The ATA 100 version of the Western Digital Caviar is not a terribly impressive
drive. The 200 GB version we tested is however the cheapest 200 GB drive in
the group test, if only by a couple of pounds.
The drive is slow, with a 9.9 ms seek time, and a low PC mark score. The drive
is also a little on the hot and noisy side. Western Digitals specifications
for the drive claim 34 dBA at idle, and 37 dBA when seeking. This is certainly
quite loud compared with most other modern drives, which can be drowned out
by a 25 dBA CPU fan. If you want a cheap 200 GB, it would perhaps be best to
spend another £2 and get the Maxtor.
