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Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Average Rating

4 out of 5 eggs(1,768 reviews)

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Now: $74.99
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Buzz
See more winners2x Winner for Internal Hard Drives Customer Choice Award
Black vs. Blue
5 out of 5 eggs
Some are comparing this drive to the "Blue" WD6400AAKS, and though they are the same size there are differences. ...
— Driving Along 11/26/2008
Lightning in a Bottle
5 out of 5 eggs
Quiet
Cool
Lightning Fast

This drive is FASTER than my old WD Raptor WD1500ADFD and has the benchmark numbers ...
— Jimmy 10/28/2008


45% Buy Rate

After viewing this page, 45% of our customers chose to purchase this item.

Quick Info
Manufacturer Warranty
  • Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (parts): 5 years
  • Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (labor): 5 years


Return Policies

This item is covered by Newegg.com's Standard Return Policy.

  • Return for refund within: 30 days
  • Return for replacement within: 30 days
  • Restocking Fee: Yes
Financing

The Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB Hard Drive is top-of-the-line high-capacity drive for your PC, running at 7200 RPM. Its dual processors and breakthrough 32 MB cache is great for high-performance home and business computing, as it can handle high-end data-intensive and multimedia applications.

This hard drive incorporates WD’s Data Lifeguard, an exclusive set of data protection features, including shock protection, environmental protection, real-time embedded error detection and repair. Its mechanism ensures automatic discovery, isolation, and repair of problems which may develop in a hard drive.

  • newegg High Performance Electronics Architecture The Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS boasts dual processors and 32MB cache to deliver ultra fast read/write performance.
  • newegg SATA 3.0 Gb/s Interface The Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS features the SATA II interface supporting up to 3.0 Gb/s data transfer rates, Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and hot-pluggable point-to-point connections for optimum performance, efficiency, convenience and flexibility.
  • newegg WD Data Lifeguard Technology Exclusive Data Lifeguard data protection features include shock protection, an environmental protection system and real-time embedded error detection and repair. WD's Data Lifeguard technology automatically finds, isolates and repairs problems that may develop over the life of a hard drive.
  • newegg WD ShockGuard Technology ShockGuard technology instantaneously protects the hard drive against damage from bumps and vibrations during operation. This technology enables WD Caviar drives to achieve industry-leading shock specifications.

Get the most from your Western Digital WD6401AALS with these extras!

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  • Selected Items: 0
  • Featured Product plus Selected: $74.99
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Learn more about the Western Digital WD6401AALS

Model
Brand
Western Digital
Series
Caviar Black
Model
WD6401AALS
Packaging
Bare Drive
Performance
Interface
SATA 3.0Gb/s
Capacity
640GB
RPM
7200 RPM
Cache
32MB
Physical Spec
Form Factor
3.5"
Manufacturer Warranty
Parts
5 years limited
Labor
5 years limited

Customer Reviews of the Western Digital WD6401AALS

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  • john
  • 9/7/2010 1:10:54 PM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
  • Verified Owner
5 out of 5 eggsreliable

Pros: reliable for over six months so far

Cons: none so far

Other Thoughts: Purchased this for my PC i built about six months ago as my main drive. I also own the 1TB version that i ran in my old PC for over a year and now use it as my storage drive in my new PC. Good all around drive for gaming or anything else.

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  • YEEEEEEEEEE HAW
  • 9/7/2010 11:27:15 AM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
  • Verified Owner
4 out of 5 eggsSlower than WD 640GB BLUE version

Pros: It works and is faster than my old 80GB WD BLUE SATA 3.0 GB/sec drive. If I had a put a figure on it, I'd say, depending on what you're doing, it can be anywhere from 20% to even 50% faster.

Both my BLACK and BLUE 640GB WD drives were anywhere from 20% to 50% faster than my old 80GB WD BLUE SATA 3.0 GB/sec drive.

Cons: I also bought a Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (N82E16822136218). When I formatted both of them (not the quick format option), by the time the BLUE hard drive was finished, the BLACK one was at 90% only.

After that, I ran some tests and copied some files from my C: drive (80GB WD drive) to my other two drives, at first it appeared that the BLUE drive was a few seconds faster copying about a GB of data. After some subsequent tests, it appeared they were very close.

Maybe it's just coincidence or something but it seems the BLUE drives are faster.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

  • theelviscerator
  • 9/6/2010 9:33:08 AM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
  • Verified Owner
5 out of 5 eggsBasic Black

Pros: Running these in a raid zero config, getting about 212 mb/s throughput.

Cheap, fast and reliable, I always buy drives with 5 year warrantys

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Great drive on the cheap, in raid zero as fast as SSD drives throughput, with out the cost and tiny storage size.

buy em.

