Western Digital Caviar Blue 640 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD6400AAKS
by Western Digital
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Our Price: $1,551.20 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $68.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital Caviar Blue 640 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD6400AAKS
Customer Review: a drive for server loads
Summary: 5 Stars
The HDDs of the Western Digital Caviar Blue series were made by simple renaming. They had used to be called Caviar SE16. One of the early drives, produced before the series was renamed, is shown in the photo above. Later models got a different label that is designed to resemble the new series but is blue, of course. The label is the only change, though. The contents of the HDD case are the same. By the way, this model was the world's first 640GB drive to begin selling in shops.
Do you need a drive for server loads but don't want to pay for enterprise series models? The Western Digital Caviar Blue was the fastest in our server tests, outperforming its Black series counterpart even. Overall, it is as universal as the Caviar Black but its performance and power consumption are lower.
Customer Review: Easy Setup for Older MAC Desktop
Summary: 4 Stars
Installing, formatting and partitioning the WD6400AAKS in my late-2004 vintage PowerMac G5 was a breeze. I bought it to increase the storage capacity rather than the speed of one of my two internal drives. To ensure compatibility with the older computer, I installed a jumper to reduce the maximum transfer rate from 300MB/s to the first generation SATA maximum of 150MB/s. (This may have been unnecessary.) Even with this modification, benchmark tests show read/write speeds, both sustained and random, for the new WD drive ranging from 30% to 60% faster than with my second drive in the same computer, a Seagate 160GB SATA I model. I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars only because it is too soon to judge its durability. So far it exceeds my expectations, and the price was great. Amazon service also was great.Customer Review: Great product - easy to use
Summary: 5 Stars
My original Dell computer came with a 160 Gb hard disk that was fine four years ago. With many digital photos and much music, I was running out of space. And since I needed to reinstall Windows XP, it made sense to add disk storage at the same time.
At under $100 this product just made sense. It was easy to install and is much faster than my original hard disk. And, by keeping both disks in the computer and reconfiguring my BIOS, I am able to use my new Western Digital 640 Gb HD as my C: drive and keep my old drive available should I need to get data I may have forgotten to move to the new drive. Eventually, the old disk will be used just for my pictures and music.
I would definitely recommend the Western Digital 640 Gb for anyone looking to increase storage.
Customer Review: Huge Disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this drive for a new build becasue, for the price, it's hard to turn down. However, when i tried to install windows on it, it wouldn't install, and the instillation would either freeze or give and error and stop. It didn't help that the error messages led me to believe that the problem was with the install disk, not the hard drive. This gave me a ton of stress, and after about 2 days of trying to install windows i tried linux, which also gave me errors, that proved my windows disk was fine, and led me to figure out that the hard drive was the problem. I went and bough a retail 320GB hard drive of the same brand, and sure enough, windows installed fine. Thankfully, amazon accepted the return without any hassle. It'll be a while before i buy another OEM hard drive.Customer Review: Probably the Current Optimal Drive
Summary: 5 Stars
I just ordered my third WD6400 over the last 6 months. This drive seems to be the current optimal design: only two platters (2 X 320G), very quiet operation, and very good cost/capacity ratio. Larger drives have more platters (more noise, less reliability?), and seem to have more problems.
Personally, my main goal for a drive is low noise, second is reliability, and third is low cost/capacity ratio. Seagate was the low-noise winner with their 80GB Barracuda drives a few years ago, so I stayed with Seagate drives longer than I should have. Their later drives became noisier; I find recent Seagate noise levels unacceptable. Each drive or series needs to be evaluated on it's own; continuing to favor a company after they start degrading quality is a mistake.