From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1SS3Dc-0002iQ-S0 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 09 May 2012 09:30:01 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 85CB8E05A1; Wed, 9 May 2012 09:29:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-bk0-f53.google.com (mail-bk0-f53.google.com [209.85.214.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 115B6E079B for ; Wed, 9 May 2012 09:28:26 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bkcjk13 with SMTP id jk13so56213bkc.40 for ; Wed, 09 May 2012 02:28:26 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=date:from:to:subject:message-id:in-reply-to:references:organization :x-mailer:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=v9VBytKNSXNq2J4QvNNL5ofXWrslTzmABqrFYlg7XQ8=; b=cDRLHHm5B7EHnchZjCKNSTEKo/+fW2P50mAdIfn0j4cKR0aWHO2j5ZCzKR0jYHd1pX SS2yLR9WQ5ClyqLv7JylJFG81tHhEnTlKlXC9mkdYM+8iLoSCxTBM/T1HdVonaJ9Ph3w lY8aqE5YkNiMGldex02fVyytbXFGwlBrlCenNdQNhVvWWSQR+XMWgj/07WoFDBU0AtxQ y6Kn1JhDD/lwHdJ1b/dLdK9A2vuLq2nnRgzrKflDBy29fGnVJDCglXQysiDkPazXEClM Xv0HFZwQXc8ZpHd197RwuoATyymD23DdqROymUcBaFUwjYsqp9WjVSlX0aOLc9stcTEB mlnQ== Received: by 10.204.150.72 with SMTP id x8mr8599897bkv.33.1336555706160; Wed, 09 May 2012 02:28:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from khamul.example.com (dustpuppy.is.co.za. [196.14.169.11]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id e20sm3554181bkv.10.2012.05.09.02.28.22 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Wed, 09 May 2012 02:28:24 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 11:25:43 +0200 From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Are those "green" drives any good? Message-ID: <20120509112543.6021e1f8@khamul.example.com> In-Reply-To: <4FAA2F0D.8080900@gmail.com> References: <4FAA2F0D.8080900@gmail.com> Organization: Internet Solutions X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.8.0 (GTK+ 2.24.10; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 7ee95797-ba4a-445d-ade1-7ed94c9c8331 X-Archives-Hash: 4ca307d8379b858c317775b452766285 On Wed, 09 May 2012 03:47:09 -0500 Dale wrote: > Hi, > > As some know, I'm planning to buy me a LARGE hard drive to put all my > videos on, eventually. The prices are coming down now. I keep seeing > these "green" drives that are made by just about every company > nowadays. When comparing them to a non "green" drive, do they hold up > as good? Are they as dependable as a plain drive? I guess they are > more efficient and I get that but do they break quicker, more often > or no difference? > > I have noticed that they tend to spin slower and are cheaper. That > much I have figured out. Other than that, I can't see any other > difference. Data speeds seem to be about the same. > > Please, no brand wars. I may get a WD, Maxtor, Samsung or some other > brand. I haven't picked that part yet. So far, I have had good luck > with drives. I think I have one doorstop so far. I have at least one > of each of the brands above too. Don't jinx me. I'm sure someone > has a horror story about some brand. Green drives are basically just low power drives. It's a branding gimmick. Like you noticed already, they tend to spin slower (uses less power). I stuck 4 of them in my media server for 12TB of cheap storage. And they are silent. I can barely hear them running even when I'm sitting next to the server and the kids are running the telly full tilt :-) I haven't heard any mention from anyone at all that they are less reliable in any way. I'd expect them to be more reliable than super-fast drives because they are lower power, but drive models have so many things affecting reliability it's hard to tell. One thing we have noticed is that Samsung's recent model are not very "green", they spin up slowly, use lots of power and make a racket when spinning. But they do work. -- Alan McKinnnon alan.mckinnon@gmail.com