Western Digital Caviar Goes Green – Faster, More Efficient

HTPC and Quiet PC users are always fighting the battle towards the Ultimate Quiet and the Lower Power consumption system. Western Digital has tossed a new drive into your sights – The Caviar Green 1 TB drive.

The new 1 TB Caviar drive packs 333 GB per platter on three platters coupled with a 32 MB cache. According to Western Digital this new platter density and larger cache reduce power draw by up to 20 percent. Performance increases up to 10 percent . There are some drawbacks for those performance enthusiasts however. The new Caviar uses a 5400 RPM spindle speed which reduces overall performance of disk input/output.

Western Digital is quoting a price of $219 USD for the new model, which is more than the previous 1 TB model which is available over at Newegg for $130 USD – shipped. (Speaking of Newegg – Newegg Canada is now open).

So what makes this drive stand out to someone ? What would make you want to buy this drive ? Well, if you want to save power and generate less heat – this could be your solution if you are still mindful of large disk capacity. Home Theater PC’s would be a good start for these new Caviars. Cases geared towards being slim and compact for HTPC application, such as those from SilverStone have very low output power supplies. Most of these power supplies average around 120 watts. Most of them are built-in and cannot be swapped out for anything else due to their custom design. This would be a good home for this new drive.

For the record, Western Digital’s VelociRaptor actually draws a lot less power than this new Caviar 1 TB drive – this is in part because of its 2.5” form factor / design.