Noise levels
Noise levels were measured with an Extech 407727 Digital Sound Level meter 1" from the side of the drives at idle and under an HD Tach seek load. Drives were run with the PCB facing up.

Low noise levels may not be vital for server applications, but they matter for workstations, particularly if you're running multiple drives. The RE3 proves to be a little louder than the Caviar Black both at idle and under load, and that makes it one of the loudest drives of the bunch.

Power consumption
For our power consumption tests, we measured the voltage drop across a 0.1-ohm resistor placed in line with the 5V and 12V lines connected to each drive. Through the magic of Ohm's Law, we were able to calculate the power draw from each voltage rail and add them together for the total power draw of the drive.

Like the Caviar Black that preceded it, the RE3 is quite power-efficient for a terabyte hard drive. Western Digital's GreenPower Caviar GP (now known as the Caviar Green) and RE2-GP sip fewer watts, of course, but their slower spindle speeds don't deliver nearly the same performance punch.