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Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive | List Price: $129.99
Discount Price: Too low to display
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Brand: Western Digital
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - 500 GB SATA 3.5-inch internal hard drive; advanced acoustics and cool operation for high-end computers, multimedia and gaming systems
- 7200 RPM spin rate; 16 MB cache; 300 MB/s transfer rate
- WhisperDrive technology minimizes noise; SoftSeek technology increases operational efficiencies; Data Lifeguard Tools protect data; ShockGuard protects hard drive during operation
- Designed for low-power consumption
- 3-year limited warranty
Quietest drive I've ever owned [Posted on 2008-05-29]
The main harddrive in my computer (about 3ish years old. A western digital 250gb SATA drive) was getting full, so I decided to add in a second drive. After shopping around, and reading reviews, I decided to buy the WD5000KSRTL. After installation (which was harrowing. Bios saw the drive just fine, but Windows didn't want to start up. Zero fault of the drive, just a Windows XP quirk according to forums I read) I formatted the drive (took maybe half an hour) and then I was up and running.
I play alot of games, most of which have been bought from the Steam store. The old drive, having been heavily fragmented, was slowing the load times of my games by a pretty high degree. After installing the new drive, I migrated all of my Steam games over to it (a process that was lightning fast, considering it was 10gb or so worth of games. Everything from Counterstrike to Half-Life 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic) and I've come to the conclusion that this is easily the fastest, and the most silent drive I've ever owned. Honestly if I couldn't see the files transferring to the new drive (on the screen) I wouldn't have believed that it was actually in operation. This drive would be perfect for a media center computer (though I'm not using it for that purpose).
There is only one oddity, which might not be an oddity at all. When I looked at the model number on the drive, it was WD5000AAKS. If you take away the "RTL" from the WD5000KSRTL (RTL meaning retail) you are left with WD5000KS, not WD5000AAKS. Reading a few forums, I think this might be an upgraded version of the WD5000KS, though I cannot independently confirm this. Looking at WD's website, the WD5000AAKS seems to be the current model number for this generations 500gb Caviar SATA. A few forums mentioned that the WD5000AAKS is a superior drive, and while I can't speak to that, I can honestly say that the performance I've seen from this particular drive has been spectacular.
Oh and someone earlier said that this box doesn't come with the SATA cable needed to connect this drive to your computer. He is infact half correct. There is no SATA to Molex adaptor included in the box. If you don't know what Molex is, it's the name for the connector that connects computer hardware to the computers power supply. Recently, alot of power supplies have been shipping with SATA power connectors built in (which was the case for me, I got lucky) but if you are using the power supply that came with your computer (from Dell, HP, Gateway etc) you may need to check and make sure you have a SATA power connector on it before you attempt to buy this drive. Unlike alot of drives, this drive cannot be powered by a Molex connector. You may have to buy a Molex to SATA adaptor if this is the case with your power supply. There is however an included SATA data cable, so you won't have to purchase an additional one to install this hard drive (which a few people did unfortunately).
If you are looking for a new drive, that is basically silent, at a good price, this is the drive for you.
Just died 5 months out of warranty [Posted on 2008-06-15]
Drives fail. I know that. Was using this along with a 500GB Maxtor in a 1TB RAID0 array, with a nice cool fan, I might add. It is amazing to me that we accept such short warranty periods for modern hard drives. Their "Customer Loyalty Program" Will offer to sell me a new drive for $97. You must be joking! I'm going to buy a Seagate with a 5 year warranty and upgrade to a RAID5 array so that next time a drive fails I have redundancy.
The Way of the SATA [Posted on 2008-06-24]
There are many reasons to get the internal Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500GB SATA. The first is that for economy you get more GB for your money. Drives half the cost of this model provide much less than 50% of the storage space. Some might say that the 500GB is experimental and to go with a solid 200MB drive, but the 500GB stability has shown failure rates no more or less than those models. To top it off WD have really taken the drive market by storm. I once owned an array of Seagates (and still do and am happy with my 200GB drives). The Seagate Barracuda has always been a dependable favourite, but Western Digital Caviar SATA should be given a test drive.
The whole point is that hardware compatibility standards have actually made that overnight leap. Many users will be looking to the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor about this time. In turn this means seeking out a motherboard like the Intel DP35DP or one designed for Core 2 Quad chips. When you engage these mobos you will be hit with new standards. These mobos force you to drop PS/2 connections (unless you get adapters) and the 3.5" Floppy is officially extinct with them. While they can handle IDE they are really built SATA drives. Cue the Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500GB SATA. It is a monster drive, 0.5TB in one. With two of these you automatically have 1TB. That is phenomenal. While 1TB WD SATA drives exist, the stable ones are the 5400 Rpm and the 7200 Rpm version is cutting edge and so at your own risk. I would get this 500GB model and make your next buy the 7200 Rpm version of the 1TB drive, but do wait so that WD deliver on the same stability as this 500GB model. Eventually you will have a system with 1.5TB.
So essentially what we are looking at here is not just getting a new hard drive but probably a new PC. For those who already run SATA then they get a massive storage device to add to their system. For those who are wondering what to do with a new PC the key is to eliminate IDE and go with a SATA system. This also means getting a SATA DVD-RW while you are at it. It will be SATA all the way.
Those who want to combine IDE drives and SATA are in for headaches unless they have experience. Another possible nightmare is that XP installations won't recognize SATA drives without a driver that is usually installed via 3.5" floppy... and yeah, these aren't supported by some Intel Core 2 Quad mobos. Vista handles it no problem so you can see where this is all going. These are the kind of forces at play. So when you look at a drive like this you need to see a much bigger picture that is the Vista, SATA, Core 2 Quad direction. Either that or you need some experience with SATA/IDE hybrid setups.
Pros:
Western Digital
Stable
Fast
0.5 TB in one drive
Perfect for Vista
Cons:
Windows XP SATA support on some Core 2 Quad mobos is a nightmare
1TB 7200 is here already
500 GB SATA drrive [Posted on 2008-06-26]
These drives are great.. so far anyways. I got three of them. I use one as a system drive and then I created an array for media storage (1TB).. I do put a hard drive through a lot of stress.. I am a developer so I have had many drives crash out on me. I can't say how these will be long term but so far they are performing nicely. Do not buy those Samsung spinpoint drives.. I had 2 of them crash really fast and the replacements crashed out also ... the first set crashed before a year and the replacements lasted just over one year!!
HD [Posted on 2008-06-30]
Installed in about 10 minutes (plus the 15 minutes reading the book to make sure I was doing it right). Installation is breeze, but most of the time was making sure I was doing it right.
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