WD6400AAKS @ MicroCenter $70

It's at newegg with free shipping for $75 (for those that cannot go in store).
 
Both the Black and Blue 640GB units use two 320GB platters. What makes the Black series "performance" is 32MB of cache and double processors. The performance increase, most say, is insignificant. If you need a longer warranty, go with the Black. Otherwise the Blue is fine for $5-10 less. I'm running two Blues myself.
 
i always thought caviars were thrash? Am i mistaken?
 
Well, I've always bought Seagate, but these 640's perform well, have a good warranty, are of good value, seem really popular, and if I had the cash I'd buy two right now and stripe them.
 
silent-circuit said:
...way to bring back the 90s. That was a single series of drives that've long since been replaced entirely.
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Many not by choice;) Had to deal with roughly 40 of these deathstars in an engineering department in which Dell installed these drives by default. All failed eventually. Outside of that and having 3 of those older series die myself, I wouldn't buy these regardless of cost even though I'm sure they probably fixed the issues.

BTW, Amazon has them for 69.99 Shipped:
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WD6400AAKS-Caviar-Internal/dp/B0017XUX7O
 
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mryerse said:
Not a lot, but it's wort the $5. The black drives are WD's performance line (other than rapters of course), and the 640 is the fastest one (faster than the larger 1TB drives). I think it has to do with the number of platters.

See for yourself: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1365774&highlight=aaks+aals
Click to expand...

The other AAKS and AALS drives (500GB 750GB, and 1 TB) drives in both series use 250 GB platters (two, three, and four such platters, respectively), while the 640 GB drives use two 320 GB platters (this is true of both the AAKS (Blue) and AALS (Black) series drives; the AAKS is the Caviar SE16 series in new packaging).

Unless you truly need 750 GB or 1 TB in a single drive, I'd go with the 640 GB AAKS or AALS drives for performance reasons.

Also, all eight drives (both series) support Native Command Queueing (which make them nice for AHCI setups).
 
PGHammer said:
The other AAKS and AALS drives (500GB 750GB, and 1 TB) drives in both series use 250 GB platters (two, three, and four such platters, respectively), while the 640 GB drives use two 320 GB platters (this is true of both the AAKS (Blue) and AALS (Black) series drives; the AAKS is the Caviar SE16 series in new packaging).
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The 1TB drive is 3x333GB~ platters, not 4x250GB. The only 4 platter 1TB drive WD has made is the first revision of the WD10EACS.
 
If someone cares - I just rejected two packages from newegg for poor packaging...I had ordered two WD black...640GB and 1TB. I am easy going but that was just bad.

I am ordering my hard drives from elsewhere.
 
Bambi005 said:
i always thought caviars were thrash? Am i mistaken?
Click to expand...

Lol take a look at my sig. I've been 100% WD bar my horrible Samsung experience, and that 1TB Seagate for back-up only.

If someone cares - I just rejected two packages from newegg for poor packaging...I had ordered two WD black...640GB and 1TB. I am easy going but that was just bad.

I am ordering my hard drives from elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Yeah I haven't ordered an HD from Newegg in ages.
 
wayliff said:
If someone cares - I just rejected two packages from newegg for poor packaging...I had ordered two WD black...640GB and 1TB. I am easy going but that was just bad.

I am ordering my hard drives from elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I have been avoiding non retail items from newegg because of poor packaging with OEM or Open Box items, so I took a chance on the the same drive at amazon. Glad I did. Hopefully this is standard packaging for amazon (yes it was double boxed, only item I ordered, and I would have been just fine with the smaller box)

AmazonHD.JPG
 
Holy crap they put it in anti-static packaging and with foam padding! Damn, that's good service.

Newegg just wraps mine with that big bubble wrap and in a semi-small box. Pretty pathetic.
 
silent-circuit said:
...way to bring back the 90s. That was a single series of drives that've long since been replaced entirely.
Click to expand...

that wasn't the 90's it was about 4 years ago. I still wouldn't trust them myself. There entire line should have been recalled, it was that bad.

I've never had a problem with seagate or western digital
 
SolidBladez said:
Holy crap they put it in anti-static packaging and with foam padding! Damn, that's good service.

Newegg just wraps mine with that big bubble wrap and in a semi-small box. Pretty pathetic.
Click to expand...

Lol that foam padding looks good enough for SPCR acoustic room. Very very impressed.
 
MrMike said:
The 1TB drive is 3x333GB~ platters, not 4x250GB. The only 4 platter 1TB drive WD has made is the first revision of the WD10EACS.
Click to expand...

Which one of you are certain about this? I'm picking up either two of the 640GB AALS or two of the 1TB AALS Black drives and I'm wanting the best performers. I thought for sure though that the Western Digital 1TB AALS used three large platters.
 
I have (3) WD6400AAKS (640GB Blue) and (1) WD1001FALS (1TB Black) and I can testify that a single 640GB Blue is faster than a single 1TB Black. I can't comment on the AALS vs. AAKS.
 
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