Hard Disks

If a new hard disk is on your christmas shopping list then you should set your sights on on of these Seven S-ATA disks

Western Digital Caviar SE16

Manufacturer:	Price:
Western Digital	£149.95 inc VAT (37p per GB)
Reviewer:	Review Date:
James Morris	Dec 2005

	OVERALL RATING

SCORE

4/6

Verdict: A dream come true for big disk lovers

Like Seagate, Western Digital is confusing everyone by offering drives with distinctly different specifications under the same name. The 250GB WD2500KS version of the SE16 uses three 83GB platters, but has a S-ATA II interface. To make matters worse, there's a 400GB WD4000KS derivative of the SE16 as well, which has the same 83GB platters and S-ATA II support. In contrast, the 400GB WD4000KD variant of the SE16 that we tested this month packs 100GB onto each of its four platters, but has only a S-ATA interface.

On paper, you'd expect this to equate to faster performance than that of the WD4000KS, and we weren't disappointed. The SE16 aced our Paint Shop Pro benchmark, only falling behind the almost identical RE2. Its Far Cry level loading performance was only bettered by the two Hitachi drives when running in S-ATA II mode, and again by its RE2 stablemate. The synthetic HD Tach 3 RW results weren't quite so stellar though. The Caviar offered good sustained reading transfer rates, but only the Hitachi 7K500 is slower at writing.

As this is a huge 400GB drive, you pay a premium for the capacity, but not as much as you would for the Seagate or Hitachi alternatives. The SE16 may be as expensive as Russian fish eggs, but it's just as tasty.

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