Conclusions
7,200-RPM hard drives are usually split between camps that excel at sequential transfers and those that prefer more randomized access patterns. The Caviar SE16 750GB is different, though, because it doesn't seem to care what you throw at it. In HD Tach and FC-Test, which stretch drives with sustained, sequential transfers, the Caviar easily dominated its competition. And although it didn't top the podium with the randomized access patterns of our iPEAK and IOMeter tests, the SE16 spent most of its time at the front of the 7,200-RPM field in those tests. Don't forget the drive's pack-leading WorldBench performance or its quick boot and load times, either.

If Western Digital's latest Caviar does have a preference, it seems particularly adept at performing sequential read operations, as our HD Tach and FC-Test results can attest. Interestingly, this blistering sequential read performance appears to come somewhat at the expense of random read performance, since the SE16 doesn't fare as well in IOMeter's read-dominated web server test pattern or a couple of our iPEAK workloads that are heavy on read ops.

The 750GB Caviar is also a little less competitive if you look at its idle noise levels, which are slightly higher than we expected. But the drive saves face with low seek noise levels and frugal power consumption, both of which can likely be credited to the drive's IntelliSeek actuator approach. IntelliSeek doesn't appear to constrain the Caviar's seek performance, either, making this new actuator tech particularly impressive.

Western Digital may have taken its time bringing the Caviar SE16 up to 750GB, but the result was worth the wait. Our only real complaint is that we can't actually find the drive in stock anywhere; even Western Digital's online store only has it available for pre-order at $249.99. That's about a $25 premium over 750GB Barracudas that pack two years of additional warranty coverage, but given the SE16's superior all-around performance and lower seek noise levels and power consumption, we'd rather have Caviar.