WD Takes 3.5-inch HDDs to 640 GB

Western Digital has expanded the capacity of its its two-platter 3.5-inch desktop hard drives, now offering 7,200 rpm drives with 640 GB of storage.

Western Digital has expanded the capacity of its two-platter, 3.5-inch desktop hard drives all the way out to 640 GB, enabling media mavens and RAID fanatics everywhere to cram even more bits, bytes, and streams into their racks, desktop systems, and media servers. the new WD Caviar SE16s offer 3 Gb/s data transfer rates, 16 MB of cache, and 7,200 rpm speeds—with quiet operation and low heat emissions.

“The 640 GB capacity point will be an important one for our desktop customers, and WD is leading high-volume shipments to the channel and OEM customers,” said Western Digital general manager and VP Don Bennett, in a statement. “Two-platter hard drives have always been the perfect balance of value, capacity and performance for many of our customers.”

The SE16s feature two 320 GB platters, and produce between 26 and 29 db of noise in normal operation modes, 25 db while idle. The drives consume 1 Watt of power in standby or sleep mode, 7.7 Watts while idle, and 8.3 Watts during read-write operations. The units offer a SATA 3 interface and max out at 3 Gbps transfer rates.

The 640 GB SE16 drives are available now from resellers Western Digital’s online store at a suggested retail price of $139.99.