Western Digital Shipping new 640GB HDDs - now with 320GB per platter

By James Allan Brady/Updated: Feb. 25, 2019 5:39 pm EST

Western Digital's new WD Caviar SE16 drive has two platters with 320GB per platter inside making for 640GB total. Sure it's a weird capacity, but if I can pick it up for the same, or close to the same price as a 500GB drive, then I like it.

Its SATA based, and has a data transfer rate of 3GB/second and also supports Native Command Queuing. Also, since it reaches such a high capacity with fewer platters it should be more heat, power, and noise efficient, meaning it will run cooler with less power usage and a bit quieter.

They are selling now for $140, which means I can get them for roughly the same price as a 500GB drive. They spin at 7200RPM and have a 16MB buffer, so, they should run nice and smoothly, maybe I'll pick one up to replace my 55GB IDE HDD.

[via gearlog]