WESTERN DIGITAL Hard Drive - Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS - 500GB - SATA 3Gb/s - 3.5in - 7200rpm - 16MB Buffer

Performance and reliability for everyday computing.

With SATA and PATA interfaces and cache sizes up to 32 MB, this series of drives offer a full range of performance features. Pick the drive that suits your needs with the confidence in knowing that all WD Caviar Blue drives are built to the highest standards of quality and reliability.

To make drive selection simple, we've gathered all our popular WD Caviar SE16, WD Caviar SE, and WD Caviar drives under one umbrella we call WD Caviar Blue. Built to Western Digital's awarding winning quality standards, these drives are available in a full range of performance features.

Key Features

Interface
PATA - Enhanced integrated drive electronics (EIDE), also called Parallel ATA (PATA), hard drives have been the standard in the computer industry for more than 10 years.

SATA - Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives are quickly becoming the new standard. Motherboard manufacturers now include SATA inputs on their boards. Because of their considerably narrower cables, SATA hard drives provide increased airflow and less clutter and in the computer system compared to PATA drives.

The performance difference - PATA drives support data transfer rates up to 100MB/sec, and all WD Caviar Blue SATA drive support 3 Gb/s transfer rates.

How to choose - Our handy Interface Guide can help you make your selection.
Solid performance - With SATA and PATA interfaces and cache sizes up to 32 MB, this series of drives offer a full range of performance features.

Capacity - We offer WD Caviar Blue drives with capacities up to 1 TB because you can never have too much storage space.

Reliability - We understand the importance of your data, and we are committed to protecting that data with exceptionally reliable products, advanced data protection technology and superior customer support.

Cool - Keeping the drive cool enhances reliability. WD continues to develop new and innovative ways to keep drives cool while they are operating.

Quiet - The technology that Tom's Hardware Guide called "very fast and nearly silent" is used throughout this family of drives. Our 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.

NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit. (Available on 120 GB capacities and above)

IntelliSeek - Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration. (Available on 120 GB capacities and above)

Compatible - We perform tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in our FIT Lab and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give our customers confidence that our drives will work in their systems.