Western Digital Caviar Black

Western Digital divides their internal hard drives into four distinct families :

• the Desktop Storage line - WD Caviar Black, WD Caviar Green and WD Caviar Blue drives,
• the Mobile Storage line - WD Scorpio Black and WD Scorpio Blue drives,
• the Enterprise Storage line - WD VelociRaptor, WD S25 and WD RE4/3 drives, and finally,
• the CE (Consumer Electronics) Storage line - WD AV drives.

Western Digital's Desktop Storage line covers three different products :

• WD Caviar Black - for high-performance applications
• WD Caviar Blue - performance and reliability for everyday computing
• WD Caviar Green - cool, quiet and eco-friendly drives

Caviar Black and Caviar Blue drives run at the same spindle speed of 7200 RPM, but there are some fundamental difference between the two lines. The Caviar Black drives, for example, feature dual processors and generally have a larger cache. Let's take a look at the key features of the WD Caviar Black 2 TB hard disk drive (WD2001FASS) :

• Dual Processor - Twice the processing power to maximize performance.

• Large Cache - Bigger, faster cache of 64 MB means faster performance.

• Dual actuator technology - A head positioning system with two actuators that improves positional accuracy over the data tracks. The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy. (2 TB only)

• StableTrac - Secures the motor shaft at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking, during read and write operations.

• NoTouch Ramp Load Technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.

Let's find out how well this drive performs!

Packaging

Like most OEM-packed hard drives, the WD Caviar Black 2 TB hard disk drive came in just a sealed anti-static plastic packet with a sachet of dessicants to keep it dry. Other than the sparse packaging (and no documentation), this OEM-packed drive is no different from the retail version, right down to the excellent 5-year warranty.

All you need to do is just cut open the plastic packet and slide out the drive. Be sure to ground yourself before removing and handling the hard disk drive as static can damage it. In particular, you should try to avoid touching the exposed PCB located at the base of the drive.

If you like your packaging or need to deliver this hard disk drive by mail, you can always opt for the retail version of the drive. It comes with its own box and proper padding to ensure the drive survives a mail delivery. Of course, the retail package comes with a price premium as well.

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