Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB
PrintFaster than a VelociRaptor, and six times the capacity
After months of making do with 5,400rpm and 5,900rpm 2TB drives and odd-bird 1.5TB drives, it’s finally happening: 7,200rpm two-terabyte hard drives are coming to rigs near you. First out of the gate and into our greedy arms is Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Black, the performance cousin to the 2TB Caviar Green we reviewed in May. And brother, it’s just what we’ve been waiting for.
The 2TB Caviar Black is spec’d to impress, with four 500GB platters, two processors, 64MB of cache, and a dual-stage actuator system that puts a fine-tuned piezoelectric actuator head at the end of the standard magnetic actuator, enabling fine-tuned tracking for speedy seek times. The Caviar Black also comes with WD’s standard No-Touch ramp loader, so the read/write head never comes in contact with the platters, increasing the drive’s lifespan.
If this is the shape of 7,200rpm drives to come, we're wetting ourselves with excitement.
All these little extras add up, and the 2TB Caviar Black offers the speediest sustained reads and writes—exceeding 112MB/s each—of any consumer magnetic hard drive we’ve ever tested. That’s 15 percent faster than the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB’s read speeds. The 1.5TB Barracuda, previously our high-capacity speed champion, couldn’t keep up in sustained writes, either—here the Caviar was nearly 30 percent faster. And thanks to the greater areal density of the Caviar drive, its random-access read and write times are just 7.6ms and 5.0ms, respectively. You won’t find faster seeks short of a VelociRaptor or solid state drive. Of course, solid state drives offer the best performance—the $370 Patriot Torqx, our Best of the Best SSD, achieves sustained reads of over 200MB/s, sustained writes of over 175MB/s, and seek times measured in the tenths of milliseconds.
The 2TB Caviar Black has an MSRP of $300, the same price that low-powered 2TB drives like the Caviar Green and Barracuda LP debuted at earlier this year. Street prices, of course, will be lower, and keep falling—the first waves of 2TB drives, the “green” ones, are already selling for as low as $200. And the Caviar Black’s sustained reads and writes trump the fastest of those green drives by 20MB/s.
The 1.5TB Barracuda held a spot on our Best of the Best list for more than a year, but now it’s been firmly supplanted—the 2TB Caviar Black is officially our favorite hard drive.
Expect 7,200rpm 2TB drives from Hitachi, Seagate, and others in the next few months as well, with the aim of high performance. But if you buy a capacity hard drive today, next week, or even half a year from now, you can’t go wrong with this Caviar Black. It has the fastest sustained read and write speeds of any consumer magnetic hard drive we’ve ever tested. It’s faster in any benchmark than all standard hard drives save the WD VelociRaptor, which still holds the edge in burst speeds and random-access times—barely. Think about that for a second: You can get VelociRaptor-busting speed and six-and-a-half times the capacity for $300. We’re sold.
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB
Lennon
Stupid-fast; heaps of cache; dual-action actuator arm.
Lenin
Random-access writes; burst speeds still slightly slower than VelociRaptor.
9
Benchmarks
| WD Caviar Black 2TB | Seagate Barracuda 72.00.11 1.5TB | WD VelociRaptor 300GB | Patriot Torqx 128GB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| h2benchw Average Sustained Transfer Rate Read (MB/s) | 112.3 | 98.2 | 98.31 | 205.4 |
| h2benchw Average Sustained Transfer Rate Write (MB/s) | 112.2 | 85.7 | 98.22 | 175.1 |
| h2benchw Random Access Read (ms) | 7.6 | 12.5 | 7.24 | 0.11 |
| h2benchw Random Access Write (ms) | 5.0 | 5.3 | 3.42 | 0.31 |
| HDTach Burst Read (MB/s) | 213.7 | 209.3 | 249.7 | 163.0 |
| PCMark Vantage Overall Score | 6,452 | 5,241 | 6,082 | 21,247 |
Best scores are bolded. All drives were tested on our standard test bed using a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700, EVGA 680i SLI board. HDTach 3.0.1.0, h2benchw, and Premiere Pro CS3 scores were obtained in Windows XP; PCMark Vantage 2005 scores were obtained in Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit.
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jackhope
December 22, 2011 at 6:51am
As Benchmarks points out, the comparisons between the Seagate, Caviar Green and Caviar Black don't trend right. Even worse when comparing the values, the October 09 article looks like SSD specs FOR BOTH HDDs. What a mess!
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January 06, 2010 at 3:33pm
I have only 2 words to say, RAID 0! ;-) Or is that an acronym and a number?
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December 29, 2011 at 1:59am
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January 05, 2012 at 3:15am
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maolin34
November 08, 2009 at 5:58am
The benchmark scores don't seem to add up here.
In the October issue, the Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB had benchmark speeds that match those listed in the November issue for the Patriot Torx 128GB SSD. Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB has benchmark scores that are lower than the WD Caviar Green 2TB in the October issue comparison.
Patriot Torx 128GB October Issue (205.4, 175.1, 0.11, 0.31, 674, and 21,247)
WD Caviar Green 2TB October Issue (175.1, 150.1, 0.16, 0.12, 945, 14,088)
WD Caviar Black 2TB November Issue (112.3, 112.2, 7.6, 5.0, 213.7, 6,452)
Whats's the point of the benchmarks if they are wrong? Not to mention that no one caught this mistake?
