Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD5000AAKS

Other products by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 4 x 1 inches ; 1.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000RT5AE0
• Item model number: WD5000AAKS
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #143 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 19, 2005

Product Description

Product Description
WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKS 500GB Caviar Sata 7200 Rpm 16MB 3.5IN

Product Description
WESTERN DIGITAL WD5000AAKS 500GB Caviar Sata 7200 Rpm 16MB 3.5IN

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just the drive, ma'am..., March 28, 2008

By	Brad Blumenthal (Lincolnwood, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As M. Mola points out, this is an OEM package. It not only has no instructions or software, it also does not have a connector cable, an IDE four-pin to SATA power adapter, or mounting screws.

If you want to replace a failed drive and don't want the clutter that usually comes with a drive, this is for you.

If you want to add an additional drive to an existing system, you'll need to get the cabling and mounting hardware elsewhere.

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Western Digital 640GB Caviar SATA Hard Drive, July 27, 2008

By	rorschach99 "rorschach99" (Wabash, Indiana) - See all my reviews

I build computers as a hobby. Why pay for someone else to build one (one size fits does not fit all) when building your own is not too difficult and you can build with quality parts tailored to your own specific needs. Case in point, the WD 640GB HDD. Large hard drive prices are economical right now. Generally speaking, the larger the drive, the less the cost per gigabyte (GB). At Amazon's prices the WD 640GB drive was about $10 bucks more than the WD Caviar 16 320 GB drive with the same cache. Western Digital has recently color coded their drives: Black (high performance), Blue (mainstream) and Green (no brainer: ecologically friendly-for a hard drive). Where does marketing get these ideas? The Caviar 16 640GB falls into the Blue category. It is amazingly fast and quiet, thanks to its 16 MB cache and 3 Gb/s transfer rate. The technology is interesting in that WD utilized two 320GB platters which gives this drive an edge as compared to say 750 GB drives with similar cache size. The drive itself is nearly silent and the quietest HDD I have used. Its rated over 90MB/sec read and write speeds, which is very fast. Yes there are faster hard drives, but for the money this drive is an excellent choice.

My only complaint: the drive is warranted for 3 years not 5.

Amazon had the lowest price I found, and shipped the drive quickly. Turn around time from placing the order to delivery at my door step was four days. Stable, reliable and excellent price to performance ratio, this drive is a great choice for everyday computing needs.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WD 500GB Caviar, January 2, 2008

By	Jim Penname "Old Posthumous" (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

I got this in desperation when I needed a disc drive for my G5.
It has been months.
Not a hiccup.
It is very fast. Noticeably faster than the stock 160.
And it is very quiet.
It has increased my system speed and gives lots of room for expansion.
I am impressed.
Update January 2009. This drive is still going strong and works great every day.