Caviar Black is Western Digital’s new high-end brand, and the company clearly believes its new 1TB 3.5in hard disk is a killer drive. With three 334GB platters and a large 32MB cache, it promises a full terabyte of storage and super-fast data transfer.

Regular readers may be experiencing déjà vu, because the Samsung SpinPoint F DT, already on our A List, has the same specifications. So if you’re in the market for a drive like this, you’ll be asking what the Western Digital offers that the Samsung doesn’t.

From our tests, the answer isn’t speed. Not that the WD is a slouch: its peak read speed of 115MB/s at the outer edge of the platter is among the fastest we’ve seen. But the Samsung still nudges ahead, with a rate of 124MB/s.
It’s the same story with burst speed: against most drives, the WD’s 225MB/s would make it a winner. But the Samsung once again pips it to the post, managing 236MB/s.

In terms of power, both added a pleasingly low average of 7W to our system’s total power consumption when idle. And acoustically we preferred the Samsung. The Western Digital was no louder when idle, but while the Samsung’s seek noise was almost imperceptible, the Western Digital made an audible metallic clicking.
There is one area where the Caviar Black is convincingly better: it comes with a five-year warranty, not the three-year deal offered by Samsung.

But that lone advantage doesn’t come cheaply. While the SpinPoint can be had online for $200, the Caviar Black will set you back an extra $25.

All of this is a shame. The Caviar Black is still an immense drive that delivers excellent performance – indeed, if the Samsung didn’t exist it would likely be an A-List winner. But it does, and until the WD’s price falls, the Samsung remains the better choice.