WD Green Power 2TB available now [Archive]

LoneWolf121188

01-26-09, 11:43 PM

...in Australia. Worldwide launch is probably hours away.

Just as we'd heard (http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/13/western-digital-about-to-ship-2tb-caviar-green-hard-drive/), Western Digital is indeed producing (and shipping) a standalone 2TB internal hard drive. Available now for purchase from Mwave Australia, the 3.5-inch WD20EADS sports a 7,200RPM spin speed, 32MB of cache and a AU$377.80 price tag, which converts to just under $250 in greenbacks. We get the feeling that this drive is just hours away from launching here in the US of A (we're guessing the time zones are to blame), so we'll be keeping a close eye out for early reports on performance.

rainless

01-26-09, 11:45 PM

Wow... Say hello to 4GB Raid...

hafa

01-27-09, 12:11 AM

Wow... Say hello to 4GB Raid...

Gee, rainless, are you setting up your old flash drives in a RAID array now? :beer:

(just pullin' your chain, bro!) HOWDY 4TB RAID!

MadMan007

01-27-09, 12:15 AM

Yup looks like the launch is imminent, some shopping sites have it listed but not available yet. $250-270 is the approximate price range. I'm curious to see how these do especially versus other Greenpower drives since they have 500GB platters.

Madwand

01-27-09, 12:17 AM

First one to say: "It's really only 1.86 TB"!

(And by that, I mean of course, that I'm an idiot who still doesn't get the difference between GB and GiB.)

ps2cho

01-27-09, 01:37 AM

How are WD's greenpower drives reliability-wise? I've owned a number of Western Digitals and a handful of them have just died without warning...

So far I'm on my 5th Seagate and no problems so far.

Badbonji

01-27-09, 02:30 AM

Green are supposedly a tiny bit slower than their normal drives which reduces power consumption, but not noticable in real world situations.

ziggo0

01-27-09, 02:59 AM

Used as storage it shouldn't really matter to much. Reliability though, I think they are doing good so far.

4GHZ_or_bust

01-27-09, 04:51 AM

Hmmm I may place an order for 6 of them and put them in RAID0+1 array.

is 8TB still the max that Windows can see?

exe163

01-27-09, 05:24 AM

Hmmm I may place an order for 6 of them and put them in RAID0+1 array.

is 8TB still the max that Windows can see?

Windows 7 might have fixed that, but don't quote me on it.

Good news for technology improvement. I can't imagine myself using this any day soon. Not only that I don't need that much space, but also having multiple smaller drives are safer.

hafa

01-27-09, 10:53 AM

Hmmm I may place an order for 6 of them and put them in RAID0+1 array.

is 8TB still the max that Windows can see?

For Windows Server 2003 SP1 Windows XP x64 edition, and later versions, the maximum raw partition of 18 exabytes can be supported. (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx)

You'll still need to boot from a MBR drive, however. (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/a_reason_to_finally_use_vista)

tgxiii

01-27-09, 12:05 PM

From WD themselves: http://wdc.com/en/company/releases/PressRelease.asp?release={01D0EF49-E149-410A-A173-F872D0E6C335}

I still haven't seen it in stock at online retailers though. If anyone finds any in stock, please post!

Shiggity

01-27-09, 01:59 PM

I'll be waiting for the 2 platter 1TB 7200RPM drives.

I'm also kind of hesitant to buy from seagate now.

Ashura

01-29-09, 12:11 PM

I was thinking about getting this to replace my full WD 640gb but I remembered that my external enclosure only supports up to 750gb. Browsing the enclosures available at newegg, most of them only go up to 1tb.

Anyone know off hand of any enclosures that can handle 2tb?

hafa

01-29-09, 04:47 PM

mbigna

01-29-09, 05:00 PM

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2339784,00.asp

Enjoy.

Ashura

01-29-09, 07:05 PM

You could always go ESATA; cheap, faster than USB and no capacity limitations.

Not with an ASUS 1000H I can't. :-/ Once the nVidia Ion netbooks come out, then ESATA will be an option for me, so my ideal solution right now is an enclosure that can handle 2TB and offers both USB and ESATA.

ou_phidelt

01-29-09, 07:22 PM

Not with an ASUS 1000H I can't. :-/ Once the nVidia Ion netbooks come out, then ESATA will be an option for me, so my ideal solution right now is an enclosure that can handle 2TB and offers both USB and ESATA.

