Why WD Caviar® Green is important?

[aoisora]

I recently got an external HD, but do not have a chance to check what HD comes with in the enclosure. But now I do and wonder why some people are worrying about if it's WD Caviar® Green or not in the enclosure? Is it based on performance? stability? or cost?

Thanks.

[serathe]

WD Caviar Green drives use less power and support quieter, cooler-running desktop PCs and external storage devices

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=336

[movieman]

Basically, the Caviar Green drives trade lower performance for lower power consumption; if you're building a low-power system it's a good choice, but if you're putting a 300W graphics card in there then it's irrelevant :).

[willy]

Those Green drives are ideal for external enclosure usage which often does not have ideal airflow for cooling. Also, aside from eSATA connection, the slow(er) performance of the slower-spinning Green drives does not become the bottleneck of the external storage.

So it's kinda of providing the best of both worlds.