How does HDD capacity/speed affect energy usage?

Right now I'm looking at:

160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm [subtract AUD$23.06]
250GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm [Default option]
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm [add AUD$69.99]
200GB HDD, 7200rpm w/ FDE [add AUD$97.50]

Edit: I just figured that logically, spinning a bigger hard drive would take more energy than spinning a smaller hard drive. So I suppose that's not true at all then?

 

Read HDD buyng guide here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288101

 

higher hd capacity generally means higher platter density which equals more bandwidth...
faster rpm equals faster access times...
the fastest drives out at the moment would be the:
7k320
wd3200bekt
7200.3

but out of the list you've given the fastest would be the 200gb 7200rpm, closely followed by the 320gb 5400rpm..... considering the price difference and capacity between the two, i'd go for the 320gb 5400rpm.

forget about FDE... its just a safety mechanism that locks the disk heads in the event of a fall etc... to protect data. its usefulness is debatable... and it could affect performance

 

To answer OP's initial question? Size has no effect on power consumption. Rotational speed has more of an effect, but even that has been reduced.

 

I upgraded from a 160gb 5400rpm 5400.3 seagate dual platter drive to a single platter 160gb 7200rpm 7K320 from Hitachi, and my laptop not only runs quieter, cooler, and faster, but the new 7200rpm drive is more power efficient than the previous 5400rpm drive. I actually get 20 minutes more battery life (total 2 hour 35 minutes) on my Dell E1505 after the harddrive swap.

Go for a latest generation 7200rpm drive, they are awesome.

K-TRON

 

1. I believe FDE is Full Disk Encryption. Not to be confused with FFS (Free Fall Sensor). FDE may need a compatible BIOS / TPM to work.

2. You need to look at the individual models for power consumption. There are some clues in the HDD and a comparative chart at Tom's Hardware. Most of the HDDs are reasonably close on idle power consumption but there is a big spread on maximum power consumption. WD have addressed the high power consumption of the WD3200BEVT when they designed the WD5000BEVT - I reckon it peaks at about 2.6W.

If you don't know which make/model HDD you would get then it may be prudent to get one of the cheaper options and, if necessary, invest in another HDD of your own choice. I usually clone the supplied HDD and then keep it as backup.

John

 

It's not the throughput that makes the drive seem fast or slow, but the seek time, how quickly the data can be found and read. 7200RPM drives are much faster at this even if the throughput is lower than some bigger 5400RPM drives. The power consumption difference is very small in my experience if any.

If you're looking at which drive to configure your notebook with, it's usually cheapest to get the smallest slowest drive and buy another better drive to do the upgrade yourself. You can sell the old drive to offset the cost or throw it in a case for backups.