What the difference between Server Class SATA HD (nearline) and Cheap Costumer SATA HD? and the GREEN series alternative.

I always heard about that the SATA Nearline HDs are better because they are made for servers, its have longer MTBF and a lot of bla bla bla.


I am really skeptical, i have in my test environment a 120gb SATA that is more than 6 years online in 24x7


I never put in production a cheap class SATA HD, but i cant see real concrete advantages in Nearline SATA HDs


So, a want to know the technical explanations about the Nearline SATA HDs, until now, for me is more than a market label that a real product build


If possible, its enjoyable some analyses about it


If we think in new GREEN Sata HDs, the 5900 RPM ones, the concept in some way follow the NEARLINE series, with more focus in power consumption.


The less RPM can be translated in more durability?


By the price of TB capacity, i am really thinking about put a RAID 1 or 10 array of Green SATA HDs in cases that the constantly access are little comparable with the need of storage data .


I am always open to suggestions.


Thank you