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    HDD Storage & Power Consumption

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by maks, Nov 30, 2008.

  1. maks

    maks Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi guys, I'm considering upgrading my 120GB 5400RPM 2.5" drive to a 500GB 5400RPM 2.5" drive.

    My concern is that the jump in power consumption will be significant. Has anyone done research on comparing the idle & active consumptions of drives with different amounts of storage space?
     
    maks, Nov 30, 2008
    #1
  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Compare the electrical specs in the datasheets of both HDDs.

    Also check out the HDD charts at Tomshardware.
     
    Andy, Nov 30, 2008
    #2
  3. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    Tinderbox (UK), Nov 30, 2008
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  4. maks

    maks Notebook Enthusiast

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    Since the power consumptions specs for idle states are almost identitical between the WD 500GB Scorpio Blue, and my 120GB Hitachi Travelstar, the only difference was read/write consumption: 1.8W on my Hitachi, and 2.5W on the WD.

    After doing some (possibly erroneous) calculations, by looking at the amount of page ins & outs over 240 hours of uptime, and considering the 61MB/s read/write speed of the WD drive, the actual amount of time spent doing reads & writes is so small (about 0.0002% of the time) that the power consumption difference is virtually negligible due to consumption differences for read & write.
     
    maks, Nov 30, 2008
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  5. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Ok....

    Or you can wait for the Hitachi 5K500.B
     
    Andy, Nov 30, 2008
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  6. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    or you can wait for the 7200.4 :D
     
    sgogeta4, Nov 30, 2008
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  7. maks

    maks Notebook Enthusiast

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    I don't think these are worthwhile upgrades for me. I'm gonna wait a year to see if SSD drives don't go down in price, and maybe get a 100 GB drive, other than that, a external drive should do just fine for storing larger files.
     
    maks, Dec 1, 2008
    #7
  8. wojtek_pl

    wojtek_pl Notebook Consultant

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    Yeach, check the specs. :) I just swapped 120GB WD disk to Hitachi 5K320 250GB and the new one should take less power :D Which should be true, because first observations indicate a bit lower temperatures. :D
    But checking specifications is a must.
     
    wojtek_pl, Dec 2, 2008
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  9. Phil

    Phil Retired

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    The WD5000BEVT will hardly consume more power. It may even consume less due to power saving features.
     
    Phil, Dec 2, 2008
    #9