Western Digital, a leading maker of hard disk drives (HDDs) unveiled this week its first product that utilizes 100GB platters – WD Caviar SE 400GB. The new HDD is also likely to offer boosted performance compared to predecessors due to 7200rpm motor as well as enhanced cache size.

WD’s Caviar SE 400GB hard disk drive is available for Serial ATA-150 interface supporting systems and features 7200rpm motor as well as 16MB cache. The firm claims that the product has 8.9ms read seek time, 10.9ms write seek time and 4.20ms average latency. The new drive complements broad WD Caviar family of hard drives, which addresses both high-end and entry-level desktop needs.

“From 40 to 400 GB, the WD Caviar desktop hard drive family has long been one of the world's most popular hard drive brands because the name has come to stand for reliability, performance and cool and quiet operation,” said Richard E. Rutledge, vice president and general manager of WD's Computing Components Group.

WD also said that it had reduced WD Caviar drive noise levels to “be virtually imperceptible” to the human ear in home and business environments with its WhisperDrive technology, which features a highly 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, the manufacturer believes.

Suggested retail pricing is $279 for WD Caviar SE16 400GB hard drives. WD Caviar SE16 drives are covered under a 3-year warranty. Customers who order WD Caviar SE16 400 GB hard drives from WD’s online store before Aug. 31, 2005, will receive free standard shipping on all hard drives and special savings on all Serial ATA hard drives.