Excellent HD for the Price and Performance
Written: Jul 15 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast and quiet, good price for quality
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: It's fast and quiet, and quite reliable. At 120GB for about $100...really a great price!!!
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| paulphoto's Full Review: Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 120.0GB Int... |
Not until about 7 months ago, I thought I was content with my Maxtor 8GB hard drive. I have been using this hard drive since 1997, and it has done quite a fine job. But time has changed. Since January this year, I got seriously involved with working with photo image files that can occupy disk space as large as 35 MB per data file. For example, even when I need to make photo prints, my HP 7150 photo printer requires that I have at least 500-700 MB disk space (for optimized resolution at 4800x1200 dpi). If I put three 4x6-inch photos in one 8.5x11-inch paper, the print software requires an even larger disk space. I was also working with Photoshop that involved handling extremely large data files. I often work with layers. Sometimes, one file contains as many as 8 layers (with each layer representing an individual image file that normally takes up disk space of about 30 MB). I usually do not flatten the layers in the final file and its size can be as large as 1GB. To print this file, it requires such an enormous disk space, not to mention a larger virtual memory.
Originally, my Maxtor 8GB HD had three partitions. Then I had to reformat it to have only two, so that the main drive can have enough space required by my HP 7150 print software and Photoshop applications. I even had to strip away most of my accessory software applications to save disk space. Such sacrifice was clearly not a healthy practice, and my Maxtor HD still could not provide enough space to handle such large data files. So I decided it was time to look for a new hard drive with bigger capacity.
A friend of mine recommended this drive to me. I ordered it online from Newegg.com at quite a reasonable price ($133 + free shipping/handling).
GENERAL SPECIFICATION
This is a standard internal hard drive that can slide in the 3.5-inch disk bay. It is an IDE-interface (Ultra ATA/100) cable type drive that connects to the main motherboard via its 40-pin cable head. It uses the regular power cable.
This unit is quite fast. It operates at an 8.9 milli-second access time (or seek time) and a rate of 7200 rpm (revolution per minute), with a transfer rate of 100 Mb per second (Mbps). On average it has a write seek time of 10.9 ms. Track-to-track search time of 2.0 ms. It has an impressive buffer size of 8 MB. The unit is advertised of having 120 gigabytes (120GB). However, after partitioning and formatting, its total capacity is reduced to about 114GB. The 6GB loss of disk space was a result of three partitions I created in this drive, formatted in NTFS type. Below is a general specification of the unit:
Technical Specifications
Connectors: IDE – ATA/EIDE/ATAPI 40 Pin Header
Drive Type: Internal
Read Access Time: 8.9 ms
Write Access Time: 10.9 ms
Capacity: 120GB
Rotational Speed: 7200 rpm
System Type: PC
Transfer rate: 100 Mbps
Cache Size: 8 MB
Dimension (HxWxD): 1x4x5.8 inches
Weight: 1.3 lbs
INSTALLATION
I ordered this unit online from Newegg.com. It did not come with any special software for installation; it didn’t even come with a packaging material such as the commercial box shown in the picture above, just the drive unit in a sealed plastic bag. If you buy this unit from a local computer store, I suppose it will come complete in box and with information or instruction materials and, perhaps, a software for installation. But you would have to pay for it at a higher price.
Nevertheless, installation does not require any special software, if your PC has a CD-ROM drive and you can access it directly through its internal booting system via BIOS setup program to run Windows applications on the CD-ROM. Normally, the BIOS setup is set to automatically detect a hard drive (or a floppy drive if there is a disk in it). This setup can be changed so the computer now detects the CD-ROM drive.
Installation procedure is quite straightforward. If there is another device connected to the same cable to your PC, the jumper at the back of this drive must be set to Master Device or according to their corresponding positions. Then simply connect the power cable and the IDE interface cable to the motherboard. I set the BIOS setup program on my PC to access the CD-ROM drive to run my Windows 2000 for installation. When Windows 2000 is up and running, we only need to follow a step-by-step instruction, such as a number of partitions to create and format Windows system in the main partition, etc.
For my drive, I have divided it into three partitions: C, D and E, with C set aside only for Wins 2000 applications and operating system alone. Plan on being around your PC for about 2-3 hours during installation, because it takes quite a long time to format each partition (depending on the size of the partition). I estimated that it took about 50 minutes to format a 44.5GB partition. I don’t know much about computers, but I think this may depend on the speed of your PC processor. Mine is running on a Pentium II at 350 MHz.
With that said, it does not really have any special system requirement. It is recommended that your system is a Pentium-class processor with Windows 95 or higher.
The 120GB, after formatting (in NTFS type), is reduced to about 114GB. So I lose about 6GB, but no big deal; 114GB is plenty of disk space!
PERFORMANCE
I am not really a computer geek. But one thing I notice about this drive compared to my old buddy Maxtor 8GB is that its operation is extremely smooth and quiet. During boot up, I cannot hear any sound it makes. With my Maxtor 8GB HD, I can easily hear the drive head move.
In terms of speed, the Western Digital 120GB is extremely fast. Most applications are loaded up and running quite instantly, even with my processor running at a modest speed of 350 MHz. Writing data information is also smooth and swift. I only have my Maxtor 8GB to compare and I can really see the dramatic difference.
My cousin often makes a joke that I definitely need a new computer with a faster processor. He is quite right, since I now work with large data files. The good thing is that this hard drive (like any other HDs) will operate on any PC system (provided it has compatible IDE interface cable), and therefore I can put this one on my new PC without any problem.
In terms of reliability, I have been using this hard drive regularly for the past four months (since March 2003) and I have not had any problems with it yet, thus far. With it being the second hard drive I have been using so far, I must say I am quite happy with its performance.
Final Words
Looking back, I could not believe (and was amazed) that I have survived for so long with the Maxtor 8GB disk space. What have I been doing all these years? Based on my 4-month experience with Western Digital Caviar 120GB Special Edition, without reservation, I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a larger disk space for their PC system.
When I bought this unit from Newegg.com back in March 2003, it was $133. I recently checked Newegg.com again and the price has dropped to $100. This is definitely a good hard drive at a great price!
Recommended:
Yes
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