7200RPM Hard Disks - Are they still Power Hogs?

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Fordiesel69

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Sep 10, 2005
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Erie, PA
My new to me server idles at the server desktop at 16 ~ 19 watts. Working hard it will reach 36 to 42 watts. It uses one M.2 drive for the OS.

If I plug in 2.5" SSD SATA the wattage does not increase much. If I plug in a 5400 RPM mechanical SATA 2.5" drive it increase 4-5 watts. I plugged in a 7200RPM 2012 era WD Black 500GB for a test and it is drawing 12 watts more. That is unacceptable, as I am planning to put in 2x 16TB, and one 4TB survelance drive security camera storage. This will run 24/7 until 2031 and then it will be retired for another model. Do modern 7200 RPM drives use less power? Looking for lowest power consumption or I need to scratch this project and figure out somthing else. I forgot about how much power mechanical drives pull and they add up fast.
 
Fordiesel69 said:
My new to me server idles at the server desktop at 16 ~ 19 watts. Working hard it will reach 36 to 42 watts. It uses one M.2 drive for the OS.

If I plug in 2.5" SSD SATA the wattage does not increase much. If I plug in a 5400 RPM mechanical SATA 2.5" drive it increase 4-5 watts. I plugged in a 7200RPM 2012 era WD Black 500GB for a test and it is drawing 12 watts more. That is unacceptable, as I am planning to put in 2x 16TB, and one 4TB survelance drive security camera storage. This will run 24/7 until 2031 and then it will be retired for another model. Do modern 7200 RPM drives use less power? Looking for lowest power consumption or I need to scratch this project and figure out somthing else. I forgot about how much power mechanical drives pull and they add up fast.
Click to expand...
A drive consuming an extra 12 watts would be $12 per year at $0.12 per kwh.
 
Surveillance drives are not designed the same and won't use the same power as those 7200rpm desktop or server drives. They record with SMR on a repeated schedule, spin slow (like 5400rpm) to store at the anticipated speed, don't seek left and right all the time, and they last a long time. Keeping a 7200rpm drive in surveillance will not last as long. I'd recommend something like WD Purple or Seagate Skyhawk (yes it is a Seagate but their surveillance drives do last).

Your goal should be to see if you can eliminate the WD Black 500GB if power cost is your concern. Why WD black? did you get it for free? Can you set the power schedule to shut it down if not used?

SSD has no mechanical part so it uses less power relatively speaking, but some SSD for enterprise servers do run quite hot, it is all about use case and power per MB read and write. You can't use SSD for security video as it will burn out the write cycle very very fast and won't last till 2031.
 
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Some HDD are designed to stop spinning after a certain period of time of no use.
 
Let me clarify.

Drive 0 = M.2 Boot
Drive 1 = 16TB 7200RPM (RAID 1)
Drive 2 = 16TB 7200RPM (RAID 1)
Drive 3 = 4TB 5400RPM WD Purple Surveilance.

I want LOWEST possible electric bill as this server will power up and stay running 24 / 7
 
WD181EVRA-52B6MY0 uses 5.9W idle, 6.3W write. Has new-fangled two-dimensional magnetic recording I don't understand, and takes 20 seconds from power on to ready. Common name is WD Purple Pro 18TB.
 
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Seagate SkyHawk AI 16TB (ST16000VE002) is 5W idle, 8W write. It's a CMR HDD.

In general, helium-filled HDDs take less power.

Of note, that WD Black 500GB 2012 HDD was very reliable.
 
I’m not seeing much difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm according to the WD purple brochure I found. Size and therefore platter count matter more, a 10tb 7200rpm drive uses less power than their 8Tb by about 2W, but only uses 1W more than the 5400rpm 4Tb.
 
Fordiesel69 said:
Let me clarify.

Drive 0 = M.2 Boot
Drive 1 = 16TB 7200RPM (RAID 1)
Drive 2 = 16TB 7200RPM (RAID 1)
Drive 3 = 4TB 5400RPM WD Purple Surveilance.

I want LOWEST possible electric bill as this server will power up and stay running 24 / 7
Click to expand...
What is driving the 7200rpm requirement for drives 1 and 2? As others have mentioned, modern drives use less power than previous gen products. You are best off downloading data sheets and comparing for yourself.
 
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