Possible to have WD 3.5 green drive powered by firewire bus?

Gxcad · Post by **Gxcad** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:31 pm

I did a search with no useful info.

I am wondering if it is possible to power a 3.5 inch drive (specifically, a 1TB ~ 2TB green drive) with a firewire enclosure, powered only by the firewire bus?

I've read the firewire bus provides between 6-15W of power, though that was only from one random google searched source.

While it doesn't seem out of the question, I'm not really sure how this would work (or not work) and rather try to find out before I go out and buy parts.

The main reason I want to do this is because I want to put a 80gb SSD in my laptop and have an easily connected external drive with at least 1TB. I am trying to clean up wires in my computer area so I am trying to go with bus powered.

I do realize there are several solutions to this including a 1TB 2.5 inch HD these days, but am basically hoping I could do this with the superior $/GB of the 3.5 green drive.

I am dead set on the green drive unless there are other large capacity 3.5 drives out there with lower power consumption. As far as noise, although not ideal, I can tolerate the green drive.

The highest powered port I have is a firewire 400 port. I am using a first generation Macbook Pro.

Anything you guys might know about this? Are there prebuilt external HDs that use the green drive and a firewire interface? Or should I get a internal Green Drive and put it in a firewire enclosure? Or will this simply not work?

Thanks!

Ken

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:23 am

I don't think it would work. A 3.5" HDD can draw quite a bit spinning up. 15W would be cutting it close. I have an external WD Elements 1.5TB that comes with a 12V 1.5A power supply. I once tried to use a 12V 1.0A adapter when I couldn't find the original and the drive wouldn't spin up properly.

Gxcad · Post by **Gxcad** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:36 am

Just in case anyone else considered this, I want to put my conclusion for closure after looking into this for (too many) hours:

Unless you need more than 1TB, go for a 2.5 1TB solution. WD seems to make one for ~$125.

Suppose the 3.5 green drive powered by firewire idea did work, thats roughly $70 for a 1TB EARS model, and $30 for the cheapest SATA to firewire enclosure I could find. For $25, might as well get a 2.5 and enjoy all the other benefits (such as powered by firewire OR USB, even quieter, etc.).

Also, was able to find a pretty good PDF covering the topic, and the summarized conclusion I made from it is that it is not worth the trouble.

I'm going to get a 2.5 1TB solution and be done with it. Thanks anyway

.

And thanks Vicotnik for your input, much appreciated.

Ken