667GB per platter: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB WD20EARS-00MVWB0

Slightly over a month ago, we reported that Western Digital’s Caviar Green 2TB desktop hard drive had an updated appearance. However, it turned out that it was still a four-platter drive. What we have here today is a three-platter (hello 667GB per platter) WD20EARS, the WD20EARS-00MVWB0.

Seagate recently announced the world’s first 3TB 3.5-inch external storage drive, built using five 600GB platters as PCWorld had noted. In this article, we are looking at platters with more density instead – 667GB to be exact. Yes, Western Digital has been quietly shipping Caviar Green 2TB desktop drives with 667GB platters for over a month already.

The folks in Japan were the among the first to have gotten hold of the refreshed, and lighter, Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 3.5-inch internal desktop drive, model WD20EARS-00MVWB0, around late May / early June 2010. They have done comparisions and provided benchmark figures on the Web since.

We had reported earlier in May about an updated Caviar Green 2TB drive, but it turns out that was merely a cosmetic refresh. The drive’s 2TB capacity was still made with four 500GB platters.

Over here, we have the WD20EARS-00MVWB0, which closely resembles the Caviar Green 1TB and 1.5TB (EARS, Advance Format family).  

The drive loses the black metal piece (likely to be the StableTrac structure) - found on all four-platter models of the Caviar Green and Black families – on the top plate.

A closer shot of the model code: WD20EARS-00MVWB0.

These three-platter drives are very new, with production starting only in May 2010. This particular drive here was manufactured in the second half of June 2010.

A Malaysia-made drive; we have been seeing mostly Thailand-made Caviar Greens in our local (Singapore) market.

The underside of the WD20EARS-00MVWB0 clearly shows that it is a three-platter drive.

Western Digital drive chassis can only pack a maximum of four platters. Any indentation present on the underside simply means the drive has either two or three platters. A single platter Western Digital drive has an even deeper indentation than the one seen in the photo above.