Check out the Antec MX-1. It supports both USB and ESATA so your covered now and in the future. I have one and really like it. It looks nice and is very quiet. I only have a 500GB in it but it has been confirmed to work with the 1.5TB drives and don't see why it would work with the 2TB drives. From the best I can tell the hardware in it only converts the SATA plug to USB/ESATA so it should be able to work with pretty much any size drive. Keep an eye out and you can catch them on amazon for around $35.

Ashura

01-29-09, 07:29 PM

Hrm, you might be right. I found this on Antec's site:

Note: MX-1 was released before 1.5TB hard drives were widely available. As such, early reviews of the MX-1 mention MX-1 supporting only up to 750GB; this is incorrect. The MX-1 does indeed support 1.5 TB hard drives.

I wonder if the size limitations mentioned by enclosure manufacturers are dependent on when the enclosure was released and the hard drives available at the time, and not necessarily the actual enclosure hardware?

dogbert_2001

01-30-09, 08:30 AM

The link you've all been waiting for:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344&Tpk=wd20eads

(Don't complain about price. If you don't like it, you can wait for it to go down.)

MadMan007

01-30-09, 09:29 AM

ou_phidelt

02-01-09, 07:49 AM

That's the MSRP so it's not surprising. It will drift down over time, and if you do a Froogle search you can find places that have it listed for ~$260-$270 although most list it as not available still. I'd like to see how the WD15EADS is priced but get no results yet.

At some point in hopefully the not to distant future Seagate will release their version which would help push down prices even further. Any word on if WD is going to release a 1.5TB version?

Methal

02-01-09, 02:05 PM

Green drives spin at like a pathetic tree huggin' granola eating 3 rpms.

DavidJa

02-01-09, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/26/western-digitals-2tb-caviar-green-hdd-on-sale-in-australia/
Just as we'd heard, Western Digital is indeed producing (and shipping) a standalone 2TB internal hard drive. Available now for purchase from Mwave Australia, the 3.5-inch WD20EADS sports a 7,200RPM spin speed, 32MB of cache and a AU$377.80 price tag, which converts to just under $250 in greenbacks. We get the feeling that this drive is just hours away from launching here in the US of A (we're guessing the time zones are to blame), so we'll be keeping a close eye out for early reports on performance.

it says 7200rpm

Methal

02-01-09, 02:36 PM

it says 7200rpm

it lies.

tom10167

02-01-09, 07:19 PM

since you're claiming a huge corporation is lying, and this is just a suggestion -- you might want to use a stronger argument than "cuz i said so duh."

ou_phidelt

02-01-09, 08:02 PM

since you're claiming a huge corporation is lying, and this is just a suggestion -- you might want to use a stronger argument than "cuz i said so duh."

Actually they are both wrong. Engadget says its 7200RPM, which is not correct. WD doesn't claim a rotation speed. If it is like the 1TB drive it is somewhere between 5400 and 7200. They are a bit faster than 5400RPM drives but slower than 7200RPM.

These are not meant to be OS drives. Anyone that buys one for that purpose has no reason to complain. They are meant for low power storage, I believe than point has been pretty clearly made, even by WD. Green for storage, blue for general use, and black series for performance. Once the price drops a bit a couple of these will find a home in my WHS.

MadMan007

02-01-09, 08:21 PM

How are WD's greenpower drives reliability-wise? I've owned a number of Western Digitals and a handful of them have just died without warning...

So far I'm on my 5th Seagate and no problems so far.

I've not heard any significant issues with WD drives for a while. The only company that's had serious problems lately is Seagate although I've read about a fair number of Samsung 1TBs getting bad sectors after a few months.

However if it's a concern for you wait at least a month or two to see if there are issues, especially smart if the storage is *not* needed asap. You'll also get better pricing that way. Which WD drives went bad on you?

noegruts

02-02-09, 01:22 AM

since you're claiming a huge corporation is lying, and this is just a suggestion -- you might want to use a stronger argument than "cuz i said so duh."

WD don't give a rotation speed, so they aren't lying. Retailers often list them incorrectly as 7200rpm drives and WD is very vague in their specifications and literature.

