On my hard disk (Toshiba MK3006GAL), 255 did not give much improvement, but 254 solved the problem. I have not tested CONTROL_HD_POWERMGMT. The temperature went up from about 44 to 47 degrees celcius (no controlled testing environment though), which is still well within range. Considering that my laptop is entirely passively cooled (no fans), I suspect that temperature is not going to be a major issue here, compared to the load cycles.
On my hard disk (Toshiba MK3006GAL), 255 did not give much improvement, but 254 solved the problem. I have not tested CONTROL_ HD_POWERMGMT. The temperature went up from about 44 to 47 degrees celcius (no controlled testing environment though), which is still well within range. Considering that my laptop is entirely passively cooled (no fans), I suspect that temperature is not going to be a major issue here, compared to the load cycles.