Western Digital SE16 750GB: "Quiet" a Performer

Quick Take

The Western Digital WD7500AAKS is a very solid entry by WD into an extremely competitive marketplace. Its performance is near the top of the charts in all benchmarks we ran in our labs, and WD's recent decision to grant the retail SE16 drive series a 3 year warranty removes one of the major issues surrounding this line of drives.

Improving the overall picture of this drive is the remarkably low power consumption it is able to boast at load conditions, although idle power consumption is average for this class. Western Digital has put together a very attractive package in this drive, particularly for situations where power consumption is a factor for systems running at load or near load conditions the majority of time. When comparing this drive to others in its class (for example, the Seagate 750GB 7200.10), the Western Digital WD7500AAKS's 10.7W power draw is nearly 25% less.

The WD7500AAKS scored some of the highest marks we've ever seen on some of the synthetic tests in the general desktop product sector. While the synthetic portion of the benchmarks are of arguably less value than the real world tests, the fact that this drive scores as well as it does gives it additional bragging rights in a market becoming increasingly crowded with similarly-performing hardware.

Real-world performance of the drive was excellent as well. We expected the Raptor to trounce the WD7500AAKS in all benchmarks, but we didn't expect the large differential between this drive and the Seagate drive. Considering these two drives are targeted at the same market space, Western Digital has a clearly superior product this time around. The iPEAK gaming performance in particular was an area where the WD7500AAKS excelled, often approaching (and occasionally beating) the WD Raptor due to excellent sustained transfer rates.

The drive's thermal performance, while nothing to boast about, is certainly above average, particularly given the capacity. The idle temperature of the drive sat squarely in the middle of our tests, but the drive truly shines with its fully-loaded heat increase of only 12%. This made it the coolest 750GB drive we've tested by a wide margin, and even gave the Samsung T166 (our current thermal champion) a run for its money. Noise, too, was a pleasant area of surprise for this drive, making this a suitable offering for even a HTPC setup.

In closing, the Western Digital WD7500AAKS offers strong performance, runs quietly, and emits relatively low amounts of heat. With a warranty that now mirrors that offered by most other manufacturers (except for Seagate, which boasts a full 5 year warranty), the drive can be recommended for virtually anyone looking to buy a drive in this price range. Western Digital has come a long way with its SE16 series, and this drive is an example that shines above its 750GB brethren.