Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

Pros: quality

Cons: none known

Other Thoughts: you cannot go wrong with this brand

Pros: Works and does what it needs to

Cons: It's a HDD there really isn't any particular cons that I can actually find.

Pros: Works
Quiet

Cons: None

Pros: Reliable. Quiet. I have owned this HDD for over a year without any issues.

Cons: None

Pros: I can only speak highly of this drive. I usually pick up Seagate drives, particularly the Barracuda because they are cheap, but after using a Western Digital drive I'll for sure be only purchasing WD in the future. Lightning fast to boot, great transfer speeds, and functions without a hiccup for the past 6 months.

Cons: None whatsoever.

Pros: N/A

Cons: Drive Dead On Arrival (DOA). Now I get to eat the cost of shipping it back.

Manufacturer Response:

We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with the WD Blue, as this is not the typical experience with the product. It is unfortunate that you experienced a DOA drive, as our drives are all rigorously tested to ensure they are in good working condition before leaving our warehouse. We understand your situation and will gladly replace your in-warranty drive at no further cost to you, as we stand by our products and their associated warranties. Please contact us directly at 1 (800) 275-4932, or via our support website at: http://support.wdc.com/rs/. Please indicate within the online case creation or with the first support agent you speak with, that you are responding to a Newegg review, so we route you and your information to the correct team members.

Pros: Bought this drive to replace my mother's aging 250GB spinner in an eMachine T5226. Thought it would be a good time to try out WD's Acronis True Image software from their Support page. Super easy to clone, took about 45 minutes from start to finish (maybe 55GB of data to transfer). The Blue 500GB was noticeably cooler than the old drive after the cloning was complete. As expected it was a significant upgrade and worth the money. Drivers updated immediately on the first start up (Vista 32bit, Pentium D)

Cons: Nothing yet and I don't expect any issues w/ WD hard drives (owned and installed are 25)

Other Thoughts: W.E.I. score went from 5.1 stock to 5.4, a mild increase but clearly faster on start ups and shut downs. Newegg shipping is the best in the biz and I would know I've purchased over $5000 in parts for myself and friends/family. **Please realize this is OEM so no manuals and no screws but it was well packaged and sealed in anti-static bag

Pros: simple – it works – not too loud or hot

Cons: having to write cons

Pros: Arrived without any damage, plugged it in, and it works. I've had it for over two months now and not a single problem yet. It seems pretty fast, but I only use it to store documents, music, etc. and I'm booting from an SSD.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Good drive for the price.

Pros: I used this for my gaming rig I built a little over a year ago. SSDs were still a little expensive back then but now they are relatively affordable. I also wish I had gotten maybe 1TB worth of space as I am starting to scramble for space with all the programs/games that I have now. But, this drive is still working well after a year as expected and haven't had any troubles with it.

Cons: None so far, after 1 year

Other Thoughts: Upgrade to either 1TB or an SSD if you can. I'll be buying an SSD as my primary drive soon and using this drive for storage purposes of music and files.