Western Digital "Green" HDD (1 Viewer)

[japes]

I guess my original post was to broad so I decided to take it one step at a time...my first roadblock is the HDD I found one that was recommended and another similar one for same price.



Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $74.99
OR
Western Digital Caviar Green WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM $74.99

what does Bare Drive mean to me and does the "green" properties cause any issues for HTPC?

 

[milhouse]

Bare drive and OEM are the same. No SATA cable, no power cable. Just the drive in an anti-static bag.

The "green" should cause you no issues. A green drive normally runs at 5400rpm (like a laptop drive) and speeds up (up to the listed 7200) when needed. Wouldn't be my first choice for a timeshifting or recording drive (esp if more than one card uses it) but great for general media storage and playback. Supposedly will save a bit in energy useage, but I've never looked for any real-world comparisons.

Milhouse

 

[Koschel]

The WD Green Series run colder than e.g. the Samsung HD1013UJ. Good choice would be WD10EVCS Green Series, this one is 24/7 . I use the WD10EACS, which runs at 38 degree in my S16T. I haven't seen any timeshift issues with that drive.

 

[revs]

I have the green drive and its working really well. Im using a slower laptop drive for the timeshifting.

You would need a lot of cards to have any timeshifting issues. e.g. a HDTV Stream is around 15MB/sec, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. A SATA1 Hard Drive can do 150MB/Sec and a SATA2 one 300MB/sec. So unless you have 10 or so cards you should be fine!

 

[flokel]

You would need a lot of cards to have any timeshifting issues. e.g. a HDTV Stream is around 15MB/sec, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. A SATA1 Hard Drive can do 150MB/Sec and a SATA2 one 300MB/sec. So unless you have 10 or so cards you should be fine!

Now you are getting some things mixed up.
First, the size of a HDTV stream is more likely to be around 15M bit not byte per second.
150MB/s and 300MB/s are only the maximal speed the interface of these harddrives can handle,
this is a theoratical figure, in reality max. speed is nowadays ~ 110MB/s (not talking about solid state drives).


Concerning the green power drives:
I've have two of them in my server build, very cool and silent.

 

[revs]

I just googled for a HDTV stream size and saw "MB", i guess i should have realised it was a bit much! but yeah - a HD is plenty fast enough for a load of timeshifting/recordings.

I realise 150/300 is theoretical/peak, but i was trying to keep things simple

 

[japes]

Thanks everone...I have Directv and a DVR that My wife is happy with so for my purposes it seems like the "green" drive for the same size and price would be the way to go...

by the way for what I am attempting you can see at this thread
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/hardware-selection-help-62/entry-level-htpc-reasurance-48275/#post327470