple of new additions, a 5TB drive and a 6TB drive. These consumer-oriented 3.5-inch drives both offer 64MB of cache and use WD's IntelliPower technology to reduce rotational speed when the drive isn't being heavily used to conserve energy.

According to documentation from WD, the 6TB and the 5TB are the two fastest models in the entire Green line with sustained data write speeds of up to 175MB/sec and 170MB/sec, respectively. The next fastest drive in the line is the 4TB model at 150MB/sec.

Of course, the increased speed also comes at a cost: higher energy consumption. We're nitpicking here but the two new drives consume 5.3 watts under read / write scenarios and 0.4 watts in standby / sleep mode compared to just 4.1 watts under load on the 3TB model.

Unfortunately, Western Digital hasn't revealed pricing or availability on either of the new Green drives. I've reached out to marketing for clarification and will update this post when I hear something back.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/57501-western-digital-green-hard-drives-now-available-in-capacities-up-to-6tb.html

 

[VitalyT]

On a more interesting note, Seagate is already shipping 8TB HDD-s to its select customers, with 10TB ones to follow.

Besides, nothing beats the current 6TB Enterprise offer from Seagate anyway, in terms of price+performance+capacity. Let Western Digital lag behind as it does

 

[monkeychef23]

These are consumer drives, not enterprise drives. There's a big difference.

On a more interesting note, Seagate is already shipping 8TB HDD-s to its select customers, with 10TB ones to follow.

Besides, nothing beats the current 6TB Enterprise offer from Seagate anyway, in terms of price+performance+capacity. Let Western Digital lag behind as it does

 

[Mister_K]

These are consumer drives, not enterprise drives. There's a big difference.

What's the actual difference? Are Enterprise drives more reliable? Less power consumption?

 

[TadMSTR]

These are consumer drives, not enterprise drives. There's a big difference.

What's the actual difference? Are Enterprise drives more reliable? Less power consumption?

The difference is in the firmware and the features that are supported. For instance, RAID specific drives from WD have TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) which hands off error recovery to the controller if the drive can't recover within X secs (default value for x= 7s for read, 0s for write). This prevents the drive going out of sync causing the array to go into a degraded state.

 

[VitalyT]

As far as your average consumer is concerned, the only difference between standard and Enterprise-class HDD-s is in speed. That 6TB Seagate Enterprise is mighty fast, a whooping 240MB in read speed.

For others it comes with better relaibility and warranty. According to Seagate's list of features:

- World's fastest 6, 5, 4 and 2TB nearline hard drives
- 10x the workload rating of desktop drives
- High 24x7 reliability with an MTBF of 1.4M hours on all drives
- 12Gb/s SAS and SATA 6Gb/s interfaces for easy integration
- Best-in-class IOPS/TB storage for unstructured data
- Seagate Instant Secure Erase feature on SED drives for secure, easy and cost-effective drive retirement
- RV Sensors and RAID support for maximum multi-drive nearline performance
- 5-year limited warranty

Source: http://www.amazon.com/SEAGATE-Enter...e=UTF8&qid=1406126584&sr=8-2&keywords=6TB+HDD

 

[Jad Chaar]

I have heard that these Green drives are slow as heck. I try to avoid them.

 

[Seventh Reign]

I have heard that these Green drives are slow as heck. I try to avoid them.

They can be a bit slower to 'start spinning' since they power down to conserve energy. I wouldnt suggest using them as your system drive (you should just get an SSD for that no question), but as a backup drive or a drive that you only access files occasionally, they are simply unbeatable.

If Money is no object and you want pure (non-ssd) Speed, then go with a WD Black or even a WD Red. The Greens are perfect for the average user.

But stay away from the WD Blues. They are absolute garbage.

 

[Jad Chaar]

They can be a bit slower to 'start spinning' since they power down to conserve energy. I wouldnt suggest using them as your system drive (you should just get an SSD for that no question), but as a backup drive or a drive that you only access files occasionally, they are simply unbeatable.

If Money is no object and you want pure (non-ssd) Speed, then go with a WD Black or even a WD Red. The Greens are perfect for the average user.

But stay away from the WD Blues. They are absolute garbage.

WD Blacks are great. The green for a backup drive makes sense as you said, since data is being accessed every once and a while.

 

[wastedkill]

Glad were still on track was it 16TB or 60TB HDD's by 2016? I think it was WD that said that in 2016 we will get one of those.... pretty sure it was the 60TB one tbh

 

[SNGX1275]

If we got a 60TB hd the read/write speeds would likely surpass today's SSD speeds, simply because of data density.

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ]....Besides, nothing beats the current 6TB Enterprise offer from Seagate anyway, in terms of price+performance+capacity. Let Western Digital lag behind as it does

Nobody's crossing your bridge today, are they?

 

[Guest]

I have found the Green's to be just too slow for any regular task.

 

[captaincranky]

I have found the Green's to be just too slow for any regular task.

Then don't use it for any "regular task". Fill it up with your backups, yank it, and sit it on a shelf in its anti-static bag.

Basically that's at least as cheap, if not cheaper, than writing the same files to optical media as backups...

 

[Lionvibez]

If we got a 60TB hd the read/write speeds would likely surpass today's SSD speeds, simply because of data density.

