Boot times

The WD740GD has a much faster boot time than any of our other drives.

Noise levels
Noise levels were measured using an Extech 407727 Digital Sound Level Meter placed one inch from the drive. The test system's CPU fan was disabled to isolate noise created by the drives.

The WD740GD's fluid dynamic bearings make it one of the quietest drives at idle. However, the new Raptor gets quite a bit louder under during seeks.

Heat levels
Using my incredibly scientific "how much does it burn my hand" test, I found the WD740GD to be no hotter than the WD360GD or either of our 10K RPM SCSI drives. After a few hours looping IOMeter, you could probably cook an egg on any of the drives we tested.