Western Digital Scorpio Drives

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 Mobile Storage line has two different products :

• Western Digital Scorpio Black - for high-performance applications
• Western Digital Scorpio Blue - for big storage capacity

There are two fundamental differences between the two drive families - spindle speed and storage capacity. The Scorpio Blue drives spin at 5,400 RPM and have a maximum capacity of 1 TB. The Scorpio Black drives, on the other hand, are limited to a maximum capacity of 500 GB but have a much higher spindle speed of 7,200 RPM. The Scorpio Black drives offer these key features :

• Desktop-class performance for notebook computers - With 7200 RPM spin speed, 16 MB cache, and capacities up to 500 GB, these drives enable you to have the best of both worlds: the capacity and performance of a desktop PC with the convenience and portability of a notebook.

• Low power consumption -With technologies like IntelliSeek, which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption; and SecurePark, which reduces power by parking the heads during low power idle mode, this drive delivers 5400 RPM-equivalent power consumption in a 7200 RPM drive.
   
• Quiet - In a notebook drive, silence is golden. WD's exclusive WhisperDrive™ combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market. These algorithms also optimize the way a drive seeks for data, which significantly improves power consumption. So now silence (and longer battery life) is golden.
   
• Reliable and rugged - WD's ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks. WD's SecurePark technology parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.

Today, we will look at the ultimate drive from the Scorpio Black family - the 500 GB WD Scorpio Black hard disk drive. With 500 GB of storage capacity packed into just two platters, this drive promises to provide the best combination of performance and storage capacity.

Packaging

Like most OEM-packed hard drives, the WD Scorpio Black 500 GB 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 electricity 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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