Western Digital WD1600JSRTL Caviar 160GB SATA Hard Drive
Keeps more of your data in high-speed memory for unsurpassed performance in its class. Fast 7200 RPM spindle speed and next-generation SATA 300 MB/s interface. For even higher performance, consider WD Caviar SE16 SATA 300 MB/s hard drives. Cool operation results in the highest reliability, even in intensely hot environments such as digital video recorders. That's why these, the coolest on the market, are the drives of choice for the world's leading consumer electronics and PC manufacturers. WhisperDrive technology minimizes noise to levels near the threshold of human hearing. To cut seek noise, SoftSeek technology streamlines read/write seeking algorithms, resulting in more efficient operation. With high-performance family and business computing, these drives easily handle photo editing and data-intensive multimedia applications. For even higher performance, consider WD Caviar SE16 SATA hard drives. Average 21.0 ms Full Stroke Seek 300 MB/s Buffer To Host Transfer Rate 748 Mbits/s Buffer To Disk Transfer Rate Unit Dimensions - Height 1.028 x Length 5.787 x Width 4.00 Inch Unit Weight - 1.32 Pounds
Western Digital WD1600JSRTL Caviar 160GB SATA Hard Drive Accessories
 Kingston KVR667D2N5K2/2G ValueRam 2GB 667MHz DDR2 NonECC CL5 DIMM Memory - Kit of 2
Kingston KVR667D2N5/1G 1024MB 667MHz Non-ECC CL5 DDR II ValueRAM Memory
CORSAIR XMS2 4GB ( 2 X 2GB ) PC2-6400 800MHz 240-pin DDR2 CL5 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit - TWIN2X4096-6400C5
Lite-On SATA 20x Super All Write LightScribe Internal DVD/Dual Layer RW Drive (LH20A1L06)
Kingston DTI 4 GB USB Flash Drive
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core Processor, 2.40 GHz, 8M L2 Cache, LGA 775
LG Electronics GSA-H55NK DVD+/-RW Dl 20X Securdisk with Nero 12X RAM Software (Black)
Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
OCZ 2 GB DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum Revision 2 Dual Channel
AMD ADO4400DDBOX Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+ 2.3GHz Processor
Western Digital WD1600JSRTL Caviar 160GB SATA Hard Drive Reviews
There's not a lot to say about a good hard drive. It's really kind of deceptive, but whatever. The Western Digital series is my personal favorite because of how quiet they are. I also don't notice a perceivable difference in speed between this and my Seagate drive of the same size - only that the Seagate is a dozen times louder. So while the case says 160Gb, when it's in your computer, your computer will tell you that it's only 149 Gb. For people who don't realize it - this isn't actually a 160Gb drive - it's a 160 billion byte drive (a gigabyte is actually 1024^3 bytes - 1073741824 to be exact.
Configuring the drive as a boot device is a little less than intuitive, though; somehow I ended up screwing up my boot order and making my copy of Windows XP MCE unbootable. It was somewhat of a necessity for me because I wanted to dual boot Windows XP and Vistathe free Ubuntu Linux partitioning tool would not work on one of my computers, so I had to consider other options. Simply select that option using the included software, and the drive will quickly be recognized and formatted however you wish. I strongly encourage those reading this review to research the topic of installing an OS on a second hard drive very thoroughly before performing this action. That having been said, the end of the connector that connects to the drive fits somewhat tightly and requires a little force to be properly inserted. It's probably a simple thing I did to end up in the situation that came about, but I don't want it to happen to anybody else. As the review title says, this is a pretty good buy insofar as quality.
It is in fact much easier to configure the drive to serve as information storage. Rather than purchase a third-party partitioning tool to be used once and never again, I decided to buy a second hard drive, which in the case of the WD1600JSRTL ended up costing only a little more than the partitioning software. This comes out to about fifty-six cents per gigabyte, which is not particularly cost effective.
As far as price/performance, though the drive itself offers pretty good performance, it's a little pricey when one considers the cost-per-gigabyte. Installation was about as easy as my HP m7640n Media Center PC allowsit's a tight fit, but that's not Western Digital's fault. However, higher capacity hard drives cost somewhat-to-considerably more than the WD1600JSRTL, even if their cost-per-gigabyte is lower.
After physical installation, it's simply a matter of powering up the computer, installing the included software, and then configuring the drive in the manner of your choosing. But such is life; I guess I'm stuck with Vista now, good or bad. Your individual results will vary in this capacity, though the actual act of fitting the SATA and power connectors is not terribly difficult.
So if you're in the market for an inexpensive hard drive for light to medium storage and/or need a second drive to dual boot two operating systems, then the WD1600JSRTL is worth a look. So far, I have had no problems.
These hard drives are very good. The data transfers fast and there in not much noise. They installed very easily and quickly. Overall, it is an excellent product.
These hard drive has an excelent perform. It is important to say that these is my first SATA Hard Drive, but I can absolutely recommend it.
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