The last, but not least, manufacturer in our list is Western Digital.

There is a potential leader, WD740GD, among the company’s products. We are interested to see whether the new model, WD800LB (80GB platters, 2MB cache buffer, fluid bearings) can compete with the drive from Caviar SE series (WD800JB).

Yes, Raptor is far ahead of the rest of the drives under any workload. Three remaining drives match each other, although WD800LB turned to be faster than the oldies, notwithstanding a higher data density.