Western Digital 640 GB Scorpio Blue WD6400BEVT 9.5mm

Western Digital Intros 640GB 9.5mm Hard Drive For Notebooks
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 - by Shawn Oliver
It's not unusual for competitors to attempt to keep up and one-up each other, and that's exactly what's going on here with Western Digital's latest hard drive. Shortly after Samsung and Toshiba introduced 640GB mobile hard drives, WD has stepped forward to do likewise.

http://hothardware.com/News/Western-Digital-Intros-640GB-95mm-Hard-Drive-For-Notebooks/

American price: $ 143
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&source=hp&q=wd6400bevt&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

European price: € 112
http://geizhals.at/eu/a459433.html

 

Atleast these are 9.5mm drives which can actually fit into most notebooks however my question is: when is WD going to release a larger Scorpio black the 320GB is alittle stale now!

 

WD® SHIPS 640 GB NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVES

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Mobile Drives Offer High Capacity and Low Power Consumption For Mainstream Notebook Computers

Features of the WD Scorpio Blue include:


•WhisperDrive™ - WD's exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to produce one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives available;

•ShockGuard™ - Leading-edge ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications; and,

•IntelliSeek™ - A unique feature, IntelliSeek technology calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration. For a demonstration on IntelliSeek, visit the WD Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/flash/index.asp?family=intelliseek.

Price and Availability
WD Scorpio Blue 640 GB (model WD6400BEVT) hard drives are shipping now through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Scorpio Blue 640 GB is $149.00 USD. WD Scorpio Blue hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty. More information about WD Scorpio Blue mobile hard drives may be found on the company's Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=683.

 

No thanks.

5400 RPM hard drives have been dead to me since the mid 90's.....

 

Presume this will be a 2 platter drive?
Why they haven't announced the Black 500GB?

 

Yep, Evolution that's what I'm wondering too.

 

The WD5000BJKT should be announced very soon..

 

I hope that by december all these new 640GB 540rpm drives being released will be under $100. My girlfriend is going to buy me one for Christmas.

 

That's a lot of storage, but 5400RPM is a bit slow

I went from a 250gb 5400RPM drive to a 300gb 7200RPM drive and the difference was enormous.

 

The 640GB 5400RPM drive should be as fast as the 320GB 7200RPM drive in most situations. You probably had a 2 platter 250GB 5400RPM drive, so moving up in speed, cache, and density would give a nice boost.

 

7200rpm + laptop = BYE BYE DATA!!

5400rpm drive are superior in reliability. Would never buy a 7200rpm laptop drive.

 

Did anyone else notice that there are 1 TB and 750 GB models listed on the Western Digital site, too? The 1 TB one is not yet in stock anywhere, but the 750 GB one is here, where it's listed as 0.4 inch height, which translates to just over 10 mm. Thus, it presumably is a 9.5 mm drive when you take out the rounding to tenths of inches.

I'd buy either a 5400 RPM or a 7200 RPM depending on the situation. I have a two-year-old 7200 RPM drive that's never had any reliability problems, as well as a newer 7200 RPM drive (both Hitachi in my case). I've never actually had a 5400 RPM drive, but sgogeta4 is right that this drive should be as fast as the average 320 GB, 7200 RPM drive.

 

The 1TB and 750GB drives are actually 12.5mm thick.

 

Seriously? Why spew this?

 

this is almost definitely a 2 platter drive - which means I am not interested

For a notebook heat and power usage are key, and the single platter is the only way to get that out of a notebook drive. They also mean better performance and less moving parts

This is why I am not interested in the seagate 7200rpm 500gb drive since it is a 2 platter design

The 320gb drives are currently the highest density single platter notebook drives which is why I will have 2 of them in my M17x as soon as that 2nd hdd caddy arrives. I have 2 scorpio black 320gb drives for those wondering (I tend to prefer WD over Seagate, they seem to just come out more reliable overall)

 

You have an M17x; what do you care about power consumption and heat output? It's not like it makes much difference at all to begin with. And how long have you had those drives? I would have thought the models with 2 320GB platters would have been released before the models with a single 320GB platters, but I see that they have been out.

 

The WD3200BEKT drives are absolutely single platter - that is part of why they were a big deal at release, prior to them you had dual 160gb platters for 320 total

Heat on a hard drive is always a concern, no matter the system. I have had my drives since last october and have not had a single issue with them yet

I am not a huge downloader of content so the need for large capacities is non existent to me. I aim for performance over anything else with my hard drives, any thing past 250GB is superfluous space for me

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=416405

Aww come on scroll down the page.. OP search before posting...

 

Perhaps. Then again, most true road warriors value battery life and a lower heat signature over an incremental increase in performance.

