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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Western Digital is trying to redefine the word "RPM" [arstechnica.com]

[The] new complaint is that Western Digital calls 7200RPM drives "5400 RPM Class"—and the drives' own firmware report 5400 RPM via the SMART interface.

[...] At first blush, this might seem like a non-issue—who wouldn't prefer a drive with a faster spindle speed? Unfortunately, faster spindles don't just mean potentially lower seek latency—they also come with a sharp increase in both noise generation and power consumption.

That increase in noise and power is what got many users on the trail of Western Digital's fake 5,400rpm spindle speed in the first place—those users purchased drives which they expected to roll low and slow, but they got more noise, heat, and power consumption than they expected.

[...] When we reached out to Western Digital in the course of researching this story, a representative confirmed the various forum-goers' and Redditor's conclusions—that is to say, "5400 RPM class" does not actually mean that a drive spins at 5,400rpm.

For select products, Western Digital has published RPM speed within a "class" or "performance class" for numerous years rather than publishing specific spindle speeds. We also fine-tune select hard drive platforms and the related HDD characteristics to create several different variations of such platforms to meet different market or application needs. By doing so, we are able to leverage our economies of scale and pass along those savings to our customers. As with every Western Digital product, our product details, which include power, acoustics and performance (data transfer rate), are tested to meet the specifications provided on the product's data sheet and marketing collateral.

RPM means revolutions (or rotations) per minute, in some circles.

I detect another class action lawsuit forming. Save your receipts.

Previously: Seagate Caught Using SMR in Barracuda Compute and Desktop Drives [soylentnews.org]
Western Digital Shingled Out in Class Action Lawsuit [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission