Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB 7200 RPM 16 MB 3.5-inch SATA internal hard drive

500 GB SATA desktop drive

The Western Digital Caviar Blue is a 3.5-inch internal hard drive built for desktop systems. It offers 500 GB of storage on a SATA 6 Gb/s interface with a 16 MB cache. The 7200 RPM spindle speed supports everyday computing tasks such as operating system boot, application loading and general file storage.

Sustained workload behaviour

Under continuous read or write activity the mechanical 7200 RPM platters deliver consistent throughput limited by the SATA link and the 16 MB buffer. The drive handles long file copies, backups and video recording streams without the thermal throttling seen in solid-state alternatives, though random access latency remains characteristic of rotating media.