 

Can you back this up? As far as I know, all the current Scorpio Black drives are 160gb per platter. WD doesn't even have any 7200 rpm 250gb platter drives out let alone 320gb per platter.

 

Yeah the current WD 320GB drives are 2 platter drives

 

touche

Did some reading and I am mistaken, the WD3200BEKT appears to be 2 platters. I stand corrected

Wish it was one platter...!

Guess that explains the heat the drive can put out.....when it was in my HP DV9000 it could get up to 65c unfortunately

Thanks for the heads up

 

65C is definitely melting temperature, I have never had a HDD go above 40C

 

Yeah, are U sure it had reached 65 °C? It should have melted.

According to its specs sheet, it could only stands up to 60 °C while operating.

 

it definitely did get to 65c, that is what prompted me learning about laptop coolers haha

The WD3200BEKT is under spec up to 65c while most other drives are up to 60c I believe. In that HP there is NO breathing room for the drive and it gets quite warm. In my M17x it is a non issue haha. I got those temps using HWMonitor (and the SMART sensor)

And lets be realistic guys....nothing is going to melt at that temperature.....(not even my data)

 

Almost a month from the first post, now they are starting to sell WD6400BEVT in Japan. The price is ¥14,980 (currently around US$167 according Yahoo Finance currency converter), a little bit more expensive than the 12.5mm 750GB version WD7500KEVT which is being sold at ¥14,969. Not the price that I would have expected.

 

Any reviews or benchmarks on this drive yet? I've been looking around and haven't seen anything.

 

Found these on a Japanese website, but Crystal mark is a bit tricky because it is influenced by many circumstances. I would not draw any conclusions on these.



Crystal mark for WD5000BEVT
Sequential Read: 80.412 MB / s
Sequential Write : 80.338 MB/s Sequential Write: 80.338 MB / s
Random Read 512KB : 33.651 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 46.276 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 0.532 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 1.332 MB/s

WD6400BEVT

 

No benchmarks yet. Any benchmarks posted in asian lettering should be automatically dismissed as they are all flawed every time a new product comes out.

 

Just received mine to put in my PS3. Thought I would benchmark it for you guys before I did.

 

The hard drive market is moving fast!
I'm wondering if I should buy one now or wait for the 7200rpm version.

 

As soon as that comes out, the 750GB models will be just around the corner.

 

wow, you guys are going on and on about the what 5-10% preformance increase? and how 7200rpm is much faster? really? if it's preformance you seek get an SSD and prepare to be amazed.

 

newegg has them ...decision, decision. Now i'm not sure if to wait for the hitachi 7k500 or just pick these up. aye.

Also keep in mind the WD 640gb are the 9.5mm height (standard laptop).

 

Yep! The WD site lists them at .49 in. They're fatties!

 

16.5 acces time is very good. This may be the fastest hard drive out now.

Would b very interesting to see real life benchmarks between 7K500 and this one.

 

More benchmark images.

2 HD on one notebook
WD 320GB Scorpio Black 7200 vs WD 640GB Scorpio Blue 5400

 

Very interesting performance numbers there between the wd3200bekt and the new 640gb drive

What are the power usages?

 

What do you mean?

 

how many watts does the new drive use versus the old one

 

Have no idea. How I can find it?

 

Actually. They both are working the same time.

One (320GB) is system primary HD. Second connected via caddy.
May be system HD shows slower test because it is some background system processes.

 

I got one of these a few days ago. SMART indicates that the drive is experiencing rapid increase in Load Cycle Count. After only 37 Power On Hours, my Load Cycle Count is already 2070, or about 56 Load Cycles an hour.

I don't know that this is actually a problem, though. I've read elsewhere that these high Load Cycle Counts might be a side effect of technologies intended to protect the drive from impacts.

What do you guys think? Are other people with this drive also experiencing high Load Cycle Counts?

 

I have mine on Raid 0 and the other as a back up

three 640gb.... I will check later, I have been busy latetly. As I check these threads frequently

 

[cut]

Here is HDtune score okay I have raid 0 three drives....

 

Mrblur, thanks for uploading the screenshot but try doing it in a more bandwidth efficient manner.

To capture a window press ctrl-alt-printscreen

 

Will WD use a 320GB plate for WD3200xxxx?

 

I apologize if this is an inappropriate bump, but from now until the 29th Newegg is offering this drive for $89 with free shipping.

 

What a great deal.....I wonder if they would return some of my money since I last ordered my drives.

 

Newegg doesn't offer price guarantees, but depending on how long you've had your HD's, they may make a concession for you.

All you need to do is call (don't email) and ask.

BTW, how long have you had them and what was the price? (just curious).