Temperature and Noise

We’ve got a surprise for you here! Being an incorrigible optimist, I always tried to check the temperature of WD drives with the help of SMART-reading utilities. And now I was rewarded for the persistence: WD2500JB supports temperature monitoring in SMART!

We measured the temperature following our standard method (one hour and a half of IOMeter tests running). It was 46^oC. This is quite a high temperature, so I would advise you to use WD2500JB with additional cooling.

The temperature measurements taken with an infrared thermometer showed the same results as for WD1800JB and WD2000JB from the previous review. And really, why should they be different? The construction of the drive hasn’t changed…

The noise level also remained the same as that produced by WD2000JB.

Conclusion

So, it is time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.

It’s a meaningful fact that Western Digital marked the transition to 80GB platters with the launch of the world’s highest-capacity drive with 7,200rpm rotation speed. While the competitors are using 80GB platters in low-priced products (to reduce their production cost), WD shows its muscles in the upper price range.

Well, if we try to extrapolate the speed characteristics of WD2500JB to drives of smaller capacities… They are going to very competitive products! :)

On the whole, WD2500JB is quite a successful product. It combines high capacity and high speed. We are also glad to see a few drawbacks noticed in WD1800JB and WD2000JB to be finally eliminated. We are talking about too high access time, low speed in the RandomRead mode, and absence of thermal diodes.