The Caviar WD600AB´s access time measures out at 14.9 milliseconds. Subtracting 5.6 milliseconds of rotational latency yields a measured seek time of 9.3 milliseconds a rare instance where measurements actually beat the specs! Overall, access times on the newest Caviar rival that of IBM´s Deskstar 40GV.

Decisive advantages in areal density power the 600AB to the top of the heap when it comes to outer-zone sequential transfer rates. The 600AB´s score of 35.1 MB/sec is at least 10% faster than the competition. Inner-track rates of 20.9 MB/sec aren´t quite as dominating, but still sufficient to retain top billing.