The general consensus of opinion is that they are 5400rpm drives, that's one of the reasons they draw less power.

wingman99

02-02-09, 01:39 AM

Green drives spin at like a pathetic tree huggin' granola eating 3 rpms.+1 i love that analogy:clap:

BossBorot

02-02-09, 02:42 AM

I really want to move from my 1.5tb drives to these due to seagates issues as of late. However I wont make a move unless they get to the 10 cent per gig range or lower. :bang head

hafa

02-02-09, 06:03 AM

The "Green" series drives are variable speed, from 5400 to 7200 RPM depending on demand:

The Western Digital drive's IntelliPower algorithm, which varies the rotational speed between 5400RPM and 7200RPM, dictates the Western Digital's rotational speed.

A bit more discussion about the series here (http://techreport.com/articles.x/13578).

As for me, I say "Good on 'ya WD!"

Now excuse me as I go out and hug one of the many trees that provide us with ample year-long fruit, flowers and birdsong which surround our solar-powered, water-catchment fed, hyper-insulated, passive convection cooled home :beer:.

hinderpits

02-02-09, 06:32 AM

hinderpits

02-02-09, 06:33 AM

The "Green" series drives are variable speed, from 5400 to 7200 RPM depending on demand:

A bit more discussion about the series here (http://techreport.com/articles.x/13578).

As for me, I say "Good on 'ya WD!"

Now excuse me as I go out and hug one of the many trees that provide us with ample year-long fruit, flowers and birdsong which surround our solar-powered, water-catchment fed, hyper-insulated, passive convection cooled home :beer:.:clap::clap::clap:

ou_phidelt

02-02-09, 06:48 AM

why buy a 2tb drive for 300 when the 1tb version is 100, unless you REALLY need 2 tb? and if you DO need that space why not go with this 2tb that is faster?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344

(unless you are serious about saving power that is)
Because it fills a need. A lot of people have servers or HTPC's in matx cases that only have a pretty limited number of HD slots but speed isn't important. For instance my media server only has five HD slots. So when I add a drive I buy the largest available. However speed isn't important as I am limited by network speed. So if in the process it saves a few pennies on the power bill its just an extra bonus.

Maverick0984

02-02-09, 07:57 AM

Because it fills a need. A lot of people have servers or HTPC's in matx cases that only have a pretty limited number of HD slots but speed isn't important. For instance my media server only has five HD slots. So when I add a drive I buy the largest available. However speed isn't important as I am limited by network speed. So if in the process it saves a few pennies on the power bill its just an extra bonus.

What is limited by the network speed? Transferring the files to the drive?

You aren't actually streaming anything over your LAN I would think.

ou_phidelt

02-02-09, 10:59 AM

Yep, the transfers are limited by the network speed. Right now I am on 10/100 Wifi G, so it may change when/if I upgrade to gigabit/N but for now it doesn't.

Actually I stream a lot over my LAN. All my media is stored on my server. I connect my notebook to my plasma via HDMI and stream movies/TV.

hinderpits

02-02-09, 11:14 AM

Because it fills a need. A lot of people have servers or HTPC's in matx cases that only have a pretty limited number of HD slots but speed isn't important. For instance my media server only has five HD slots. So when I add a drive I buy the largest available. However speed isn't important as I am limited by network speed. So if in the process it saves a few pennies on the power bill its just an extra bonus.

but even if speed isn't a priority, isn't it generally a good idea to go with the fastest/best quality hardware? You may be able to use the speed at some point, and there are really no benefits of having the lower performing product...

MadMan007

02-02-09, 12:42 PM

These drives are fast enough to not be a bottleneck even on gigabit or wireless N. The only drive recently tat wasn't was the original EACS greenpower and then only toward the end of the drive. This is just going by HDTach/HDTune though.

but even if speed isn't a priority, isn't it generally a good idea to go with the fastest/best quality hardware? You may be able to use the speed at some point, and there are really no benefits of having the lower performing product...

I don't see why you guys are harping on his personal choice. He seems to know what the pluses and minuses are so as long as he's making an informed decision it's up to him. The benefit to these is lower power draw, they are a little out of whack in $/GB atm but sometimes storage density is worth it and 1 of these would draw less power than 2x1TB.

tom10167

02-02-09, 12:50 PM

Is there a benchmark of how much less power they draw?

noegruts

02-02-09, 01:02 PM

The "Green" series drives are variable speed, from 5400 to 7200 RPM depending on demand:

They are NOT variable speed. This has been discussed and analyzed to death.

