[mythtv-users] Going to add HD-- anyone with the WD "green" sata drive?

[Michael Donaghy]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 05:44:11PM -0400, John Drescher wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 5:40 PM, Bobby Gill <bobbygill at rogers.com> wrote:
> > I'm looking at the WD 1TB, but am wondering if there is a significant
> > difference in speed between the "green" version of the drive (here:
> > http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136317) and the
> > standard one
> > (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284). It's a
> > roughly $22 difference, not a huge issue.
> >
> > If anyone has 'em, would appreciate feedback, thanks.
> >
> 
> I have seen a lot of reports that they are slow. And running at 5400
> rpm instead of 7200 rpm will account for this. They do use 1/2 the
> power at idle 5W instead of 10W though. For most mythtv operations
> they are probably fine. I am not sure I want to go back a few
> generations in performance however.
> 
> John

I've got a WD10EADS (N82E16822136317) on order from NewEgg so I'll write
back should I encounter any slowness problems with the drive -- I'll be
doing dual-tuner ATSC capture.  The information about the drive I've
found on the net is vague, but I think some of WD's 'green' drives are
varriable RPM 5400-7200, but figuring out which ones are is nearly impossible.  

Wow...NE has the drive priced for $26.50 more in CA than US.  I wasn't
aware that the exchange rate had changed that much since I was in CA
this fall.

If the box will be on 24x7, I think 'green' will have an ROI after
getting the power bill, however if you're going to implement a sleep
mechanism, I'd say go with the cheaper drive.
About a year and a half ago, I put in a 5-drive RAID5 array & saw a
nice spike in my electric bill, so I'm at least conscious of power
consumption.  If I build a 2nd FE, I'll likely use NFS or USB to reduce
the HDD.

Michael