WD Extends Green Power

By Greg McNevin

November 28, 2007: Western Digital has announced that it has added a 500GB model to its less environmentally damaging line of GreenPower desktop hard drives.

Consuming a mere 3.3 watts in idle mode and 6 watts during seek mode, WD says its Caviar GP 500GB 3.5-inch SATA drives are quieter, cooler-running and use 30 percent less power than its peers.

WD claims the drive yields and average of 4-5 watts in power savings compared to competing drives, enabling significant savings to be achieved when deployed en masse. This 4-5 watts translates to a reduction of CO2 emission by up to 13.8 kilograms per drive per year according to WD, the equivalent of taking a car off the road for 3 days each year per drive.

This is not all though, as lower power consumption means less generation of heat and savings in cooling costs for data centres, plus increased application reliability.

“Cooler and quieter operation are key benefits of the WD Caviar GP line of hard drives,” said Don Bennett, vice president and general manager of WD's desktop business unit. “When a hard drive requires 30 percent less power to operate, heat generation is significantly reduced, enabling greater long-term reliability in all applications.”

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