What is IntelliPower? [Easily Explained for Searchers 2024]

Written By Farhan Bin Matin

The word IntelliPower consists of two separate words: intelligent and power. The technology that is powerful and intelligent simultaneously is called IntelliPower.

what-is-intellipower

Western Digital Corp claims that their Hard drives and other electrical equipment contain this IntelliPower technology. Those WD IntelliPower pieces of equipment offer enormous power; at the same time, they are energy efficient.

But several users and tech enthusiasts claim that it’s all a marketing strategy, and there is no such thing as an IntelliPower HDD or SSD. Although there is very little information about this topic, I researched it profoundly and sorted out some easy explanations for you.

Don’t skip any part of this article to know if IntelliPower exists or if they are just some bluff!

Let’s start!

What is IntelliPower?

According to Western Digital Corporation, IntelliPower technology means you will get high tuned RPM speed, boosted cache performance and massive transfer rate in their newly manufactured Hard Drives and SSDs. Yet those components will consume less power as they are eco-friendly.

IntelliPower is a beautiful concept but in reality, achieving that goal is very hard. Because when you want a boosted performance from your electrical equipment, it will take a significant amount of power from your power source.

But Western Digital declares that their IntelliPower Hard Drive will rotate at 7200 RPM at full load.

When the primary peak time passes, the hard drive goes into power-saving mode and decreases its RPM to 10%.wd-red-hdd-ssd

Hence WD claims their products become power efficient and effective. But, several tech people wonder if it’s possible to make a hard drive capable enough that its speed will vary from time to time depending on load. Read the next segment to know further about this topic.

What is the RPM for Western Digital IntelliPower Equipment?

From the advertisement of Western Digital, we came to know that IntelliPower hard drives can run up to 7200 rotations per minute (RPM) in Peak load. This RPM drops 10% in the hibernation or sleep mode due to the required low processor management.

So to check the WDs claim, some tech geeks did experiments on Green WD IntelliPower hard drives. They found that the RPM limit hits the 5400 mark but doesn’t go beyond them. But when they pushed the drive a little more, it reached 5900 RPM.intellipower-rpm-speed-test

However, you must remember that this speed can vary depending on WD Hard Drive models. Those HDDs’ sequential read or write speed is between 150-200 Mbps. This number also can change depending on your Hard Drive.intellipower-read-write-speedSo I hope you now understand that WD IntelliPower hard drives and SSDs are energy efficient, but they do not match the RPM limit they claim.

Therefore before buying one of those, you must learn all the necessary aspects; hence read along.

Does WD IntelliPower Matter for SSD and Hard Drives?

Western Digital manufactured several HDDs and SSDs with the IntelliPower label. Of course, it is their business strategy, and they want to increase their sales. But they implement fantastic features in their IntelliPower products that save electric power.

You will get a balanced performance from the WD IntelliPower products. The power and energy saving ratio blend nicely in Western Digital IntelliPower equipment.

For SATA and M.2 SSDs, WD makes the Green IntelliPower components better for energy conversion. However, they are not performance-centric equipment but are best suited for data storage.western-digital-hdd

So from the above segment, you can find that the term WD IntelliPower matters for SSD and HDD. But the effect margin sometimes becomes so small that it is tough to determine which aspects of the HDD or SSDs are greatly influenced by IntelliPower.

What are the Western Digital Color Codes for Intellipower Equipment?

There are 6 color choices for you if you want to buy a WD Intellipower product. Depending on the color, you can understand how your component will react on a certain processing level and their Cache, RPM and data transfer speed.

Let’s head out and see how those colors matter in different formats.

Here is the list of 6 color codes for WD IntelliPower equipment:

1. Western Digital Green

WD Green means that the component is eco-friendly and conserves power. But the performance is not so outstanding if you compare it with other colors.wd-green-hdd-ssd

2. Western Digital Blue

WD Blue equipment is stable and balanced in performance. You can play games and store data with this blue chip. Sometimes Blue HDD consists of small SSDs, which improve their performance, and its RPM is 5400-7200.wd-blue-hdd-ssd

3. Western Digital Red

Red WD chips are mainly designed for Network Attached Storage(NAS) and RAID protocol. These chips are very powerful and can work all day long. Also, the Read and Write speeds are sufficient to store massive amounts of information.wd-black-nas-hdd-ssd

4. Western Digital Purple

The Purple WD chips are perfect for video recording. You can easily record a substantial amount of data with the help of these Purple chips because their writing speed is excellent.wd-purple-hdd-ssd

5. Western Digital Gold

The Western Digital Gold chips are the most exclusive and capable compared with other colors. You can use this to store enormous amounts of data, which is operable 24/7. WD Gold is mainly used in the Data center and cloud business which holds 550 TB of data annually.wd-gold-hdd-ssd

6. Western Digital Black

The WD Black is a performance-centric chip focusing mainly on Gaming and Video Editing. It has 128 MB cache memory, requiring less time to complete an instruction. But it is costly and produces heat and sound when functioning.wd-black-hdd-ssd

What Does IntelliPower Means for Cub Cadet?

So while we are talking about IntelliPower technology, you should know that Cub Cadet corporation recently launched Intellipower Engine technology. The Cub Cadet IntelliPower technology electronically maintains lawn mowing engine speed and boosts engine performance by 20 percent.

This technology improves lawn equipment’s capability to control and conserve power. Also, with the help of this technology, the Lawn component becomes very cost-effective, and their work-to-power ratio increases to 20%.

This IntelliPower tech will come in handy in the spring mowing season. Also, in winter, when the grass becomes so heavy due to snow, the extra power of this technology shows its mesmerizing effects.

This new technology’s vision is to give consumers more control over their equipment. Also, it will give them more power efficiency and require less maintenance.

FAQs

How much power does a 7200RPM hard drive use?

A 7200 RPM Hard Drive generally consumes 8W power, but it can differ depending on the Hard Drive type.

How much current does a hard drive draw?

Usually, a Hard Drive draws less than 10W Current; however, this number can vary if your Hard Drive is powerful.

In what voltage an HDD operates?

Generally, an HDD operates in a 5V to 12V Direct Current (DC). But HDD requires more current supply from the source when the load increases.

Conclusion

IntelliPower technology possesses excellent potential in the contemporary world. With it, we can achieve our desired performance and save power.

You can see from the article that Western Digital implements this technology into their SSD and HDD. Consequently, there are 6 color types you can choose from, and all of them are featured in this article. But some users complain about their Quality Control process.

Overall, if you read this content carefully, it will help you understand IntelliPower technology better. Also, it will assist you in deciding whether you should go for the tech or not.

How can I further assist you? Let me know in the comment.

About The Author
Farhan is a tech researcher and enthusiast. He’s been into tech and gaming since he got a PS2 in his childhood.Currently, he’s almost done with his undergrad.Besides testing and researching geeky stuff, Farhan has an utmost passion for photography.

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