MadMan007

02-02-09, 01:49 PM

Is there a benchmark of how much less power they draw?

techreport has power numbers in their HD reviews. It's not a huge amount compared to the rest of a PC or other stuff in a house for that matter, only a few watts, but when you compare 1x2TB to 2x1TB the difference is at least the amount that one drive pulls on its own, maybe 5-10W. It's not worth a $60-80 difference for a 2TB setup atm on power savings alone but the higher storage density is a factor too.

hinderpits

02-02-09, 03:00 PM

These drives are fast enough to not be a bottleneck even on gigabit or wireless N. The only drive recently tat wasn't was the original EACS greenpower and then only toward the end of the drive. This is just going by HDTach/HDTune though.

I don't see why you guys are harping on his personal choice. He seems to know what the pluses and minuses are so as long as he's making an informed decision it's up to him. The benefit to these is lower power draw, they are a little out of whack in $/GB atm but sometimes storage density is worth it and 1 of these would draw less power than 2x1TB.

holster your pistols there no ones harping just trying to form the best analysis-i wasn't pushing the 2x1 tb setup just suggesting, and the link to the 2 tb product i listed IS higher quality and the same price and size, so it would be a better choice unless you are willing to sacrifice performance to save 47 cents per month on your electric bill:beer:

MadMan007

02-02-09, 03:02 PM

Uh, you linked the WD20EADS which IS the 2TB Greenpower drive *in post #33. :confused: Go by model number it's the most reliable thing.

It's the only drive being talked about in this thread.

hinderpits

02-02-09, 03:48 PM

oh i didn't see it was hte green as it doesn't say green in the listing and it says the one newegg is carrying is 7200 rpm which i thought the green was not. Newegg b.s.ing i guess

hafa

02-02-09, 05:00 PM

They are NOT variable speed. This has been discussed and analyzed to death.

I provided two links from reliable sources that explicitly state that the drives are variable speed. Please provide similar evidence for your claims.

ou_phidelt

02-02-09, 05:07 PM

Just to be clear I won't touch any of these until they are at $.10/GB. I won't pay the early adopter premium. If I run out of space before then I'll pick up another 1.5TB Seagate, they've treated me well.

noegruts

02-02-09, 05:35 PM

I provided two links from reliable sources that explicitly state that the drives are variable speed. Please provide similar evidence for your claims.

gawd. Making a hard disk that actually had a variable spin speed would not be a great way to achieve low power consumption. Think about it.

Anyway, here you go, knock yourself out: http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2879-701229.pdf

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

Nowhere does it say "variable spin speed" or anything similar.

SPCR totally debunked this myth (which WD have been happy to allow to persist): http://www.silentpcreview.com/article786-page2.html

Western Digital has caught a lot of flak for withholding the rotation speed of the Green Power, especially when the product was first launched and the marketing material listed the rotation speed as 5,400-7,200 RPM. This led some to speculate that the rotation speed changed dynamically during use — which would have been an impressive engineering feat had it been true. The reality is revealed by a sentence that Western Digital added to the description of IntelliPower: "For each GreenPower™ drive model, WD may use a different, invariable RPM." In other words, Western Digital reserves the right to release both 5,400 RPM and 7,200 RPM drives under the Green Power name — without telling you which are which.

We were able to confirm that our 750 GB Green Power had a spindle speed of 5,400 RPM by doing frequency analysis on a sound recording of it. Why sound? Sound is vibration; the pitch of the sound corresponds to the frequency of the vibration. Hard drives vibrate at the speed of their motor, so they produce a noise at the same frequency as their rotation speed. Our sample had a sharp spike at exactly 90 Hz (cycles per second). Multiplying that number by 60 (to get cycles per minute) yielded a measured rotation speed of 5,400 RPM.

Don't believe everything you read on the interwebs.

