[Loomy]

With all the confusion surrounding the GreenPower features, I was glad to see SR straighten things out. Thank the press for clarifying everything for us.... or wait a second:

TOMS HARDWARE said:

The main feature in WD's GreenPower portfolio is the dynamic adjustment of the drive's spindle speed. It can run at speeds between 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM to save energy whenever high performance isn't needed.

http://www.tomshardw...r_gp/page8.html


Whoops? Another classic review from toms hardware!!

[Interlink]

It is easy to measure the spindle speed of a HDD.
I mounted a headset microphone on top of my WD10EACS's case and evaluated the FFT spectrum with AudioAnalyzer.

The maximum at 90Hz represents the spindle speed (5400rpm).
The second FFT spectrum was recorded on top of a HD501LJ. Max at 120Hz.
90Hz * 60rpm/Hz = 5400rpm
120Hz * 60rpm/Hz = 7200rpm

This post has been edited by Interlink: 25 October 2007 - 07:45 AM

[StoX]

Interlink, on Oct 25 2007, 07:42 AM, said:

It is easy to measure the spindle speed of a HDD.
I mounted a headset microphone on top of my WD10EACS's case and evaluated the FFT spectrum with AudioAnalyzer.

The maximum at 90Hz represents the spindle speed (5400rpm).
The second FFT spectrum was recorded on top of a HD501LJ. Max at 120Hz.
90Hz * 60rpm/Hz = 5400rpm
120Hz * 60rpm/Hz = 7200rpm

Conclusion? The 1TB Western Digital is 5400 rpm sometimes? All the time? WD says that the drive changes between 5400 and 7200 rpm depending on the load. That is the essence of GreenPower technology, they say. I am lost. Thanks.

This post has been edited by StoX: 25 October 2007 - 12:30 PM

[Interlink]

It's at 5400rpm all the time. A spinup / spindown between 5400rpm and 7200rpm would be audible and become noticeable "at work".
The samples were taken with w2k + AudioAnalyzer running from the WD10EACS, which should be enough to keep the HDD at full speed ahead.
Those who want to know it all are invited to take a longer audio sample.

BTW: The amount of rotational energy to spin up from 5400rpm to 7200rpm ist about 80 percent of the amount to spin up from 0rpm to 5400rpm.
(7200^2 - 5400^2) / 5400^2 = 0,778

IMO a HDD spinning up between 5400rpm and 7200rpm would become inaccessible for some seconds.

[Eugene]

StoX, on Oct 25 2007, 01:28 PM, said:

Conclusion? The 1TB Western Digital is 5400 rpm sometimes? All the time? WD says that the drive changes between 5400 and 7200 rpm depending on the load. That is the essence of GreenPower technology, they say. I am lost. Thanks.

Despite what you may have read at other websites, the 1 TB GP drive features a static 5400 RPM spindle speed. This is beyond dispute, and easily derivable for any that choose to investigate.

Regards,

Eugene

[StoX]

Then Western Digital is cheating all of us? Fraud? Lie? Class action againt WD?

[Eugene]

StoX, on Oct 25 2007, 08:32 PM, said:

Then Western Digital is cheating all of us? Fraud? Lie? Class action againt WD?

Its always the evil corporation's fault, right? Never the mom-and-pop hardware review sites or the overeager enthusiast readers?

http://www.wdc.com/e...asp?DriveID=336 :

"For each GreenPower drive model, WD uses a different, invariable RPM."

Perhaps a suit against the reviewers and/or individuals is more warranted.

[StoX]

Eugene, on Oct 25 2007, 11:00 PM, said:

StoX, on Oct 25 2007, 08:32 PM, said:

Then Western Digital is cheating all of us? Fraud? Lie? Class action againt WD?

Its always the evil corporation's fault, right? Never the mom-and-pop hardware review sites or the overeager enthusiast readers?

http://www.wdc.com/e...asp?DriveID=336 :

"For each GreenPower drive model, WD uses a different, invariable RPM."

Perhaps a suit against the reviewers and/or individuals is more warranted.

I just asked about it in my post above. See the question marks of my sentences. Did you know there is a thing called free speech? Now, if you go to your link, they say now:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IntelliPower™ - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and cache size designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. For each GreenPower drive model, WD uses a different, invariable RPM.

SPECIFICATIONS

Rotational Speed IntelliPower *
* A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and cache size designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance. For each GreenPower drive model, WD uses a different, invariable RPM.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BUT ON 7TH JULY 2007 THEY SAID (I SAVED SUCH PAGE!):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IntelliPower™ - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and cache size designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance.

SPECIFICATIONS
Rotational Speed IntelliPower (5400 to 7200 RPM)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

which is misleading.

In any case how to know the speed of each particular model? Are there different Western Digital Caviar SATA Hard Drives 1 TB, SATA 3 Gb/s (WD10EACS) "sub-models" with different rotational speed then? How to know? If people buy the WD10EACS, which rotational speed will it deliver. AT BEST, UTTERLY CONFUSING TO ME! AT WORSE, MUH WORSE! I DO NOT BUY IT!!! I want crystal clear information and not misleading information from the companies that I buy for our University. WD? No, thanks!

This post has been edited by StoX: 26 October 2007 - 04:27 AM

[continuum]

Quote

which is misleading.

I definitely agree there.

For 1TB drives we are currently using 7K1000's enmass due to poor performance in single-user situations from the Seagate 7200.11 and ES.2, although for my personal storage upgrade I just ordered four more 1TB ES.2's for RAID5 use.