Western Digital Green Drives

Western Digital divides their internal hard disk drives for desktop computers into three distinct families - the WD Blue for their mainstream drives, the WD Green for their quieter, cooler drives and the WD Black for their high-performance drives.

According to Western Digital, their Green hard disk drives offer an average power saving of 4-5 watts over their competitors, a feat that they claim is equivalent to reducing CO₂ emissions by 13.8 kg per year. Of course, that's a mere drop in the ocean but if you can help save the environment while you work or play on your computer, why not?

Western Digital Caviar Green models all support the following features :

Reduced power consumption - WD has reduced power consumption by up to 40 percent compared to standard desktop drives with the combination of WD's IntelliSeek™, NoTouch™, and IntelliPower™ technologies. WD Green drives yield an average drive power savings of 4-5 watts over standard desktop drives.

Cool and quiet - GreenPower™ technology yields lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and low acoustics for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives.

Advanced Format Technology (AFT) -Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AFT is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities.

IntelliPower - A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance.

IntelliSeek - Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.

NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.

Low power spin-up - WD Green drives consume less current during startup allowing lower peak loads.

Advanced power technology - Electronic components deliver best-in-class low power consumption for reduced power requirements and increased reliability.

Today, we will look at the Western Digital Green (WD60EZRX) 6 TB hard disk drive. It is currently the largest capacity drive of the EZRX family :

Interestingly, the 6 TB Western Digital Green (WD60EZRX) drive is physically the same as the 6 TB Western Digital Red (WD60EFRX) drive we reviewed earlier. The Western Digital Red family is optimized for NAS applications while the Western Digital Green family is optimized for desktop applications. Let's compare their specifications below and then find out how they both do!

Specifications

Packaging

The 6 TB Western Digital Green (WD60EZRX) drive came in a sealed anti-static plastic packet, with a sachet of dessicants inside to keep it dry. To remove it, just tear off the top or cut it open, and slide out the drive.

Be sure to ground yourself before removing and handling the hard disk drive as static can damage it. In particular, you should try to avoid touching the exposed PCB located on the lower underside of the drive.

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