Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB,Internal,7200 RPM,3.5" (WD5000AAKX) Hard Drive

This drive replaced a failing drive in a PC for my mom. I had given her an ASRock MB, Athlon X2 6000+ (125W model) and my older graphics card fro my previous gaming system so there was a lot of heat being generated in the Case. The old hard drive generated a lot of heat as well. I purchased this drive and partitioned it into two drives and loaded XP 32 bit for her. The drive is not only silent, but is only warm to the touch rather than hot like many drives in other systems I've built. I also can't see any performance difference between this drive and a SATA I edition of the western digital Raptor (140 GB, 10K rpm model). Obviously the interface is much faster, but due to the internal Hard drive buffer and spindle speed, I still expected a marked difference between the older raptor drive and this caviar Blue edition. Of course the new raptor line of Sata III drives smokes this, but they run around $200+. Overall, this is a great buy and as a system builder, I am huge fan of western digital for their reliability.

Performance and reliability for everyday computing. WD5000AAKX are built utilizing the proven technology of the original award-winning WD Caviar 3.5-inch hard drives for desktop computers. Built to the highest standards of quality and reliability, these drives offer features and capacity at an affordable price.

this particular HDD is very fast & dependable..but like i'd said in my summary..this kind of HDD isn't needed for basic PC users..(you can still get what you need from an AAJ? or an AAB? HDD..but if you're a gamer..OR/AND!!??..if you need speed..this HDD is ideal for you..& it's perfect for a desktop w/Windows7 & at least 6GB's of RAM..so again..if you just want your computer to work..then you're better off with the lower line of HDD's by WD..but if you need speed..then this HDD is right up your alley..Peace..

Seagate's own Green edition drive performs faster than Caviar Blue Series. Ouch!!

Only advantage I see is the access time and boot load time but as said in the Seagate's ST2000DL003 review is most likely because of the thicker density platters. Remember, the WD Drive that I am testing is a 500GB and I compared it to Seagate 2TB drive with the same SATA 6Gb/s interface. AAKX also feels bit quicker when coming out of the hibernation mode.

At first, I had a doubt in mind if mechanical drives can ever take full advantage of SATA 6Gb/s interface with good sequential/random transfer speeds and decent enough Access time while maintaining the same power consumption level and the RPM. We'll still need to see more and more SATA 6Gb/s drives to make that conclusion.

But here's the thought:

If you're one of those guys who buy a lot of harddrives for secondary storage, its most likely you will look out for a drive (irrespective of the capacity as long as its enough for primary boot device) that is fast enough. You're getting a Older Western Digital Velociraptor 300/600GB HLFS drives- and there's always SSD. Western Digital got work cut out for them, as Seagate India announced yesterday about their SSD series.

This is a 4K aligned drive with WD's Advanced Format. The manufacturer's warranty is for 3 years. The MRP is about Rs. 1900+ taxes. Its just going to take the place of 5000AAKS Blue Caviar.

I was in need for a new hard drive, when my old one became fried.. This was my first choice. It was a very good price, it was practically the same model as my last hard drive so I knew it would work for me.

I also knew 500 GBs wasn't going to be a lot, but I've been using it for about 2 months now and I can say I was sorta worried for nothing. I am always on my PC, and I use a lot of hard drive space but if you're careful with what you keep and discard, you'll be just fine with the amount given..

This will be my secondary hard drive as soon as I save up the extra cash for a 1.5TB HD, but it'll be a nice side HD for me to have.

Performance was 4/5 purely due to the fact it isn't the best HD out there right now. It could be better, but there are no problems with it at all!