Western Digital WD5000KSRTL/WD5000AAKS Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 7 x 3.9 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FBSREK
• Item model number: WD5000KSRTL
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

From the manufacturer

The WD Caviar SE16 7200 RPM next-generation SATA hard drive features 500 GB of storage and a 16 MB cache for lightning-fast performance. Yes, these reliable drives are fast, but they still deliver technologically advanced acoustics and cool operation. Designed for high-performance computers, multimedia and gaming systems.

Key Features

16 MB cache - Bigger cache means faster performance. A massive 16 MB cache combined with up to 300 MB/s transfer rate make these ultra-fast drives the perfect solution for the fully loaded PC with a fast processor.

Cool operating temperature - WD hard drives are designed to have the lowest power consumption of any high-capacity, desktop-class hard drive which lowers the operating temperature for enhanced drive reliability.

Whisper quiet - These highly reliable drives deliver technologically advanced acoustics. With its WhisperDrive and SoftSeek technologies, WD has minimized noise to levels virtually imperceptible to the human ear in home and business environments.

How this WD hard drive protects your data

• Data Lifeguard is an exclusive set of data protection features, including shock protection, an environmental protection system and real-time embedded error detection and repair. WD's Data Lifeguard technology automatically finds, isolates, and repairs problems that may develop over the life of a hard drive.
• Data Lifeguard Tools are software utilities designed for WD hard drives that work with the embedded Data Lifeguard features to make hard drive installation, diagnostics and repair both simple and worry-free. (Download Data Lifeguard Tools)
• ShockGuard instantaneously protects the hard drive against damage from bumps and vibrations while it is running. This technology enables WD Caviar drives to achieve industry-leading shock specifications.

Product Description

WD Caviar SE16 7200 RPM next-generation SATA hard drive features 500 GB of storage and a 16 MB cache for lightning-fast performance. Yes, this reliable drive is fast, but it still delivers technologically advanced acoustics and cool operation. Designed for high-performance computers, multimedia and gaming systems.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Hard Drive for the Mac Pro, July 1, 2007

By 

A. Abrams (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital WD5000KSRTL/WD5000AAKS Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I purchased three of these for my Mac Pro Quad Core desk top which I purchased at Amazon. One 500Gb is set up as stand-alone/backup hard drive and Two 500Gb are set up as a RAID. They installed very quickly without any issues at all, are fast and work well with a Dual Processor Intel system, and are super quiet. I emphasize how quiet they are since I've had many Maxtor brand hard drives which while are quite reliable as well, but, seem to vibrate annoyingly at a frequency that resonates through the PC case. These WDs are in fact much quieter considering that TWO of the 500 GB SATAs plus another stand-alone 250 (comes with the Mac Pro for OS/boot drive) and a 3rd 500 Gb WD SATA drive of the same model (a total of four installed) are all installed and running so quietly. There's no noise or vibration to hint that 4 of these are inside the Mac Pro case. Read and Write performance on both the RAIDS and stand alones has been excellent. Highly recommended.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shhhhhhhhhhhh...., November 28, 2006

By 

F. T. Zvovushe "frankz00" (Fairfield, CT, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital WD5000KSRTL/WD5000AAKS Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

Not only is this drive much faster than my old IDE drive with 8M cache, it is as quiet as can be. In fact, if I didn't see my screen updating, I'd think the drive was dead it's so quiet! It's almost night and day the difference in noise!!!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Replaced 4 of 4 < 1 year, December 30, 2007

By 

Salitpa "or is it Satilpa" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital WD5000KSRTL/WD5000AAKS Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

WD replaced first with WD5000AAKS, second replacement, WD5000KS.. Be sure to register your drives with WD when you get them. One remaining drive (not replacement) making recurrent sound of winding down but no obvious performance problems. Ran WD boot CD diagnostics (short version) on each drive before 2nd drive went bad but nothing showed up. 22-JAN-08 number 3 died today. Still have noise. Mar-08 4th and last drive died. Replacement noiser than ever. Noticed these replacements are "recertified". No more Western Digital for me.