Hard Drive Head-2-Head (Seagate Sata2 320GB vs. Western Digital Sata 2 320GB)

Installation
Installation is pretty easy. Screw the hard drive into an empty slot in your case, plug in the Power and Data cables, and away you go. I did all of the benchmarks for this drive with it on SATA2 mode, so I had to remove the jumper as well. Other than that, installation is a breeze.

Seagate Specifications
Features

• Perpendicular Recording: increases data density while decreasing moving parts for a more dependable drive.
• Serial ATA 3Gb/s (300MB/s): configurable from SATA 1.5Gb/s to SATA 3Gb/s for easy interoperability.
• Adaptive Fly Height: consistent read/write performance from the beginning to end of your computing workloads.
• Clean Sweep: automatically calibrates your drive each time you power up.
• Directed Offline Scan: runs diagnostics when storage access is not required.
• Seagate SoftSonic motor: whisper-quiet operation.
• Enhanced G-Force Protection: defends against handling damage.
• Unprecedented five-year warranty.

Specifications
Capacity and Interface

• Formatted Gbytes (512 bytes/sector): 320
• Interface: SATA 3Gb/s
• Max. External Transfer Rate (Mbytes/sec): N/A
• Avg. Sustained Transfer Rate (Mbytes/sec): >
• Average Seek: N/A
• Average Latency: 4.16ms
• Multisegmented Cache: 16384Kb
• Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200

Reliability/Data Integrity

• S.M.A.R.T. capable: Yes
• Nonrecoverable Read Errors per Bits Read: 1 per 1014
• Service Life/Limited Warranty (years): 5/5

Power Requirements

• +12 VDC +/-10% (amps typ operating): 2.8
• +5 VDC +/-5% (amps typ operating): N/A
• Power Management (watts)
• Seek: 12.6
• Read/Write: N/A
• Idle: 9.3
• Standby: 0.8

Environmental

• Operating Temperature (°C): 0 to 60
• Nonoperating Temperature (°C): 70 to -40
• Operating Shock (Gs) @ 2 msec: 63
• Non Operating Shock (Gs) @ 2 msec: 300
• Acoustics, Idle (Bels-typ sound power): 2.7

Physical

• Height (mm): 26.1
• Width (mm): 101.6 >
• Depth (mm): 146.99
• Weight (kg): 0.635

Warranty

• 5 Years

Western Digital Specifications
Features

• 16 MB cache
• Up to 300 MB/s transfer rate
• Cool operating temperature
• Whisper quiet with WhisperDrive™ and SoftSeek™ technologies

Specifications

• Formatted Capacity: 320,072 MB
• Capacity: 320 GB
• Interface: SATA 300 MB/s
• Number of Platters: 3
• User Sectors Per Drive: 625,142,448

Performance

• Rotational Speed: 7,200 RPM (nominal)
• Buffer Size: 16 MB
• Average Latency: 4.20 ms (nominal)
• Contact Start/Stop Cycles: 50,000 minimum

Seek Times (Average)

• Read Seek Time (Average): 8.9 ms
• Write Seek Time (Average): 10.9 ms (average)
• Track-To-Track Seek Time: 2.0 ms (average)
• Full Stroke Seek: 21.0 ms (average)

Transfer Rates:

• Buffer To Host (Serial ATA): 300 MB/s (Max)
• Buffer To Disk: 748 Mbits/s (Max)

Shock:

• Operating Shock (Read): 65G, 2 ms
• Non-operating Shock: 250G, 2 ms

Acoustics:

• Idle Mode: 28 dBA (average)
• Seek Mode 0: 33 dBA (average)
• Seek Mode 3: 29 dBA (average)

Temperature (Metric)

• Operating: 5° C to 55° C
• Non-operating: -40° C to 65° C

Humidity

• Operating: 5-95% RH non-condensing
• Non-operating: 5-95% RH non-condensing

Altitude (Metric)

• Operating: -305M to 3,050M
• Non-operating: -305M to 12,200M

Vibration

• Operating
• Linear: 20-300 Hz, .75G (0 to peak)
• Random: 10-300 Hz, 0.004 g² / Hz
• Non-operating
• Low Frequency: 5-20 Hz, 0.195 inches (double amplitude)
• High Frequency: 20-500 Hz, 4.0G (0 to peak)

Warranty

• WD Caviar SE16 hard drives carry a Standard Warranty Period of three (3) years.

Warranty

• WD Caviar SE16 hard drives carry a Standard Warranty Period of three (3) years.