Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD5000AAKS
by Western Digital
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD5000AAKS
Customer Review: Cool and quiet
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an OEM drive so expect that it does not come with a data cable, power cable or screws. Most of these items usually come with other parts anyway, like data cables with a motherboard, power cables as part of a power supply and screws as part of a computer case. If not, they are very cheap to purchase. Software isn't necessary because all the necessary drivers came with the motherboard for the onboard SATA chipset or with the controller card. This is truly plug and play. Plug in the cables, screw the drive into the case, boot up your OS and configure/format the drive. You also don't need a cardboard box.
Right now 320GB really the best value for the smaller size drives you can buy. It really doesn't make sense to spend a few dollars less and get half the space. This drive and it's brother the WD3200AAJS are nearly identical the only difference being in the size of the cache (8MB for AAJS vs 16MB for AAKS). Whichever one is on sale is the one to get. I found a sale and got it cheaper than the version with the smaller cache so that is the one I chose. Before that I chose the WD32000AAJS. I notice no difference in peformance despite the different cache sizes. They are both very fast.
The drive runs cool and quiet. It's nearly impossible to hear when mounted correctly in a quality PC case. I am using this drive in a new home theater PC that I built so quiet is very important. It's nothing like the drive that sits in my Comcast DVR that rattles away 24/7. This drive has plenty of room for Windows 7 and whatever applications I'll install now and in the future. I keep all my media on a separate server so there's no worries about running out of space. It also runs very cool according to the temperature sensor in the BIOS. That's also very important in the confined space of a home theater PC installed in a media cabinet.
I've found WD drives to be very reliable and I hope this drive is no exception. So far, so good.
Customer Review: Western Digital HD
Summary: 4 Stars
The first HD that I received ended up being defective. Other than that, it was easy to setup on my Dell Inspiron Desktop. It was a very simple plug and play since I was replacing a hard drive that went bad.Customer Review: hard drive
Summary: 5 Stars
easy to install. received quickly so that I could replace my crashed hard drive.Customer Review: Works great as an external hard drive for back ups. Don't need SATA port.
Summary: 5 Stars
Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK 3.5-Inch SATA to USB 2.0 and eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure (Onyx Black)
Works as expected. Quite. Heat and vibration have not been a problem. These bulk/OEM drives are perfect for enclosures. I used the linked case and it works great. Don't need any cables, screws or jumpers with an enclosure. Cheaper than buying an external hard drive plus gives me the flexibility to use the enclosure with other drives or install this one in another machine. I like it!
Customer Review: Works and Runs Great
Summary: 5 Stars
A two thumbs up for the price, performance, and to the company. =)Works great on my desktop that I'm in the process of upgrading gradually.