Hitachi Introduces World's Most Energy-efficient Desktop HDDs

Hitachi goes very green by implementing features to greatly reduce hard disk drive power consumption in the latest Deskstar line

It's rare to find hard disk drive manufacturers focusing on anything other than increasing the speed and capacity of its products because those are the two features consumers look for in hard disk drive products. Hitachi has taken another approach to improving its hard drives by developing drives with reduced power consumption; specifically up to a 40 percent decrease in consumption.


Hitachi introduced the Deskstar P7K500 line of desktop hard disk drives today which contain a number of technologies to reduce power consumption. The first technology Hitachi has implemented in the P7K500 line is the HiVERT technology for a more efficient conversion of voltage. This technology has been borrowed from the Travelstar line of laptop drives along with the more power-efficient profile which allows the drive to handle power saving features better than traditional desktop drives and more like today's mobile drives.

Hitachi has also implemented its Advanced Power Management capabilities which have given the Deskstar line more efficient power handling when idle for generations now. The last feature is Hitachi's patented load/unload technology explained below:

• Unload idle – The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp and the servo is shut off; this mode delivers power savings of 11 percent better than idle mode.

• Low RPM idle – The heads are safely unloaded to the ramp, the servo is shut off and the spindle motor RPM is reduced; this setting achieves power savings of 44 percent better than idle mode.

The Deskstar P7K500 line will come in capacities of 250GB, 320GB, 400GB, and 500GB. The technical details are listed below.

Hitachi plans to launch the new P7K500 line during this last quarter of 2007 in mass quantities. Pricing information has not yet been released but we're thinking numbers won't be too much higher than current Deskstar models with similar capacities.
(dailytech.com, 22/10/2007)