Western Digital Caviar Black (1TB) review

At 8.9p/GB, the 1TB Caviar Black is relatively inexpensive when compared with the 750GB model.

In comparison to the rest of the Labs, though, it's still only middle of the road for value, and performance wasn't particularly impressive, either. A read score of 84.5MB/sec and write result of 77.5MB/sec saw the Caviar Black slip into the bottom half of our results table, while mediocre burst and average sequential read speeds of 216.4MB/sec and 89.5MB/sec offered no sign of redemption.

Other 1TB drives, by contrast, are far better prospects. Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 1TB drive, is quicker and £8 cheaper, while the Maxtor DiamondMax 22 is at about the same performance level but is £16 cheaper.

In the face of competition like this, the premium features can't make up for the disappointing performance and comparatively high price. If you're searching for a terabyte of storage, you'd do well to look elsewhere.

Author: Mike Jennings