True but what speeds with SSD's be running at in 2016.

I use WD greens in My HTPC and they are perfect for storing all my media. I don't need fast access to stream the media to other systems or to just watch it from the HTPC. And I like the less noise and heat generated which is important in a computer sitting under my tv.

 

[captaincranky]

True but what speeds with SSD's be running at in 2016.

Brace yourself, incoming sacrilege, "who cares"?

I use WD greens in My HTPC and they are perfect for storing all my media. I don't need fast access to stream the media to other systems or to just watch it from the HTPC. And I like the less noise and heat generated which is important in a computer sitting under my tv.

I had thought at one point, that the speed on these "eco-friendly" drives was variable. Is that not the case these days? So, if someone were writing, or streaming media, they would be running at, or close to, the standard 7400rpm of a damned old common desktop HDD.....

I don't think you can bypass the sleep cycle of green HDDs either.

 

[dividebyzero]

I had thought at one point, that the speed on these "eco-friendly" drives was variable. Is that not the case these days?

Variable between vendors, but the ceiling is 5400 - 5900 r.p.m. depending upon vendor for eco drives.

As far as your average consumer is concerned, the only difference between standard and Enterprise-class HDD-s is in speed. That 6TB Seagate Enterprise is mighty fast, a whooping 240MB in read speed.

240MB/s is the burst data rate, not sustained.
...and coming back down to Earth, the actual number isn't quite as impressive.

For others it comes with better relaibility and warranty

Warranty depends upon what drive you buy. 5 years is standard for Enterprise drives, 2-3 years for desktop, 1 year for cheap storage drives....regardless of vendor in general. Some Seagate desktop models (1.5TB, 2TB) up until recently were saddled with a 1 year warranty because of reliability issues.
Reliability is a moving target also. 6TB drives haven't been in the market long enough for any decent comparison, but in general Seagate doesn't cover itself in glory on the reliability front.

 

[captaincranky]

@dividebyzero, I don't recall having said,

"for others it comes with better reliability and warranty"

. At least not in this thread, nor in recent memory....

 

[dividebyzero]

Oops, sorry about my misfiring synapses - Sarahpalinism must be transmittable via network connection. My adventure in misquoting has been rectified.

 

[captaincranky]

Oops, sorry about my misfiring synapses - Sarahpalinism must be transmittable via network connection. My adventure in misquoting has been rectified.

Oh, no harm, no foul. Besides, everyone is entitled to, "Going Rogue", from time to time.

Although, it is a pity neither one of us will likely ever be able to parlay it into a book and speaking tour......

 

[GeforcerFX]

Well I use 3 2tb Green drives in my tower and have a 2tb Black as my main drive. The greens seem to be a fraction of a second slower then your average laptop drive, but its never bugged me(though I would say I have more patience then the average techie). I even ran my system on a green drive for a month waiting to save up for my black drive when my old main drive crashed ran just fine only a 3-5 second difference for my usage. I have one hard drive slot left and I was gonna put a 4TB green in it, might do the 6tb, but I am noticing the larger the drive the greater the rip off in storage it feels like, the 6tb drive will only have 5.5gb, should just call it a 5.5 drive?

 

[Railman]

They can be a bit slower to 'start spinning' since they power down to conserve energy. I wouldnt suggest using them as your system drive (you should just get an SSD for that no question), but as a backup drive or a drive that you only access files occasionally, they are simply unbeatable.

If Money is no object and you want pure (non-ssd) Speed, then go with a WD Black or even a WD Red. The Greens are perfect for the average user.

But stay away from the WD Blues. They are absolute garbage.

WD Blacks are great. The green for a backup drive makes sense as you said, since data is being accessed every once and a while.

I purchased a WD Black for my latest build. Very impressed with it as well. Much quieter than my old drive and it comes with a 5 year guarantee.

 

[Guest]

If WD describes IntelliPower as

"A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. For each WD Green drive model, WD may use a different, *invariable* RPM."

why do some many websites still believe the disk's RPM changes depending on load?

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ]....why do some many websites still believe the disk's RPM changes depending on load?

Because that was the case with initial offerings of this type of, "eco-friendly" HDD.

I have very little interest in researching the historical litany of energy saving drives that throttle and those that don't. You have my full leave and blessings to do so, if you choose. Make it a quest.

Personally, I could care less whether or not they throttle. I have no use for this type of storage device, for the simple reason I back up files across several computers, which are all very unlikely to be powered up at the same time.

I have been told my needs are, "atypical", so be it.

If the newest models of energy saving HDDs don't throttle, I can't say "nobody cares", but I can say with a great deal of specificity, I certainly don't.

 

[DAOWAce]

After the whole head parking thing blew up I have avoided WD's drives ever since..

..until I bought NAS drives, namely the WD Red.

Turns out they had the same exact head parking issue too.

Went over to Seagate, no issues.

I don't trust WD's drive anymore. Both have failed equally on me, but Seagate's don't have issues like what I've mentioned.

Honestly, as I've used increasingly higher capacity HDDs, I've hated it because they keep getting louder and louder and louder. I'd love a 6TB RAID, but I don't want them in my desktop system anymore, only in a NAS.. which I still can't yet afford.