Can any of you imagine a 2TB HDD with sustained transfers of 205 and 175?
jeona
January 04, 2012 at 2:24am
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hutchinsonsteve
December 11, 2009 at 1:50pm
As Benchmarks points out, the comparisons between the Seagate, Caviar Green and Caviar Black don't trend right. Even worse when comparing the values, the October 09 article looks like SSD specs FOR BOTH HDDs. What a mess!
jeona
January 03, 2012 at 10:10pm
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EthicSlave
October 25, 2009 at 5:04am
Consider the following when you wonder why this drive does not have a 10.
1. The original 150gb velociraptor only achieved a 9 kick ass rating.
2. The unrevised 300gb velociraptor only achieved a 8 without a kick ass rating.
3. 10 is usualy reserved for the best of the best, so in theory, had it beaten out the velociraptor in random access times it would probably have attained a 10 perfect score the key word here is PERFECT.
keep up the good work guys... JACob
lagai
January 08, 2012 at 10:31pm
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domih2009
October 24, 2009 at 8:53am
NewEgg sells the enterprise/raid RE4-GP version there WD2002FYPS there http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136365
But the WD2003FYPS is not on their catalog yet.
The regular black caviar is there: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136456&cm_re=WD2001FASS-_-22-136-456-_-Product but is deactived.
It would be nice if the article mentioned which one they are talking about (Caviar Black $ or RE4-GP $+ or RE4 $++ ?)
According to the picture, the WD2001FASS?
lagai
January 06, 2012 at 10:43pm
I have been reading all the replies here, i had a great deal of info, some significant most are not. But i shall say it very active page.
Khaled
October 24, 2009 at 10:55am
Thanks for the info..
it appears that this will take a while to be available on newegg, so I will just install W7 on a regular drive for now (what's a good cloner app for later?)
domih2009
October 24, 2009 at 12:35pm
I don't know. If I have to clone drives (same size) I simply use "dd" (UNIX). Otherwise, I install from scratch. Otherwise, MPC likes http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm is I correcly recollect.
domih2009
October 24, 2009 at 9:00am
If you want only one for a desktop or a single-drive NAS go with the WD2001FASS. If you want several for RAID go with the WD2003FYPS whose MSRP has not been published by WD yet.
<<...
Additional Features for WD RE4 2 TB Enterprise Hard Drives
WD RE4 drives feature 1.2 million hours MTBF, Active Power Save™,
enhanced RAFF™ technology, multi-axis shock sensor, native command
queuing (NCQ), pressure sensors, third generation dynamic fly height,
time limited error recovery (TLER), and an extensive and enhanced
testing process to ensure long-term reliability for demanding
enterprise applications.Price and Availability
The WD Caviar Black 2 TB GB (model WD2001FASS) hard drives are
available through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer's
Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Caviar Black 2 TB drive is
$299 USD. The WD RE4 2 TB (model WD2003FYYS) drive is currently being
qualified by OEMs. Both drives are covered by a five-year limited
warranty. More information about WD Caviar Black 2 TB desktop hard
drives may be found on the company's Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=733 and the WD RE4 2 TB enterprise hard drives at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=732....>>
http://www.wdc.com/en/company/releases/PressRelease.asp?release=18b8d283-2393-4d8d-90dd-a11f2f8ebcf1
lagai
January 07, 2012 at 1:57am
Its amazing, looking at the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you provide. I'll bookmark your blog and visit it weekly for your new posts.
nekollx
October 23, 2009 at 12:52pm
with 7,200 drives meeting the speed of raptors isn't it about time for WD to revise the "speed king"?
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
mps725
October 23, 2009 at 6:56am
A new harddrive with another .5 terabytes is released every week, at some point it has to be considered unprofound that a company releases a new one. The very fact of the matter is they could probably make HD's with 20 terabytes and 10k+ RPM but they don't because incremental speed/capacity increases net more money because of yokals who buy these things everytime they come out for the extra .5 TB space.
Of course I am speaking without facts, maybe they really do labor over getting that extra .5 TB into the drive EVERYTIME a new one is released. Maybe they throw a huge party at the company,WE GOT ANOTHER .5TB INTO OUR DRIVE, PARTY AT 7.
It all seems reminiscent of how how Iraq has better Cell technology than America because the decision to improve networks wasn't made by a coorporation (Profit driven) but rather a military tyrant (Death to america driven)
the_river
October 23, 2009 at 6:19am
I saw this advertised on Newegg yesterday, and I jumped over here to see what was the current favorite drive in Best of the Best...and it was the same. I didn't see the review yet but you were fast to get it out.
I currently have a Raptor (love the speed!) but the 67GB of converted movies (I'm not even half done with my DVD collection) is drying my drive up. I wanted performance AND capacity especially since most of my movies are around 2GB a peice and I load games like Unreal 3 and L4D. My DSL connection is my PING downfall, but I'm still the first one on the map 98% of the time.
Being bound to the SATA I spec isn't easy with a SATA II mobo, though most of the time the pipeline is enough for what I do but I didn't want to go backwards in speed. I also wanted it as my primary drive, not a secondary like my 250GB WD for video editing. Thanks Max PC for the great review. I'll wait a couple of months and buy it when it drops down to around $200. I'll install my full copy of Windows 7 then since the RC is still good.
Appreciate the excellent review.
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