Western Digital Caviar SE16

One of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, WD (Western Digital) has recently released its new WD Caviar SE16 640 GB 3.5″ hard drives based on 320 GB-per-platter technology, combining 16 MB cache with 3 Gb/s transfer rate for lightning-fast performance in demanding desktop and workstation applications.

“The 640 GB capacity point will be an important one for our desktop customers, and WD is leading high-volume shipments to the channel and OEM customers,” said Don Bennett, general manager and vice president of WD’s desktop business unit. “Two-platter hard drives have always been the perfect balance of value, capacity and performance for many of our customers. Today’s common two-platter drives are limited to 500 GB, but we are expanding capacity by 28 percent on the same design with WD’s leading technology heads and disks.”

Key Features Of WD Caviar SE16:

• Top performance for Windows Vista – WD Caviar SE16 SATA and EIDE drives are certified for Windows Vista and are top performers on the Windows Vista Experience Index.
• 16 MB Cache – Bigger cache means faster performance. A massive 16 MB cache combined with advanced acoustic and power-reducing technologies make these ultra-fast drives the perfect solution for the fully loaded PC.
• Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) – The latest generation of WD Caviar SE16 drives employs PMR technology to achieve even greater areal density.
• IntelliSeek – Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.
• SecurePark – Parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
• StableTrac – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking, during read and write operations. (750 GB only)

The new WD Caviar SE16 640 GB (model WD6400AAKS) hard drives which spin around at 7200rpm are available for about $140.