RE2-GP, 1 TB: WD1000FYPS

Besides desktop drives, the green technologies have spread to enterprise series. Low power consumption can be a called-for property if such drives are used in data storage systems. Judging by the 16MB cache, the RE2-GP series (GP stands for Green Power) is based on EACS disks. The difference between them can be found in the specs: the enterprise series has a higher guaranteed number of start/stop cycles (600 rather than 300 thousand), has StableTrac and TLER technologies. StableTrac means that the electric motor’s shaft is fastened at one end only in order to reduce the effect of external vibrations. TLER limits the time of error recovery so that RAID controller didn’t “lose” drives in case when a drive takes too long to correct an error and doesn’t respond.

RE3, 1 TB: WD1002FBYS

If you need both high capacity and high speed for server applications, you can try Western Digital’s RE3 series, which has replaced the older RE2. The series features 333GB platters, 32MB of cache memory, increased processing power of the electronics, a set of enterprise technologies of the previous series, and increased vibration tolerance. The latter thing needs some clarification. There is a third vibration sensor in the RE3 for sensing high-frequency vibrations and fourth-generation RAFF technology that corrects the drive’s operation under strong angular or linear vibration.

Caviar Black: WD1001FALS

Western Digital also caters to ordinary users who want to get the maximum from their 3.5-inch drive by offering the Caviar Black series. These drives have lower-performance Caviar Blue counterparts in lower capacities, but the capacity of 1 terabyte is only available in the Green and Caviar Black series. Like in the RE3 series, this one uses a faster controller and 32 megabytes of buffer memory, but lacks the special technologies to fight vibrations.