MooMasster716

02-02-09, 06:02 PM

Just a question but what constitutes a slow drive. An avg read of 75 MB/s @ 14.9ms access time (my 1tb WD green drive)? A 7200.11 pulls what 85-87MB/s and like 11 or 12ms access time. I think you can't even tell the difference between the fastest 7200rpm drive and this without a benchmark.

thegreek

02-03-09, 09:57 PM

with the 2TB drives out does anyone know if WD plans to release 2-platter 1TB drives? I would love to get a 1TB (2x500GB platter) drive.

ou_phidelt

02-04-09, 05:53 AM

with the 2TB drives out does anyone know if WD plans to release 2-platter 1TB drives? I would love to get a 1TB (2x500GB platter) drive.

Yep, they are. They will have both a 1TB and a 1.5TB version out at some point but I have not seen any dates as of yet.

On dissapointing piece of news is engadget reported yesterday Seagates 2TB drives will not be out until summer so the prices may stay high for a while.

noegruts

02-04-09, 12:49 PM

On dissapointing piece of news is engadget reported yesterday Seagates 2TB drives will not be out until summer so the prices may stay high for a while.

<sarcasm> But at least that will give users plenty of time to practice updating their drives' firmware. </sarcasm>

ou_phidelt

02-04-09, 01:10 PM

<sarcasm> But at least that will give users plenty of time to practice updating their drives' firmware. </sarcasm>

:beer: Hopefully they have learned there lesson. Every HD manufacturer has had there ups and downs. I would imagine after there latest little issue they will QA test new drives to death. Which is likely the reason they are satisfied letting WD hold onto to the upper end of the market for so long. Another major screw up right now would be beyond devastating.

noegruts

02-04-09, 01:20 PM

:beer: Hopefully they have learned there lesson. Every HD manufacturer has had there ups and downs. I would imagine after there latest little issue they will QA test new drives to death. Which is likely the reason they are satisfied letting WD hold onto to the upper end of the market for so long. Another major screw up right now would be beyond devastating.

Seagate (the company) appears to be in pretty bad shape. Their stock is around $4 from about $25 a year ago. They abruptly replaced their CEO recently.

If they had handled their recent 7200.11 firmware problem correctly, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But they have layer upon layer of failure here which I suspect has alienated a lot of customers for a long time. Just read through some of the threads on the Seagate message board.

Lightning[983]

02-16-09, 04:31 PM

I have to admit i've been waiting for some time for this 2TB announcement.

Wanna build a nice storage server along with a couple of friends, so i think 2TB's is the way to go... i guess i'll have to wait at least untill summer/fall for any real kind of availability.

Wraith

02-23-09, 05:55 PM

I have yet to see these or any other 2tb drives for sale. I need to upgrade my storage and I just dont have any room!

tom10167

02-23-09, 06:51 PM

God I was all excited to buy 2 of these yesterday.

ZZF and NE both out of stock and both around $300.

*yawn* wake me up when they aren't insanely overpriced.

MadMan007

02-23-09, 07:46 PM

Seagate (the company) appears to be in pretty bad shape. Their stock is around $4 from about $25 a year ago. They abruptly replaced their CEO recently.

If they had handled their recent 7200.11 firmware problem correctly, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But they have layer upon layer of failure here which I suspect has alienated a lot of customers for a long time. Just read through some of the threads on the Seagate message board.

I'm not defending Seagate at all but sotck prices are pretty irrational for lots of companies. I wouldn't put a lot of meaning in to that alone, a CEO being booted is more worrisome.

Wraith

03-08-09, 05:47 PM

They are in stock on NewEgg now, 1.5x as expensive per gig than the 1tb drives out now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344

ou_phidelt

03-08-09, 07:15 PM

And it is not going to change anytime soon. Seagate is not going to release an 2TB until summer and I haven't heard of anyone else confirming production of one.

Wraith

03-08-09, 08:01 PM

And it is not going to change anytime soon. Seagate is not going to release an 2TB until summer and I haven't heard of anyone else confirming production of one.

Its sad really, I dont have room for another 1tb drive, and I'm out room on my last drive. I dont have much choice at this point!

I wonder why this 1tb barrier is so tough to break?

noegruts

03-10-09, 12:12 PM

Its sad really, I dont have room for another 1tb drive, and I'm out room on my last drive. I dont have much choice at this point!

I wonder why this 1tb barrier is so tough to break?

Apparently not that tough, Seagate has had a 1.5TB drive for quite a while now. I'm sure they'll bring out their 2TB model soon, although how many people will be willing to give Seagate money after the 7200.11 firmware debacle remains to be seen.