Western Digital announced it is shipping its new high-capacity 500 GB Serial ATA WD Caviar SE16 desktop-class hard drives, delivering high 7,200 RPM performance with 300 MB/s transfer rate, 16 MB cache and Native Command Queuing. WD hard drives promise low power consumption, a low operating temperature and thus, enhanced drive reliability. In addition, the drive's noise levels are virtually imperceptible to the human ear in home and business environments with its WhisperDrive technology, which features an efficient power driver design. To reduce seek noise, SoftSeek technology streamlines read/write seeking algorithms, resulting in the drive operating more efficiently when accessing and writing data.

Moreover,continuing to grow its 2.5" product line for notebook PCs and portable storage, Western Digital introduced its next-generation WD Scorpio mobile hard drives. The drives ship in capacities of up to 120 GB and are equipped with either the EIDE or Serial ATA (SATA) interfaces. Offering high performance from 5,400 RPM spin speed, WD Scorpio operates with power requirements comparable to 4,200 RPM drives to yield lower power consumption for longer system battery life and increased drive reliability. The drives also feature 12 ms seek time and up to 8 MB cache. WD's WhisperDrive algorithms helps make WD Scorpio one of the quietest 2.5 inch drives available on the market while the ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to protect the drive mechanics and delicate platter surface to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications (300 Gs while in operation, 900 Gs non-operating) of any 2.5-inch drive in its class.

WD Scorpio 120 GB EIDE (model WD1200VE) hard drives are currently shipping in volume and are available for $234.99 USD. The WD Caviar SE16 500 GB (model WD5000KS) hard drives may be also ordered on the company's online store (www.westerndigital.com) for $349.99 USD.