Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Storage
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Western Digital launches power-efficient disk drives

Suppliers of data center products are endorsing the company's new power-efficient line of "green" drives

November 21, 2007 12:00 PM ET

TechWorld.com - Western Digital Corp. has announced new hard drives that use up to 40% less power than competing drives.

The serial ATA drives are part of a new GreenPower-branded line (RE2-GP), with 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities. They use on average 4 to 5 watts less than similar-size drives from Hitachi GST, Fujitsu, Seagate and other major suppliers.

Western Digital said four branded technologies boost the power efficiency of the new drives:

  • IntelliPower balances spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms to avoid always spinning at top speed. And less current is used during start-up, which allows more drives to spin up simultaneously, resulting in faster system readiness.
  • IntelliSeek optimizes seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.
  • IntelliPark automatically unloads the recording heads during idle mode to reduce aerodynamic drag and disables read/write channel electronics.
  • Active Power Management monitors a drive's workload and automatically puts the drive in idle mode whenever possible to reduce unnecessary power consumption. Drive recovery time from idle mode is less than one second.
Western Digital said that large data centers could save up to $100,000 annually if they replaced 10,000 standard drives with GreenPower drives. At a PC level, users might save $10 a year per drive.

Tom McDorman, general manager of Western Digital's enterprise business unit, said the new enterprise line of hard drives allows users to "expand their storage needs, reduce their total cost of ownership and improve the environment all at the same time."

Data center suppliers already selling more power-efficient products were quick to endorse Western Digital's new line.

Tony Gaughan, Rackable Systems Inc.'s chief products officer, said Western Digital's new RE2-GP hard drives "are an excellent choice for customers deploying Rackable Systems' newest generation of Eco-Logical storage systems, enabling even greater efficiency and performance."

David Driggers, Verari Systems Inc.'s chief technology officer, said, "By utilizing [Western Digital's latest] GreenPower technology, Verari is able to provide enterprise customers with a solution that delivers one of the most energy-efficient systems available today."

The new drives are available from Western Digital's online store, with suggested retail prices of $149.99, $249.99 and $349.99 for the 500GB, 750GB and 1TB drives, respectively.


Reprinted with permission from

For more enterprise technology news from the U.K., please visit TechWorld.com. Copyright 2006 IDG, all rights reserved.

Jump to comments

Western Digital

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER
Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.
WHITE PAPER
Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.
WHITE PAPER
Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.

What People Are Saying

White Papers & Webcasts

Data Protection is not an insurance policy -you cannot buy-back lost data
Find out why you need to maintain access to critical information to run your business and remain competitive.

Strategic ECM Webinar
Learn what new strategic business benefits can be realized through ECM!

5 Architecture Issues that Impact BES performance
Register to attend this LIVE Webinar to learn 5 Architecture Issues that Impact BES performance!

The Power/Density Paradox: The Result of High Density without Power Efficiency
Download this brief to explore what the power/density paradox is and how IT professionals can mitigate the risk.  

Four Principles for Reducing Storage TCO
View cost reduction strategies in this video! Provided by Hitachi Data Systems.