Lowest power HDD

Hey guys, I'm planning to put an opti-bay in my MacBook to replace the Multi-drive. I only need about 250GB of space. What's the lowest power draw 9.5mm HDD I can put in there?

Thanks.

 

Depends on whether the lowest power draw is for idle or for reading/writing data to it.

I would simply get the currently best available: an XT Hybrid.

First, with the most current HD's, they are usually more effecient.

Second, with a faster HD, they drop much quicker to 'idle' mode to save you power.

The XT does have some of the lowest idle power draw of current HD's and in either case, I do not see a difference of more than 10 minutes in battery life from any HD I've tried (including SSD's) in the last year or so.


Of course, if you do get an XT, I would make it the system drive and use your original HD for the data.

Good luck.

 

Hmm, Seagate has taken down some of the XT's specs from their website but the read/write voltage difference between the 250GB and 500GB models was something like .4v IIRC. Idles were the same.

The WD Scorpio Blue is supposed to be a pretty low voltage drive but as a 5400PRM, is definitely not on the same page as the XT in nearly every way possible. It would be fine for a storage/media drive though and half the price of the XT.

 

scorpio blue hands down.

 

Tomshardware has several power draw charts. Here's the video one:
Charts, benchmarks 2009 2.5? Mobile Hard Drive Charts, Power Requirement Video

Toshiba MK2529GSG comes out most power efficient. It also comes out best in idle power.