Thread: Samsung consumes less on external drives

Samsung just announced a new generation of external hard drives - planned for November - which will consume less. The range composed of 3.5-inch models (1, 1.5 and 2 TB), will move from a standby power consumption of 2.5W only 0.09 W (a gain of more than 95%). Seen like that, it's good news, even if the purchase of a 2.5-inch HDD is logically more interesting (if the capacity does not pose any problems), the consumption charge them no more than rarely 2.5 W.

Still, even if the initiative is laudable, we must relativize: First, even leaving the hard drive permanently connected to the socket (what we do not recommend), the gain is very low, even over a year. The difference on a comprehensive energy bill would be only 2 €. Secondly, the technology from Samsung is to put the disc into a deep sleep mode when the cable is disconnected. Except in practice, a person who will disconnect the USB cable will also (presumably) off the hard drive and then down to the consumer ... zero. And since Samsung has a good idea to place a button on / off on its hard drive (unlike other manufacturers) the interest is more than limited.

Finally, note that the disks in question weighs about 1 kg, 3.5 inches requires that an external power is required. Let us conclude by observing that performance enthusiasts will be disappointed: the only USB 2.0 is present.