The Caviar WD2500JB is a big 250GB, and is one of three drives to breach the $500 mark. It is $80 cheaper than the WD2500JD SATA drive. Despite the three-year warranty, it’s not exactly great value; in fact, like the W2500JD, this drive carries a high gigabyte-per-dollar value.
But it shines brightly when it comes to performance - it outperformed the WD2500JD SATA in both Sysmark2002 a
nd Drivespeed32, and managed to rank third for overall performance.
Like the Maxtor 200GB, this drive scored consistently, but strongly enough to rank well overall.
Whatever stressed the WD2500JD in Sysmark2002 didn’t affect this drive as it tore forward, leaving a huge margin between itself and anything past second place. This means that of the larger 200GB+ drives, the WD2500GB is the clear choice when it comes to performance.
We find the results interesting. The drive mechanics between the SATA and IDE variants of this drive should be the same, yet this drive has outperformed the (theoretically faster) SATA drive by a margin.
It’s a big drive, but the WD2500JB suffers the embarrassment of costing more than the combination of two better performing Samsung SP1614N drives that offer a whopping 320GB.