Western Digital (WD) has upped the capacity of its Caviar Serial ATA desktop hard drive range to 500GB, pitching not only the part's storage but also its low power consumption and low operational noise level - features it also highlighted for its new 120GB Scorpio 2.5in notebook drive.

The 500GB Caviar SE16 runs at 7,200rpm and delivers a 300MBps data transfer rate, WD said. There's 16MB of cache on board and the drive supports Native Command Queuing (NCQ) for improved read/write efficiency.

The manufacturer said the drive is "virtually imperceptible to the human ear in home and business environments", thanks to its "highly efficient power driver design" and streamlined read/write seeking algorithms, which not only reduce head noise but make the drive operate more efficiently".

The 120GB Scorpio operates at 5,400rpm, but at a power level consistent with past 4,200rpm drives, according to WD. It's got 2MB to 8MB of cache, depending on which version you choose, and is offered in both Serial ATA and EIDE forms. Its average seek time is 12ms.

Like the 500GB Caviar, the new product incorporates the company's WhisperDrive and SoftSeek noise-reduction technologies. WD said the drive can withstand 250Gs of operating shock and 900Gs of non-operating shock. ®