The WD Caviar SE16 400 GB Gets Ready to Face The World

Western Digital Nomenclature Explained

Regular WD UltraATA drives are named based on their capacity followed by either the suffix BB (indicating 2 MB cache) or JB (8 MB). Serial ATA models are given the suffix JD ; they all feature 8 MB cache. If you come across a drive labeled JS, this is a SATA II model with 8 MB cache memory. Should you want the 16 MB cache option, it is a KS breed you need to look for.

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Caviar Drive SuffixCacheInterface
BB2 MBUltraATA/100
JB8 MBUltraATA/100
SB (RAID Edition)8 MBUltra ATA/100
JD8 MBSerial ATA/150
SD (RAID Edition)8 MBSerial ATA/150
JS8 MBSerial ATA/300
KS16 MBSerial ATA/300
YR (RAID Edition 2)16 MBSerial ATA/150 NCQ

The only suffix which is not part of this list is GD, which is used for the 10,000 RPM Raptor family drives, featuring 8 MB cache and the Serial ATA/150 interface.

Test Setup

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Hardware I
Processor2x Intel Xeon, 3.6 GHz1 MB L2 Cache (Nocona)
MotherboardAsus NCL-DSIntel E7520 ChipsetBIOS 1005
RAM2x 512 MB DDR2-400 Corsair ECC RegisteredCL 3-3-3-10
Controller PATA/USBIntel 82801EB (ICH5)
Controller SCSIAdaptec AIC-7902B Ultra320
Controller SATASilicon Image Sil3124 4xPort SATA Controller
Graphics CardATI RageXL , 8 MB
NetworkBroadcom BMC5721 PCIe Gigabit LAN Controller
OSWindows Server 2003Service Pack 1
Benchmarks
Performance Benchmarksc’t h2benchw 3.6PC Mark 2005 1.0.1
Drivers & Settings
Graphics DriverWindows Default Driver
Storage DriversIntel INF Drivers 7.0.0.1025
DirectX Version9.0c
Resolution1024x768, 32 Bit, 85 Hz
Hardware II
ProcessorIntel Pentium Extreme Edition 840(3.2 GHz, 2x 1 MB L2 Cache)
MotherboardAbit AW8-MaxIntel 955X ChipsetBIOS 1.3
RAM2x 512 MB - DDR2-667 (333 MHz)Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL (XMS5400 V1.2)(CL3-2-2-8-1T @ 333 MHz)
Controller IDEICH7
Graphics CardAsus Geforce 7800 GTGPU : NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GT (400 MHz)Memory : 256 MB DDR-SDRAM (500 MHz)
Network3Com 905B
OSWindows XP Professional 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2
Benchmarks
I/O PerformanceIOMeter 2003.05.10Fileserver-BenchmarkWebserver-BenchmarkDatabase-BenchmarkWorkstation-BenchmarkThroughput-Benchmark
Drivers & Settings
Graphics DriverNVIDIA Forceware 77.77
Storage DriverIntel Chipset Software Installation Utility 7.2.1.1003
DirectX Version9.0c
Resolution1024x768, 32 Bit, 85 Hz