If you’re running XP, however, be aware that you’ll have to use a software solution (WD’s supplied WD Align tool, which provides 512-byte emulation) to get optimal performance, and you’ll have to be even more creative in patching together a workable solution if you happen to use Windows Home Server 2003.
Western digital wd10eads newegg mac os x#
Windows users (including WHS users) from Vista forward should have no trouble, and the latest versions of Mac OS X and Linux are reported to handle 4K sectors without third-party software. While larger sectors make sense for battling the diminishing returns on usable space as drives grow in size, it’s worth noting that not all operating systems support this new technology. In short, it’s a way to get more actual storage space from the same physical drive. The advantage? Fewer, larger sectors mean less drive space devoted to lead-ins and inter-sector gaps, which allows for formatting efficiencies in the high-90% range and usable-space increases of more than 10%. The WD20EARS, along with the companion 1TB WD10EARS, are the first 3.5″ drives to hit the market with Western Digital’s new formatting structure, which divides the drive into 4,096-byte sectors instead of the smaller 512-byte sectors used in current drive technology. You may not be able to see it by taking the drive apart, but another important change is lurking under the WD20EARS’s hood: Advanced Format. The heart of the Western Digital Caviar Green is a Marvell 88i9045-TFJ2 controller chip paired with a 64MB Hynix DDR400 memory module.
It is held in place with multiple Torx screws.īoard layout is basically identical to the Caviar Black drives, and the WD20EARS goes so far as to share the SMOOTH L7251 3.1 motor controller with its high-speed cousin. The board sits atop a vibration-absorbing foam pad. The WD20EARS is built on the familiar WD Caviar blueprint, which utilizes places heat-producing parts in contact with the body of the drive in order to aid in dissipation. In fact, excepting the green label used here (which bears the drive’s identifying information), the WD20EARS is a dead ringer for a member of the Caviar Black family of devices. WD cleans up the appearance slightly with black adhesive dots that cover the drive’s fasteners – a visual finishing touch we’ve seen on WD’s Caviar Black drives as well. Visually, the 3.5 inch form-factor drive looks almost identical to Caviar devices in other colors (and to most other consumer- and business-grade desktop drives as well). The Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB (aka the WD20EARS) is the current top-shelf storage system in the manufacturer’s Caviar Green lineup of eco-conscious drives, sporting 2.0 TB of storage capacity and a 64 MB cache. Cheaper price points than top-tier performance drives, lower operating costs, and high capacities are the name of the game here, and over the next several weeks we will be dissecting the relative merits of top contenders in the desktop eco-drive space from Samsung, Seagate, and (of course) Western Digital. But while these drives do use less power (in some case, significantly less) than their high-performance peers, compromises reached in the interest of going green make them attractive “all-arounder” options for general use as well. With a concession to current branding trends, manufacturers have sought to promote the eco-friendliness of storage in this category.
Whether you’re shopping for storage to fill up a home media server or you’re just looking to max out the capacity of your current desktop, the latest high-capacity, low-power drives – like the 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green up for review today – make a lot of sense for the kinds of computing most of us do. If you are the kind of user who wants it all – performance, low power consumption, and copious storage capacity – in a single desktop drive, pay attention.
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