System Builder Marathon: Day Three

Hard Drives: 2x WD Caviar RE2 WD5000YS

If one RE2 WD5000YS drive was good enough for the mid-priced system, two in a RAID 0 array should be perfect here. These are "RAID Edition" drives, just another sign that these may be the perfect choice for this build.

We used two Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000YS in our high-end system

Using a RAID controller allows the builder to take advantage of Western Digital's Time Limited Recovery technology (which previously caused a minor concern in the mid-priced build), with no need to request special software to disable it. This technology, when paired with the latest drive firmware, prevents drives from dropping out of an array due to slow response during error recovery.

All of Western Digital's "Enterprise Series" drives come with a five-year warranty. The RE2 WD5000YS cost $160 each.