Western Digital WD Green WD5000AZDX 500GB IntelliPower SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Pros: It worked.

Cons: It broke... Not even 7200rpm, took fine care of it but died after a year, all my shows, all my games, all my movies, and all my music.. all gone.

Other Thoughts: It worked great as a storage drive, untill it didn't work anymore.

Manufacturer Response:

We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with the Western Digital 500 GB Green Drive, as this is not the typical experience with the product. We recommend having a backup of your data at all times, as using a device as a single point of storage allows for a single point of data loss in the event of device failure. Going forward, you can download our Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows (WinDLG) utility to run diagnostic tests on your drive so that you can know when your drive is not in good working condition. In the event that you need to have your drive replaced, we stand by our warranty policy, and can create a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) for you directly or you can visit our customer portal provided by the following link to create an RMA.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8
We would appreciate the opportunity to further assist you, and resolve any further concerns you may have with the device and/or your experience. You may contact us at 1 (800) 275-4932, or via our support website at: http://support.wdc.com/rs/
Please indicate within the online case creation or with the first support agent you speak with, that you are responding to a Newegg review, so we route you and your information to the correct team members.

Pros: Supposedly saves power, I never tested it or anything.

Cons: I really only bought this drive to upgrade from 5400 rpm's to 7200. The drive did not appear to be any faster than my old one. Then after almost exactly 2 months the drive just dies. I was in the middle of using my computer (nothing strange, no changes made) and it froze. So i restart and my motherboard does not recognize a boot-able device. other computers in the house do not recognize it either. So I'm outside of the return period from Newegg, but Western Digital has a RMA service (you have to pay for the shipping of course). I'm not really sure if i want another one of these drives, but I'm kinda stuck. oh well.

Pros: Designed for power savings rather than performance. This is a good option for NAS storage. It's also not as loud as some of the other WD drives available. Built-in power management mode that spins it's self down after a few minutes of being idle.

Cons: Not that great of a performer, but if your buying this drive, you're probably wanting it for mass storage media. Built-in power management seems to override ACPI BIOS and software spin-down settings. I haven't found a way to disable the built-in power management or change it's preset idle spin-down settings.

Other Thoughts: As a reply to DRL's comment, the spindle speed is supposed to be a variable speed between 5400 and 7200 RPM instead of a fixed speed.

Pros: Might save energy.

Cons: WD wont tell you it's a 5400 RPM drive.

Other Thoughts: It works just fine. I'm knocking off a star because WD wont supply the spindle speed... I was a Seagate guy until they started crapping out in 2009ish. Then I was all WD... This gives me a reason to start look Sgate again.