Western Digital Caviar Green (WD30EZRX) 3 TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive Review

Discussion in 'Reviews & Articles' started by Adrian Wong, Jun 9, 2011.

  1. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Western Digital divides their internal hard drives into three distinct families - the WD Caviar Blue for their basic hard drives, the WD Caviar Green for their quieter, cooler hard drives and the WD Caviar Black for their performance-grade hard drives.

    According to Western Digital, Caviar 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?

    Today, we will look at the improved Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB hard disk drive - the new Western Digital WD30EZRX with Advanced Format Technology and 6 Gbps interface. Let's find out how well this drive performs!

    [​IMG]

    Link : Western Digital Caviar Green (WD30EZRX) 3 TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive Review
     
  2. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    So the only difference is the 6Gbps?
     
  3. karhoe

    karhoe Newbie

    Hmm, does the 6gbps interface actually provide performance boost
     
  4. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Actually, the 6 Gbps interface and a higher spindle speed (although that also applies to the newer WD30EZRSDTL models). Also, the fact that it doesn't come with the HighPoint Rocket 620 controller.
     
  5. mikegas

    mikegas Newbie

    I believe rpm is the same, just maybe improved firmware. Also WD30EZRX should not be shipping with a kit anymore...
     
  6. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Only from the 64 MB cache to the SATA controller. The platter transfer rate is not high enough to even saturate SATA 3 Gbps. The peak platter transfer rate is only 128 MB/s while SATA 3 Gbps can handle 300 MB/s.
     
  7. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Well, I think they increased the RPM of the WD30EZRSDTL so yes, both the 3 TB models are now running at the same spindle speed.

    When they first launched the WD30EZRSDTL, the maximum platter throughput was quoted at 110 MB/s. WD later changed that to 128 MB/s for later versions - same as that for the WD30EZRX.

    However, when I retested both drives, the WD30EZRX was about 10.6% faster than the WD30EZRSDTL on average. See the platter profile too - there was an almost uniform increase in transfer rates across the platter.

    So, unless there was any change to the platter's areal density, the only thing that can account for the increase in platter throughput would be an increase in spindle speed.

    If you can confirm otherwise though, do let me know. Would be glad to correct any mistakes! :)
     
  8. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Western Digital Caviar Green (WD30EZRX) 3 TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive Review Rev. 1.1

    Western Digital divides their internal hard drives into three distinct families - the WD Caviar Blue for their basic hard drives, the WD Caviar Green for their quieter, cooler hard drives and the WD Caviar Black for their performance-grade hard drives.

    According to Western Digital, Caviar 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?

    Today, we will look at the improved Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB hard disk drive - the new Western Digital WD30EZRX with Advanced Format Technology and 6 Gbps interface. Let's find out how well this drive performs!

    Here are the changes in this update :

    [​IMG]

    Link : Western Digital Caviar Green (WD30EZRX) 3 TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive Review Rev. 1.1
     
  9. karhoe

    karhoe Newbie

    Doesn't matter, marketing guys will plaster a big red NEW!! 6GBPS sticker on the drive and sales will skyrocket, hahaha
     
  10. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I think this is the reason.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2011
  11. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Yeah, and I think WD is charging quite a bit more for this model than the 3 Gbps WD30EZRSDTL model.
     
  12. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    You mean you think there was a change in areal density?

    AFAIK, and I did ask WD, the only changes to this model is the SATA 6 Gbps interface and the removal of the HBA (Host Bus Adaptor) - the HighPoint Rocket 620. Everything else remained the same.

    Both WD30EZRX and WD30EZRSDTL models use four platters with 750 GB per platter, so the areal density is the same.
     
  13. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Maybe firmware optimisation, so noise level could be louder on the faster model.
     
  14. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Hmm.. mikegas told me that possibility too. However, note the actual platter throughput (vs. the WD30EZRSDTL). I don't think firmware can affect the raw platter-to-buffer transfer rate.
     
  15. luckyfabian

    luckyfabian Newbie

    Question

    I know this uses SATA 3 but could this be used with a SATA 2 interface? Obviously this would negate the 3gbps data transfer but I'm not too bothered about that... But I'm looking for a decent reliable 3TB drive where I could use x4 of them in a HP Microserver (RAID 5 via Freenas).
    Cheers

    Lucky
     
  16. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Yers, definitely possible. In fact, SATA3 is pretty much useless on normal HDD. Only SATA3 SSD will see the benefits.
     
  17. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Hmm.. SATA 3 refers to SATA 6 Gbps. Not a problem if you use it with a SATA 2 or SATA 3 Gbps interface, as the drive isn't fast enough to even saturate SATA 3 Gbps.

    In fact, if you check our review of the 3 TB Western Digital AV-GP, you will see that this 3 Gbps drive is actually slightly faster than the 3 TB Caviar Green with 6 Gbps interface. It goes to show that the faster interface really accounts for nothing with such hard disk drives.
     

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