The hard drive capacity war isn't coming to any end anytime soon and it's obvious from the way the industry’s top manufacturers are raising the stakes. Western Digital is one of those key players and recently introduced a single-platter 320GB desktop hard drive. This new platter density falls slightly behind Samsung's high water mark of 334GB/platter.

The Caviar SE16 series will lead this new 320GB platter into the market starting with a single-platter 320GB desktop hard drive, model WD3200AAKS, that will feature a 16MB buffer and Native Command Queuing. All of the other specifications of this drive adhere to the Caviar SE16 line with a SATA 3.0 Gb/sec interface and a maximum buffer-to-disk transfer rate of 972 Mb/sec.

The single platter, 320GB model will no doubt pave the way for higher-capacity two and four platter drives in the future.

Pricing on the Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB (WD3200AAKS) is listed at $100, but a quick search on your favorite price search engine will show prices as low as $70 from various e-tailers.
Press release indicates that unlike Samsung which released higher capacity drives first, WD will work its way upwards, releasing 320GB model first, and higher capacity models later. (Haha you Samsung)

According to a close source at Western Digital, the WD3200AAKS model number is currently in use for the single 320GB platter model as well as the double 160GB platter model until the latter is phased out of the lineup.

So

The full PN for 320GB off of this new platform is WD3200AAKS-00B3A0.

“B3” is the differentiator. B3 = A single platter drive.
Benchmarks of the new WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 on Planetnow.de.

Quote:
here times some results in the comparison to seagate 7200,10 with 250gb also 16mb cache
HD Tune
Seagate 250GB/WD 320GB

Min(MB/sek): 26.5/50.3
Max(MB/sek): 79.8/111.0
Average(MB/sek): 64.6/86.8
Acc. time (ms): 13.5/16.3
Burst(MB/sek): 206.0/153.2
CCU: 3.5%/5.6%

HD Tach
Seagate 250GB/WD 320GB

Avr. read(MB/sek): 68.3/90.6
Acc. time (ms): 13.2/17.1
Burst(MB/sek): 243.3/240.0
CCU: 4%/4%


in addition it is ultra quiet... even with the ear against the drive, the case fans are louder

I do not believe the Samsung was ever this quiet.

The access time is slower on the WD, but it's not clear how that affects performance in real world applications.

By this time next month, the Western Digital WD6400AAKS should also be available. That's a new product, so you are assured of getting the 320GB platters.