The EcoGreen brand promises an eco-friendly design, and its power draw is indeed low, peaking at 5.6W. Then again, a couple of watts here or there is a drop in the ocean to most desktop systems.
And power savings come at the expense of performance. With a low spin rate of 5400rpm, the EcoGreen simply can’t shunt data about as quickly as its rivals. Although HDTach wrung some impressive-looking numbers out of the drive, in our real-world tests its scores were below average. Its only strong suit was the small-file test, in which all Samsung drives left their competitors in the dust.
The slow spin rate does at least keep the noise down. Although the EcoGreen F2 isn’t as whisper-quiet as Western Digital’s Caviar Green drives, the soft clicks it makes while seeking are easily tolerable. And a price of 8.8c/GB is easy to swallow. All the same, these positive points must be weighed against that uninspiring performance.
