Western Digital Scorpio Black 500 GB Mobile Hard Disk Drive

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.

For more details, read our Comprehensive Review!

To discuss about this review, head over to the forum thread!

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Review

• Comprehensive Review

Model

• WD5000BEKT

Formatted Capacity

• 500,107 MB

Guaranteed Sectors

• 976,773,168

Bytes Per Sector

• 512 bytes

Platters

• 2 Platters

Read/Write Heads

• 4 Read/Write Heads

Spindle Speed

• 7,200 RPM

Cache Buffer

• 16 MB SDRAM

Internal Data Transfer Rate

• 108 MB/s (sustained, maximum)

Maximum I/O Transfer Rate

• 3.0 Gbits/s

Average Seek

• 12.0 ms

Track-to-Track Seek

• 2.0 ms (average)

Average Latency

• 4.2 ms

Drive Ready Time

• 4 seconds (average)

Interface

• Serial ATA 3 Gb/s

Supported SATA Data Transfer Mode

• 3.0 Gbits/s
• 1.5 Gbits/s

SATA Hotplug Capability

• Yes

Maximum Height

• 9.5 mm
• 0.374 inches

Maximum Width

• 69.85 mm
• 2.75 inches

Maximum Length

• 100.2 mm
• 3.94 inches

Maximum Weight

• 111 g
• 0.24 lb

Power Requirements

• +12V DC ± 10 %
• +5V DC ± 5 %

Power Consumption

• 1.8 W (Read / Write)
• 0.83 W (Idle)
• 0.2 W (Standby)
• 0.2 W (Sleep)

Ambient Temperature

• 0 °C to 60 °C (Operating)
• -40 °C to 70 °C (Non-Operating)

Maximum Shock

• 350 G @ 2 ms (Read)
• 1000 G @ 2 ms (Non-Operating)

Drive Acoustics

• 25 dBA average (Idle Mode)
• 28 dBA average (Performance Seek)
• 27 dBA average (Quiet Seek Mode)

Non-Recoverable Read Errors

• 1 error per 10¹⁴ bits read

Load/Unload Cycles

• 600,000 (minimum)

MTBF

• NA

Warranty

• 5 Years Limited Warranty (OEM or Retail)