Originally Posted By: Archeon
For one, they use platters of 1 TB density

So do the "Green" labelled versions. Don't they?

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Also, 3D Active Balance Plus (a self-balancing technology) and NoTouch ramp load technology might make it worth it

Nothing special there, other than the marketing-speak. They balance the platters on all of their drives, as do their (dwindling number of) competitors. Otherwise they'd be much more noisy and more prone to data errors. And the "no-touch ramp" thingie is a property of the Green drives too, and probably of all modern hard drives (not sure, but quite probably).

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it's also the most silent drive WD has ever produced.

Along with the "Green" labelled versions of the exact same mechanisms?

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I was wondering Mark, since this drive does have TLER enabled,

All drives have "TLER enabled". The difference here is that the "Red L" implies a much smaller number than the 2-minute "L" of "Green" drives. smile

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would it be a dumb idea to use one of these drives in a regular desktop system?

Dunno. If the "L" value is less than 20 seconds (likely), then yes.. it would be dumb to use it in a non-redundant situation. I prefer my drives to try HARD to recover from media errors (the opposite of what "TLER" implies).

These are either (1) Hitachi drives with WD firmware, or (2) Green "WD" drives with slightly different firmware and red coloured labels (not a bad thing).

Cheers