Earlier this year we got you thinking about the 1TB green-friendly hard drives Western Digital (WD) was introducing. The company is now back in the EcoGeek newsroom with word of a 500GB hard drive which should satisfy both your storage and lower power consumption needs.

WD's Caviar GreenPower 500GB hard drive is a 3.5-inch SATA drive which its maker says eats up only 3.3 watts while idling and 6 watts while seeking data. This amounts to a described power usage 30 percent lower than other 500GB drives on the market, for an average power savings of 4-5 watts. Environmentally speaking, WD says this equals a reduction of CO₂ emissions by up to 13.8 kilograms per drive per year.

Specifics of this lower power consumption technology include a balance of "spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms" for power savings, "optimum seek speeds" for less power usage and "unloading recording heads during idle time" to further cut power draw. Each drive is estimated to cost you around $150.

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Hooray!
written by Lisa , December 04, 2007

$150 is a VERY good price for something that helps the environment so much. Not only would it be cost efficient, it would be environment-efficient! Surprising.

Is the drive just a beta currently or is it being sold and where?

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