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

Features
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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