Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Hard Drive
WD Caviar Blue 7200 RPM next-generation SATA hard drives feature up to 500 GB of storage and a 16 MB cache for lightning-fast performance. Yes, these reliable drives are fast, but they still deliver technologically advanced acoustics and cool operation. Designed for high-performance computers, multimedia and gaming systems.
16 MB Cache
Bigger cache means faster performance. A massive 16 MB cache combined with up to 300 MB/s transfer rate make these ultra-fast drives the perfect solution for the fully loaded PC with a fast processor.
Cool Operating Temperature
WD hard drives are designed to have the lowest power consumption of any high-capacity, desktop-class hard drive which lowers the operating temperature for enhanced drive reliability.
This Drive Holds
- 212 two-hour DVD-quality movies or
- 750 hours of VHS-quality video or
- 440 days of around-the-clock MP3 audio or
- 186,500 vivid digital photos or
- 1066 action-packed games!
Specifications
Drive Type:
Internal
Capacity:
500GB
Interface:
Serial ATA-300
Interface Type:
SATA
Spindle Speed (RPM):
7200
Buffer Memory:
16MB
Average Seek (msec):
8.9
Average Latency (msec):
4.2
Track-to-Track Seek Time (typical read, ms):
2
Full Stroke Seek Time (normal seek):
21.0
Data Transfer Rate on Serial ATA:
Up to 3000 Mb/sec
Form Factor:
3.5"
Temperature, Operating (°C):
5 to 55
Temperature, Nonoperating (°C):
-40 to 65
Acoustics Idle (bels—sound power):
28 dBA (average)
Acoustics Seek (bels—sound power):
33 dBA (average)
Acoustics Performance Seek (bels—sound power):
29 dBA (average)
Type:
OEM
Dimensions:
1.028" x 5.787" x 4"
Customer Reviews and Rating
Customer Rating:
4.3
Customer Reviews: 95
Have an opinion on this product that you would like to share? If so, please take a few moments to write your rating and review.
Value
4.5
Features
4.4
Quality
4.1
Performance
4.4
Sort By:
Can not be beat
Reviewer:
darow1 on
Nov 05, 2009 Customer Rating:
5.0
Value
5.0
Features
5.0
Quality
5.0
Performance
5.0
Bought 2 of these 3 years ago they have been running in a raid 1 first on my media machine now on my desktop never a problem. I only regret having 4 seagates that now have compatability issues with si3132 chip set. In future I probably will go with the blacks to get a larger cach and warranty.
In RAID 0 everything is fast!
Reviewer:
mg524 on
Oct 05, 2009 Customer Rating:
5.0
Value
5.0
Features
5.0
Quality
5.0
Performance
5.0
I have two of these in a RAID 0 config. The read write speeds of 187MB read, 184MB write is only slightly slower, 204MB read, on my RAID 0 32GB SSD.
I am going to add two more drives to the array and get more speed and one TB of storage for the same price as the 32GB SSD. RAID 0 is a much simpler addon to speed and you don't have the performance degradation that you have with old SSDs. I am on my third SSD in 18 months.
Convienient but failure-prone
Reviewer:
Tsu on
Oct 02, 2009 Customer Rating:
2.0
Value
3.0
Features
3.0
Quality
1.0
Performance
1.0
I have two of these, and up until 2 days ago I was fairly satisfied. However, I just lost 420 GB of data on one due to corrupt firmware, which is apparently a common problem (among others) with this model. Data recovery would cost roughly $600...which is outside my budget.
To keep things short, if you buy this drive, BE CAREFUL! Make regular backups of your data so that you won't lose it like I did.
Not sure if it is a good deal or not
Reviewer:
DAN on
Sep 18, 2009 Customer Rating:
1.8
Value
2.0
Features
2.0
Quality
2.0
Performance
1.0
I'm not sure if this is a good deal or not. I did not know when I bought this that it had to be formatted. I built a new computer. I loaded my Windows XP and it tells me my drive is corrupt. Every thing is new on this sytem so it must be this drive.
Intialization Problems in Windows Vista
Reviewer:
Bill on
Sep 05, 2009 Customer Rating:
1.5
Value
1.0
Features
1.0
Quality
1.0
Performance
3.0
I have one of these drives and they are shipped not initialized and before you can format the drive you must perform the initialization. Windows Vista has a difficult time doing this and I used a computer running Windows XP. After initialization and formatting the drive worked as intended in either XP or Vista.
Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200rpm, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM
$54.99
Manufactured by:
Western Digital Mfg Part No:
WD5000AAKS UPC No:
718037720302 Box Size:
( Length: 8, Width: 2, Depth: 7 )
Shipping Weight:
1.5500 pound(s)
Limited Warranty:
36 months parts;
36 months labor
Click here for full warranty and support information
Limited Warranty: A full text version of the limited warranty
may be obtained by mailing a self addressed, stamped envelope to the
address below and requesting the warranty for item number:
TSD-500AAKS