WD Caviar SE16 SE16 320 GB Internal Hard Drive

WD 320GB SataII 16MB

Strengths: Very easy to install, quiet, supports both Sata and 4pin molex power connections

Weakness: None so far

I purchased this drive about one month ago for my first attemp at building a computer. It has preformed flawlessly and I have been very pleased with it. When tested in my new system it had a random access time of 13.5ms and an average read time of 57.1 MB/s. I would give it a "5" but my experience with hard drives in very limited.

By nruhlig - Feb 10, 2006

How much can you really say

Strengths: 16 meg cache SATAII backwards compatible with SATA Additional Molex power connector 3 year warrenty

Weakness: Slightly noisey

It only takes one HD death to make one wary of the Warrenty polices on their HDs. During the deathstar days of IBM, drive makers eased off warrenties. It wasn't until really the SATA switch when drive makers started putting bigger warrenties o their drives, Seagate leading with a 5 year warrenty. Now days HD buying has become less apparent as performance gaps have narrowed and platter densities...
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It only takes one HD death to make one wary of the Warrenty polices on their HDs. During the deathstar days of IBM, drive makers eased off warrenties. It wasn't until really the SATA switch when drive makers started putting bigger warrenties o their drives, Seagate leading with a 5 year warrenty.

Now days HD buying has become less apparent as performance gaps have narrowed and platter densities are slowing in pace.

So what to say? HD works fine, its the 4th SATA HD in my G5, sharing the light with Seagate and Hitachi as well. A good HD is a working HD and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll continue my SATA deathless winning streak.

Formatted this drive comes out to being 297GBs vs the 280 GBs my 300 GB Seagate has, so for roughly the same price although lacking proven reliably Seagate served up with its now legendary 7200.7s and what probably will prove true to be with the 7200.8s and 7200.9s.

Its quicker than my Seagate and my other WD, but seems to be on par with the Hitachi 7K500, not terribly exciting for a 16 meg cache drive. I imagine it'd possibly be a little quicker as a boot drive.

The short answer it: Its works.

By slickninja - Feb 21, 2006

so far so good

Strengths: easy installation, fast processing, 3 year warranty, great capacity

Weakness: none so far

This is the second WD hard drive i had although i had sworn to myself not to buy any more hard drive from WD. If not for a sale at a very very good price, i guess i would definitely give up the idea to get another one. My first 80G WD hard drive was down just after half year, my only thanks to WD is that they gave me a new one in exchange my broken one without any trouble. However, this is not...
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This is the second WD hard drive i had although i had sworn to myself not to buy any more hard drive from WD. If not for a sale at a very very good price, i guess i would definitely give up the idea to get another one. My first 80G WD hard drive was down just after half year, my only thanks to WD is that they gave me a new one in exchange my broken one without any trouble. However, this is not what i want, i need my data stored in that hard drive to be fixed which they can't; i need a brand new one but not one came in plastic wrap sampled certified product, which i guess is a refurbished HD from some other poor guy's.
Well, it seems i am somewhat digress. let me back to the 320G HD i have now, it is so far so good, i have to admit. it has great transfer rate, speedy data read time and stable performance. Works more quietly than my Hitachi 200g.

Still need to pray for its future performance considering my first experience with western digital.

By liuspring - May 21, 2006

Great equipment

Strengths: Fast, Dependable, Easy to install, Recognized by VISTA full size since it is a large drive-must have SP2 on XP for this drive to be partitiond full size, Quite and very cool running.

Weakness: None found yet.

The Western Digital(WD) SATA 320gb drive is a very reliable, dependable, quite and cool running drive. Their warranty is second to none and their replacement time is very quick. I have had 1 WD fail in the past 7yrs and the replacemnt took 4 days. That is 4 days from the time I shipped broken drive until I had new drive in hand. I have 7 WD drives in this computer and 2 Seagate. The WD are almost...
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The Western Digital(WD) SATA 320gb drive is a very reliable, dependable, quite and cool running drive. Their warranty is second to none and their replacement time is very quick. I have had 1 WD fail in the past 7yrs and the replacemnt took 4 days. That is 4 days from the time I shipped broken drive until I had new drive in hand. I have 7 WD drives in this computer and 2 Seagate. The WD are almost silent in their operation but I can hear every time the Seagates spin up. I have used WD for the past 20 years in both my own computers and those whom I have worked on.

By mfg2414 - Jun 21, 2008

Almost makes me regret buying a Raptor!

Strengths: Quietest hard drive in my system. Darn near close to Raptor speed. Great price.

Weakness: 3 year warranty

I just bought a 74gb Raptor to replace my 36gb and then this drive to have additional storage. I also have a SATA 250GB Seagate drive. I ran benchmarks with HDTach and not only is this drive the quietest by far, it soars past the Seagate and is pretty close to the Raptor's speed. Now I am kind of kicking myself had I know that for less that the price of my 74gb drive I could have gotten another...
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I just bought a 74gb Raptor to replace my 36gb and then this drive to have additional storage. I also have a SATA 250GB Seagate drive. I ran benchmarks with HDTach and not only is this drive the quietest by far, it soars past the Seagate and is pretty close to the Raptor's speed. Now I am kind of kicking myself had I know that for less that the price of my 74gb drive I could have gotten another one of these 320gb ones! If this drive dosen't get a bad failure rate, I think it will become a new standard of desktop drives. I wish it had a 5 year warranty but I am sure after 3 years, I will want a nice TB drive :)

By anonymous; - Mar 10, 2006