Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green Power Hard Drive
Power Usage - Drive Temperatures
Since we are reviewing a Green technology product in the Western Digital Green Power 2TB drive, we considered factors such as power consumption and drive temperature essential measurements in the evaluation.
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To determine power consumption, we used a P3 Kill-A-Watt meter. The test system was plugged into the meter which was then attached to the power source. Wattage readings were taken from the meter under idle and load conditions. The load state was arrived at by running a battery of intensive benchmarks on the target drive. The test system ran at 124 watts without any of the test drives loaded.
The Western Digital Green Power 2TB delivers as promised with around 6 watts of power usage at idle and 10 watts under load. The closest competitor (counting out the 2.5" Velociraptor) was the Seagate 7200.11 1TB that used 8 watts at idle and 12 watts under load. Although this may not seem very significant it represents power savings of 25 and 17 percent respectively.
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Our drive temperatures were arrived at by placing the drives in a Thermaltake BlacX external eSATA drive housing. The drive housing exposed the drive and allowed us to take temperature readings using a Fluke thermal meter probing the back of the drive. We used the highest temperature reading at idle and then under a heavy benchmark load for comparison. Although this is not extremely precise it does give you a good idea of the differences in temperature between the drives tested. The ambient room temperature during testing was 71 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here we see a noticeable difference in the heat generated by the WD Green Power 2 TB. Tests show 4 degrees Fahrenheit below the closest comparison drive during idle and almost 7 degrees Fahrenheit during load.
