Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: Cool quiet and fast. Like another reviewer, I noticed the WD "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows" sez an unknown SMART attribute failed. Pretty stupid to report a SMART attribute from a WD drive as "unknown". Looking closer at the WD site, this diagnostic is for first gen. serial ATA, and this drive is second generation. The drive seems to be very good. WD's website/diagnostics could stand some improvement.

Cons: There is apparently no WD diagnostic for this drive that runs under XP etc. I like Seagate's diagnostic better than WD's half-baked one anyway :)

Comments: This drive replaced a WD800JB which back in its day was very fast yet quiet. I have to say that the SE16 WD2500KS blows it away in speed and noise levels. My computer has never booted faster, levels in FarCry load quicker and it's all done with hardly any noise coming from the drive. Once again, Newegg provides a quality product at a competative price and has it quickly and safely in my hands in just a few days.

Pros: This hard drive is awesome! 250 GB of storage, fast access times and the drive is super quiet in my Rosewill R-Series case. Transfered my OS and all my files from my IDE hard drive (about 40 GB) to this SATA one and it only took an hour and 15 minutes.

Cons: None so far. I just wished I picked it up during the price drop.

Overall Review: Just remember that Windows XP won't recognize this drive in My Computer (but it'll show in the Device Manager) since it is over 137 GB. So in order for you to use it as storage or as a boot partition, you must download the Data Lifeguard Tools program from Western Digital(www.westerndigital.com). Then it'll recognize the drive and the program will ask you if you want to use it as storage or a boot partition and then it will format it and start with your request. After the process is over, My Computer will recognize it and now you can use it. Hope this helps!

Pros: This is a great drive. Works as it should. Newegg did a great job on the delivery and I had the parts including two of these drives within 3 days. Great price, great product, and great service. You can't beat it.

Cons: None

Overall Review: People using the NTFS or FAT32 file system and complaining of not having a full 250GB of available space should be ignored. People complaining about not receiving cables should also be ignored. Not giving an OEM hard drive 5 stars because of either of these issues shows ignorance and NewEgg should take their reviews and throw them in the trash where they belong.

Pros: QUICK. I'm running 2 of these in a 1+0 RAID setup and they are lightning quick. The 16MB cache along with this being a 300MB/S SATA-II drive entails a stable and fast platform

Cons: Make sure to use a SATA-II card. There's a jumper to have the H/D cap at 150MB/S for use on SATA-I controllers... But it doesn't work.

Overall Review: I'd recommend a H/D fan. They do get a little warm otherwise...

Pros: SATAII with 16MB Cache, this drive is quiet and crunches the data fast, perfect for video capture.

Cons: nothing bad about this drive...

Pros: This is a nice drive. Bought two of them an placed them into a RAID0 configuration. HD Tach reports an Avg Read of 109.5 MB/s with them in this configuration.

Cons: None so far

Overall Review: This was my first time setting up a RAID so I had to see for myself the performance gain from RAID0 from standalone. So I did a fresh install with individual drives and the final with them in a RAID 0 running HD Tach each time. RAID 0 came through as 109.5 MB/s and while the actual individual times I do not remember I do remember they were in their 50's so placing two of these puppies together pretty much did double my access time. Nice...

Pros: Inexpensive, good performance.

Cons: Runs hot. Does not like 24/7 RAID5 use.

Overall Review: I have a RAID setup with 6 250 GB 7200.8 drives from another company. After having one fail a few months ago, and another fail a few weeks ago, I decided to experiment with this drive in the array as I'm building a much bigger server and wanted to see how it behaved compared to the brand I usually buy. Big mistake. My RAID5 array crashed repeatedly and I couldn't keep the system up for more than 48 hours at a time. Once the RMA warranty replacement came back, I popped it back in and voila, no more issues. I can't recommend this drive for 24/7 applications, and Western Digital apparently agrees as I've read they ask for a 40% duty cycle i.e. they expect the drive will be used for 8-10 hours a day maximum.