Which Enterprise Class HDD? Or not necessary?

[Evertb1]

if a drive that was deigned for 7200 RPM operation were to be slowed down to 5400 RPM,

I have read several suggestions that the 7200 drives are not slowed down at all, but that the information in the Rotation Rate field was altered. You can think about a number of reasons to do that (some not so good). Just read this article.

 

[joeschmuck]

I have read several suggestions that the 7200 drives are not slowed down at all, but that the information in the Rotation Rate field was altered. You can think about a number of reasons to do that (some not so good). Just read this article.

Wow, amazing that WD would misrepresent a product like that. Wait, nope, WD has done it before with the Red lineup by adding SMR drives.

Thanks for that posting, much clearer than saying a 7200 RPM drive was spinning at 5400 RPM. I think for me the only important thing to take away from a drive running at 7200 RPM is that they generate more heat and typically need more power (amps). But in the He case, that may have been mitigated by using the He. I'm curious what the latency is for the drive. Heck, I'm curious why they marked a 7200 RPM drive as a 5400 RPM drive in the first place, the only thing I can think of is sequential data throughput is slower on these drives (lower density). Eh, if the drive works then I'm happy either way but I do like to know the technical aspects.

 

[Constantin]

WD merely says it's a "5,400 RPM class", which likely points to a common 7,200 RPM chassis whose firmware has been altered to deliver 5,400 RPM performance - perhaps less cache, a few blown firmware / MCU fuses, etc. to ensure that the drive cannot deliver 7,200 RPM performance. Something permanent that no-one, even with a valid NAS firmware, programmer, etc. can get around short of unsoldering the old PCB and soldering on a new one (and perhaps they even guarded against that on the inside).

Net result: One less chassis for WD to build, price differentiation, and the worst of all worlds for users expecting a 5,400 RPM drive (i.e. more heat, more power, but same performance). It's like WD is trying to get data-hoarding customers to stay away.