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  • jhgsno6
  • 9/6/2010 7:52:02 AM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
  • Verified Owner
5 out of 5 eggsExcellent for the price.

Pros: Wester Digital has never let me Down. The black series does boot faster and has been faster period. The price per storage capacity is excellent

Cons: None to date.

Other Thoughts: It is not a digital drive, but then again it did not cost an arm and a leg!

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

  • Stormbot
  • 9/2/2010 8:00:43 AM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
  • Verified Owner
5 out of 5 eggsWorks

Pros: It's one of the best hard drives for this price range. Worked out of the box as it should and have no issues with it.

Packaging was exaggeratedly good. It came wrapped in tons of layers of bubble wrap and paper.

Cons: It doesn't have wings.

Other Thoughts: We all know that the hard drive is the bottleneck of any system today. My score is around 7.5 for everything except my hardrive, which is 5.9.

If you have the money, just get like a 128gb SSD and put your OS and Apps on it. Combine that with this Black Caviar hard drive, and your set.

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  • LIAJLWG
  • 9/2/2010 7:46:35 AM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
  • Verified Owner
1 out of 5 eggsSoso

Pros: CAVIAR BLUE IS FASTER THAN CAVIAR BLACK AS FOR MY EXPERIENCE.

Cons: the speeding is not fast as caviar BLUE....

Other Thoughts: Now I'm using all caviar BLUE 640G RAID0

very good

0 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

  • Cold Wind
  • 9/1/2010 12:08:42 AM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
  • Verified Owner
3 out of 5 eggsBlackout

Pros: It works. No problems installing Windows 7. Reasonably quick.

Cons: It's noisy. Like late-90's hard drive noisy. It also vibrates more than I'd care for - I can feel it in my keyboard, mouse, and desk surface at all times. It's sorta got a "rough around the edges" quality to it because of this.

Also, it lags now and again - where there will be a brief pause in my activity because of the drive's operations. This is something that the drive on my other computer (a S**sung) does not do.

Other Thoughts: Overall: 3 Eggs

Not quite as fast as I'd expect. Only pulled a WEI of 5.9, but it's not a SSD, so what can be expected?

Honestly, it would seem that the WD Black series and maybe the WD brand is altogether overrated. Even with the minor annoyances, this is still, so far, a solid hard drive. Some sources would also suggest WD drives last longer than those from other manufacturers, too. If this is indeed the case, then I will be able to forgive this drive's shortcomings in the long run. Let's hope.

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  • Gabacho
  • 8/31/2010 11:33:44 PM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
  • Verified Owner
1 out of 5 eggsFailing After 1 Month

Pros: Neutral odor.

Cons: CrystalDiskInfo shows 'Caution' with Current Pending Sector Count increasing every hour. It is now up to 838 having started today at 12 or so. WDC's test run time was first estimated at 5 hours and then keep increasing as the test ran. I stopped the test when it estimated 34 hours remaining. WDC Tech Support seemed to think that this length of test was OK. On restart the test duration is now estimated at 72 hours!

Other Thoughts: WDC Tech Support person seemed incompetent.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

  • Rideout
  • 8/31/2010 12:03:18 PM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 month to 1 year
  • Verified Owner
5 out of 5 eggsRideout 421

Pros: look my best friend has Two 300 GB Veliciraptors in a Raid 0 and this is a good set up he is pulling a 6.2 on windows performance test. Get this he spent $400.00 for them to. I have three of these drives I caught on sale for 54.99 and have them in Raid Zero as well and I am pulling a 6.3 performance rating on Windows 7 Ultimate same OS as my friend and I only spent $144.00 these Drives are the best for the Money I had one Veliciraptor and returned it tripled my space and performance 19200 GB now instead of 300 Can't beat it Rideout Computer Engineer these Drives are nice trust me

Cons: I am very satisfied to date nothing negative to report about these Drives no failure nothing

Other Thoughts: These Drives out perform Raptors I have owned both and have seen PC MARK test on both granted Raptors spin at 10,000 RPM but the cashe is 16 MB these Drives are 7200 RPM and 32 MB of Cashe they cancel out These dives for $250.00 less with triple the space so worth it

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  • Max
  • 8/31/2010 12:06:58 AM
  • Tech Level: above average
  • Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
5 out of 5 eggsDrive is silent if AAM is tweaked

Pros: Super silent if AAM is tweaked

Super fast load times as expected

Cons: Must google for AAM and download it and tweak to quiet mode to make drive quiet

Quiet mode will lower performance by 1 to 5% ish.

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