Comparing: WD Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX-001CA0 vs WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT

Specification Comparison Table

This specification comparison presents technical details of several devices or components to help you understand the key differences between each option. Use this table as a reference to determine which device best suits your needs.

Submission Comparison Table

This submission comparison table displays the number and details of benchmark data submissions from various devices or components. This information helps you understand the performance based on the benchmarks that have been tested, as well as providing an overview of the consistency and popularity of the available benchmark results.

Submission Comparison Chart

This chart visualizes the benchmark scores comparison between two hardware devices based on submitted data.

Media Gallery

A collection of photos of tested hardware. These images can help you identify the physical form, model, and variant of the hardware in question. These photos are from our own documentation, and if they are not available we may not be able to document them.

About Hardware WD Caviar Blue WD3200AAKX-001CA0

The WDC WD3200AAKX-001CA0 is a 3.5-inch hard disk drive (HDD) that comes with a 320GB capacity, designed specifically for storage needs on desktop computers. Part of the Western Digital Caviar Blue family, this HDD uses a SATA-III 6Gbps interface that provides better data transfer speeds than the previous generation (SATA-II).

With a rotation speed of 7200 RPM and a 16MB buffer cache, this drive offers reliable performance for a variety of daily computing activities. From storing documents, running office applications, to playing light games, the WDC WD3200AAKX is able to accommodate the needs of home and office users with maintained stability.

It uses a single disk and two head configuration, which helps to maintain data transfer efficiency and reliability. In tests using a ThinkCentre M58 system with an Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 processor, 3GB DDR3 RAM, and Windows 7 operating system, the performance of this HDD was very good for its capacity class. Testing with CrystalDiskMark showed read speeds of 107.58 MB/s and write speeds of 105.50 MB/s, proving that this HDD is still relevant for legacy systems and light computing tasks today.

As part of the WD Caviar Blue line, the WD3200AAKX is designed with a blend of performance and reliability, making it a popular choice for desktop PC users who need a 7200 RPM speed drive at an affordable price. It can be used as a primary or secondary drive for legacy operating systems, data storage, or as an upgrade solution from older, lower-speed HDDs.

Device test (tesbed):

Device: ThinkCenter M58
CPU: Core 2 Duo E7500
RAM: 3GB DDR3

Tuesday, 07 March 2023 10:02:46 | Update: 1 month ago

About Hardware WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT

WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB is a 2.5-inch hard disk designed for laptops and portable storage devices. With a 3Gbps SATA-II interface and a rotation speed of 5400 RPM, this drive offers a balance between power efficiency and sufficient performance for everyday computing tasks.

Equipped with 8MB of cache, the drive is capable of handling stable data access for needs such as multimedia storage, work documents, and general file management. While not as fast as an SSD, the WD5000BEVT is still an economical choice and has a sizable storage capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor.

In performance testing, the hard drive was tested using an Orico USB 3.0 enclosure connected to a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 14ITL6 system, powered by an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor and 12GB DDR4 dual channel RAM. Benchmark results showed read and write speeds of 66.33 MB/s and 66.58 MB/s in the CrystalDiskMark application. Meanwhile, through ATTO Disk Benchmark with a 64MB block size, the drive recorded read speeds of 109.09 MB/s and write speeds of 109.56 MB/s. This performance is quite good for the older generation 5400 RPM HDD category, although it is clearly still far behind compared to modern solid-state drive (SSD) speeds that can touch hundreds or even thousands of megabytes per second.

⚠️ Important Disclaimer

Based on analysis from CrystalDiskInfo and Hard Disk Sentinel, there are indications that this hard drive is most likely not an original unit or has been refurbished. This is inferred from the discrepancy between:

• The physical label of the drive (which indicates the WD5000BEVT model),
• and the firmware data/internal information read by the application, which does not fully match the characteristics of the original WD Scorpio Blue.

Due to such discrepancies, we consider this unit to NOT be a true WD WD5000BEVT, and users are advised to exercise caution when purchasing loose (used, without official packaging) HDDs, especially from secondary markets or unauthorized distributors.

Despite its decent performance and sizable 500GB capacity, it's important to always verify the authenticity of a storage product, especially if it's used to store important data. This hard drive still works well, but it cannot be used as an accurate representation of the original WD Scorpio Blue product.

Device test (testbed):

Via: Orico Enclosure USB 3.0
Device: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 14ITL6
CPU: i5 1135G7
USB: USB 3.1 Gen 1
RAM: 12GB DDR4 3200MHz Dual Channel (8+4)
OS: Windows 11 22H2

Tuesday, 30 May 2023 10:17:18 | Update: 1 month ago