Great Drive, Greater Value
Pros:
Quiet, high performance, 8MB cache
Cons:
All 7200RPM drives get a little warm.
The Bottom Line:
Buy this drive, it performs nicely, is quiet, and comes with a good warranty and accessory bundle.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I'll start off with one word: Sweet. That's what I have to say about this drive. It's an exceptional hard drive, its cavernous space and great performance make it hard to beat. I got mine for about $70 after two rebates (from Circuit City), so they are also very good values.
PACKAGE
The package for this drive is very good. With mine I received the drive in a protective anti-static bag, held tightly in place by two large plastic pieces that secured the drive in the box and prevented it from moving around inside. Also with the drive and cable I received a small bag of mounting screws and an extra jumper for the drive, Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Tools disk, and a double-side poster that contained every single bit of information about this drive that one could ask.
DOCUMENTATION
As I said above, the included instruction poster is very informative. It contains instructions for installing the drive for both PCs and Macs, and how to mount it and connect the cables properly. Also on the poster is technical information that is helpful for almost any question one could have about the drive. This poster makes installing the drive a breeze.
SOFTWARE
The included Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools is another extremely handy addition to the drive. The software makes transferring files from the old drive to the new drive a breeze. Everything is transferred, and I didn't have to reformat or anything to transfer my Windows install to the new 80GB drive. The diagnostic tools that are on the disk also are very handy, such as the Ultra DMA utility which fixed a problem I had in Windows XP of it not detecting DMA for my two hard drives.
PERFORMANCE
I do not have any real hard drive benchmarking software for my computer, but I did get a hefty increase in my PCMark hard drive score. The 8MB cache and ATA100 transfer rate make this drive perform much better than my older 2MB cache model anyways. The drive is also very, very quiet. I can barely hear the "churning" noise that hard drives make above my case fans (I *can* hear my older WD drive though), and this drive also does not emit as much of the high-pitched "whine" that comes from the spinning platters inside the drive as the older WD drives.
FEATURES
Well, its a hard drive, so theres not much to say here anyways. The 8MB cache means that it can pump out data quickly. But a nice feature that I like is the temperature sensor inside the drive. This sensor is detectable with Motherboard Monitor 5 (and other software, I'd assume) and is very nice for seeing how well the drive is cooled (Mine has a fan in front of it and never goes too far above 30C).
WARRANTY
3 Years. I guess it could be longer, but 3 years is good enough anyways. I've never had a WD drive fail on me, anyways.
CompuVest
