Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Western Digital's VelociRaptor 10K RPM SATA Drive

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the spinning-really-fast dept.

MojoKid was one of a number of people to submit about WDs new 10k RPM SATA Drive. He says "Western Digital's Raptor line of Hard Drives has been very popular with performance enthusiasts, as a desktop drive with enterprise-class performance. Today WD has launched a new line of high-performance desktop drives dubbed the VelociRaptor, and the product finally scales in capacity as well. The new SATA-based VelociRaptor weighs in at 300GB with the same 10K RPM spindle speed, but with one other major difference — it's based on 2.5" technology. Its smaller two-platter, four-head design affords the VelociRaptor random access and data transfer rates significantly faster than competing desktop SATA offerings. Areal density per platter has increased significantly as well, which contributes to solid performance gains versus the legacy WD Raptor series."

5 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. More interesting review by Sivar · · Score: 4, Informative

    The review is up on on StorageReview.com . You can use the database to compare this drive to every other drive out there in different kinds of tasks.

    --
    Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
  2. Re:Compared to solid state? by Sivar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Power usage = heat.

    From the StorageReview.com article:

    When spinning up from a cold start, the WD3000BLFS maintains its prowess with a very economical showing on its 12V rail. At just 9 watts, the VelociRaptor weighs in a full 6 watts (66%!) lower than any other drive SR has ever encountered.

    I think the heatsink is mostly for show, and to make the drive fit into a normal case. Still, it would be nice if they made it easily removable.

    --
    Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
  3. Re:Laptop drive? by mcpkaaos · · Score: 5, Informative

    When you say 'based on 2.5" tech,' does that mean this IS a laptop drive? It is not a laptop drive. Here, take a gander.

    I assume the power requirements would be intense though According to TFA, the Velociraptor consumes the least power out of the drives compared (all WD, including a Raptor 150).

    And also being a WD drive, as far as reliability goes you'd probably be better off just keeping your important documents in RAM. I've had 1 drive out of over 20 fail on me in the last 6 years, all made by WD (including several Raptors, which run hot as hell but never seem to skip a beat). The one WD drive that did fail did so only after 3+ years of constant usage in a server.

    I guess I don't understand all the WD bashing. They do have warranties, you know, and I hear they even honor them.

    Besides, why are you relying on a single drive? If you have Important Documents you need redundancy + backups, not a "better" hard drive. You should check this out. It's saved my butt on more than one occasion.
    --
    It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
  4. Re:Compared to solid state? by SD-Arcadia · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, you can remove the 3.5" container (I believe running it like this voids your warranty) but it still won't fit in a laptop because apparently although 2.5" form factor, it is several mm too high for a laptop. Not that you should attempt to run a 10K drive inside a laptop in the first place, especially without that heatsink thingy. The performance seems to be equal or better than SSD's. source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/HDD-SATA-VelociRaptor,1914.html

    --
    https://dalgamotor.wordpress.com/ - Elektronik beyinlere ozgurluk asisi (Turkish)
  5. Re:Has only one application by dfghjk · · Score: 4, Informative

    I would suggest you check out the storagereview.com review since they don't support the claims you are making. In applications benchmarks the margins are far, far less than 50%.