Hard Drive Power Requirements

Jottting down some of the V/A power-requirements for some hard-drives. IBM is nice because they print it on the drive, the Maxtors (usually) aren't as helpful. I'm also trying to make sure that the little 200W power-supplies in the light-weight servers like the VIA EPIA can handle the load.

Hitachi Deskstar 180GXP (07N9685) 82.3GB
7200rpm 8MB cache
5V 500mA 12V 700mA (10.9W)
- startup current is 2.0 (+12V) & 0.83A (+5V) 28W, idle is 5.0W

IBM Deskstar (not sure of model)
7200rpm 8MB cache
5V 300mA 12V 500mA (7.5W)
- this is the one that I tossed in the EPIA box, the 180GXP drew too much power (probably a startup-current issue?)

Maxtor DiamondMax 16 160GB
5400rpm 2MB cache ATA/133
5V 585mA 12V 690mA (11.2W)
- label info is diff then data sheet on website (5V 628mA 12V 587mA 10.2W, idle 5.6W)

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 60GB-200GB
7200rpm 2MB or 8MB cache, ATA/133 or SATA/150
5V 858mA 12V 662mA (12.2W)

Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB (WD site)
7200rpm 8MB cache SATA/150
5V 850 mA 12V 530mA (10.6 W), no startup current listed, idle is 10.0W

Maxtor MaxLine II 250GB/300GB
5400rpm 2MB cache ATA/133
5V 593mA 12V 594mA (10.1W)

Maxtor MaxLine II Plus 250GB
7200rpm 8MB cache PATA/133 or SATA/150
5V 921mA 12V 666mA (12.6W)

Western Digital Caviar 200GB
- roughly 12W seeking, 19.0W spin-up, 7.5W idle

Western Digital Caviar 250GB
- roughly 12.5W seeking, 21.4W spin-up, 8.3W idle

Hitachi Deskstar 7K400 400GB
7200rpm 8MB PATA or SATA
- tough guess, only lists startup (29.5W) and idle (9.5W)

Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 250GB
7200rpm 8MB PATA or SATA
- again, no info, startup is 24W, idle is 7.0W

I'm a bit surprised... the 5400rpm drives really don't require that much less power then the 7200rpm drives. 10W vs 12.5W isn't as a big a difference as I had thought it would be. Maxtor doesn't list start-up currents, so it's tough to compare against the IBM/Hitachi drive that I used in the EPIA box that I had the problem with. Still, I suspect that I could indeed drop a pair of the Maxline II 250/300GB drives in an EPIA box without problems.

I'm also looking to start cutting some power-usage as my power bill has crept up from 500KWH per month to 1000KWH per month due to computer equipment. Instead of using a bunch of small disks, I can save power by using fewer larger disks. Combined with using lower-power CPUs and I can probably cut that back to 750KWH without sacrificing large amounts of storage space.

Of course, my 19" monitor eats up 140W... a comparable LCD would probably only eat 40W. I pay 8.3 cents/KWH, so in a 30.4 day month (730 hours), 100W costs me $6.06. Using 667 KWH in a month is roughly 914W per hour (to check my math). A newer ViewSonic p90f 19" ($210) only uses 120W.

So every 10W that I can shave off of power usage saves me $0.61/month ($7.27/yr). Yeah, not a lot, but every little bit does add up. At least LCD displays have fallen enough that they're worth buying just for the power-savings instead of a regular CRT. LCD 17" displays are down to $360 (comparable to a 19" monitor), LCD 15" screens are $275. Power savings is roughly 60-100W, which works out then to $43-$72/yr. Cost difference pays for itself after about 2-3 years.