Western Digital WD5000KSRTL/WD5000AAKS Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive
by Western Digital
|
List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital WD5000KSRTL/WD5000AAKS Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive
Customer Review: The Way of the SATA
Summary: 5 Stars
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
Customer Review: I'm sold on SATA!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Strange title, I know.
I come from the old days of required jumper settings and IDE cables. It's been years since I touched the inside of a desktop tower so this was a total shock to my system. BTW, it's a Dell Inspiron 530. It already has a 500GB drive, which I've effectively filled up, which was why I bought this drive...to store some of my extra stuff, but also to act as a backup location for my laptop.
Installing the drive was a snap. Dell set this tower up to accommodate this type of drive. Just slide it into the HDD1 bay, use the WD SATA cable into one of the slots on the motherboard - just like HDMI, actually - and then give it power. Its assignment showed up in the BIOS right away. That's the hardware side. I left the jumper off (Default), and it's perfoming fine.
Next, the software side. Vista Premium picked up the drivers right away and got them installed. Next, Disk Management, initialized the disk, then set up the simple partition. Total install time was about 15 minutes, give or take a few minutes.
As a side note, if you have a home network and you're not performing scheduled backups of your primary computer's data, you need to start, and this drive is a great way to get this done.
Customer Review: Satisfied WD Sata Drive Owner for HPMV2120
Summary: 5 Stars
I own an HPMV2120 with one 500GB hard drive. When I found myself downloading music and videos and other things to keep, I realized very soon that my storage space was getting low and I was looking to expand my server. I chose this drive because it was compatible with my server. I now have a whopping 925.25 GB of space. I again will be looking to expand he drive in the near future with two external drives. I usually don't buy used drives as a rule of thumb but when I saw the price, I knew that it was the right one for me. I never buy reconditioned or refurbished drives simply because you don't really know what you are getting in quality. But, I will consider a "used or like new" drive because you can get a better deal. So overall I am very happy with this drive. I did have a bit of problem (at first) installing it but I realized that the process once read by the manual, the process is very easy. Configuring the drive was a pice of cake. Go for WD drive when you are in the market for a new drive. I haven't had any problems with drives to speak of.Customer Review: Excellent Hard Drive for the Mac Pro
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased three of these for my Mac Pro Quad Core desk top which I purchased at Amazon. One 500Gb is set up as stand-alone/backup hard drive and Two 500Gb are set up as a RAID. They installed very quickly without any issues at all, are fast and work well with a Dual Processor Intel system, and are super quiet. I emphasize how quiet they are since I've had many Maxtor brand hard drives which while are quite reliable as well, but, seem to vibrate annoyingly at a frequency that resonates through the PC case. These WDs are in fact much quieter considering that TWO of the 500 GB SATAs plus another stand-alone 250 (comes with the Mac Pro for OS/boot drive) and a 3rd 500 Gb WD SATA drive of the same model (a total of four installed) are all installed and running so quietly. There's no noise or vibration to hint that 4 of these are inside the Mac Pro case. Read and Write performance on both the RAIDS and stand alones has been excellent. Highly recommended.Customer Review: Great Drive that has not failed yet in 24/7 operation
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this drive specifically to expand my Series 3 tivo. After doing some research, i settled on this one because of its price, performance, and that its noise levels. There are drives specifically made to handle continuous operation. I have had the drive running in the enclose for 8 months and aside from power outages theis drive has never failed in the Antec MX-1 enclose that I have it in. When ther TV is off and nothing else is running, I do hear some access noises, but comapred to other desktop drives I have, even from WD, this one is pretty quiet. there is one other drive (can't rememeber model designation) that is specifically for DVR's and digital survailance systems that are constantly writing to the disk that is supposed to perorm better and quiter, but it was almost 50% more at the time I made my purchase.
I would defiinitely recommend this drive and if you are getting and external, heck out the MX-1