WD VelociRaptor

Hopefully that $299 won't be the street price... hopefully we'll see $249 ish on these soon after release. One can hope.
 
Spaceballs_Ludicrous_speed_GO.jpg


Those babies are DAMED FAST!

I'll take eight and an Areca 1220, please.
 
To start off i upgraded from 2 x 36 gb raptors striped to 2 x 74 gb raptors striped over the course of the last 4 years and loved each setup immensley so i was excited when i read 4 different of these reviews

The drive seems like such a needed improvement over the older 10k wd drives, but the price point seems like such an ouch factor to me. Considering that they make SAS 10k rpm hard drives in the 146 gb variety for about $350 ish its not like they did anything ground breaking here but they do seem to be at a better price point. To me it seems they took an SAS hard drive, popped the Raptor moniker on it and are going to gouge the enthusiast crowd for a while. they come with 5 year warranties not the standard 3 so that tells me they know they will last - so i just wonder why not price it a little cheaper and sell more volume rather than price them higher and sell less volume.

The jury is still out on this for me. :confused::confused::confused:
 
Blazestorm said:
Now here's a questionsz.

Is a single 300GB "Velociraptor" faster than 2 x 150's Raptors in Raid0?

Both roughly the same price.. although you could probably find 150 raptors cheaper once the 300's come out... hopefully... :D
Click to expand...

The Velociraptor isn't going to be double the speed of 2 150GB Raptors in RAID0. Also bear in mind that you are doubling your failure points with a RAID 0 setup and RAID doesn't mean 2x the performance and can even give you less performance than a single disk in some applications. The 150GB Raptors will get cheaper but who knows when that will be. At present the 150GB drives can be had under $170.00. That's well outside the Velociraptors' price point so I don't think the price drop will happen quickly.

EnderW said:
I'm thinking 2 x 150 GB RAID 0 for desktop and 1 x 150 GB for laptop.
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Most laptops won't be able to take a Velociraptor internally. They are too high for most of them.

EnderW said:
same here, I'm not worried about the thickness for my desktop, but would rather have a 150GB version since I don't need that much room for OS/apps

SSD is tempting, but so expensive - looking at $600 for 32GB
I think the VelociRaptor should hold me over another year at least
hopefully SSD prices will drop fast
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I'm thinking the same thing. I may purchase a couple Velociraptor while I wait for SSD sizes to increase and prices to go down.
 
MacGyver467 said:
Spaceballs_Ludicrous_speed_GO.jpg


Those babies are DAMED FAST!

I'll take eight and an Areca 1220, please.
Click to expand...


What's the matter Col. Sanders, you chicken!?

Prepare ship for Ludicrous Speed!!

:D:D:D:D

But seriously, I just striped 2x WD 500's for my new Rampage Formula build and used an older maxtor 250Gig/SATA 1.5 as my system drive. I had been using one of the WD's as my system drive and bought another for RAID and my x64 Vista score dropped from all 5.9's to 5.2 because of the slower drive and interface speed. VelociRaptors, FTW.
 
Dan_D said:
The Velociraptor isn't going to be double the speed of 2 150GB Raptors in RAID0. Also bear in mind that you are doubling your failure points with a RAID 0 setup and RAID doesn't mean 2x the performance and can even give you less performance than a single disk in some applications. The 150GB Raptors will get cheaper but who knows when that will be. At present the 150GB drives can be had under $170.00. That's well outside the Velociraptors' price point so I don't think the price drop will happen quickly.
Click to expand...

Then 2 x 150's makes more sense for me. Raid0 isn't for reliability, which is why I would run it as an OS, I have Raid5 for my sorta important stuff and Raid1 + external backup for super-important stuff.
 
Dan_D said:
Most laptops won't be able to take a Velociraptor internally. They are too high for most of them.
Click to expand...
True, but I was thinking maybe the single platter design would be thinner.
After some more research, I don't think it would work even if they physically fit. The VelociRaptor consumes considerably more energy than other 2.5" laptop drives.
http://www.storagereview.com/php/be...&numDrives=1&devID_0=360&devID_1=355&devCnt=2

Also, it draws power from the 12V rail, so I wouldn't be surprised if some laptops would fail to even power it.

So as far as laptop drive options, I'm gonna have to decide between a 7K200 and a small 16 GB Mtron MOBI.
 
EnderW said:
True, but I was thinking maybe the single platter design would be thinner.
After some more research, I don't think it would work even if they physically fit. The VelociRaptor consumes considerably more energy than other 2.5" laptop drives.
http://www.storagereview.com/php/be...&numDrives=1&devID_0=360&devID_1=355&devCnt=2

Also, it draws power from the 12V rail, so I wouldn't be surprised if some laptops would fail to even power it.

So as far as laptop drive options, I'm gonna have to decide between a 7K200 and a small 16 GB Mtron MOBI.
Click to expand...

I think most laptops won't have a 12v rail, if any.
 
Blazestorm said:
Now here's a questionsz.

Is a single 300GB "Velociraptor" faster than 2 x 150's Raptors in Raid0?

Both roughly the same price.. although you could probably find 150 raptors cheaper once the 300's come out... hopefully... :D
Click to expand...

AMD_Gamer said:
this is what i want to know also
Click to expand...

Stoly said:
I think most laptops won't have a 12v rail, if any.
Click to expand...


then explain how current sata drives get their power. i have ran my sata laptop drive in my desktop.
 
Its funny how people can't do math. The drive has 3 Platters. So most likely there won't ever be a 150meg version sense that would be 1 1/2 platters. There might be a 2 platter version w/ 200megs so it will fit into a standard laptop, but if the 300gig version requires a heatsink in a desktop case how many laptops will be able to provide enough cooling regardless of size, my guess is none. Maybe Dell will come out with an new XPS specially designed to handle the extra heat and size, Maybe.
I would just forget useing these in a laptop.
I am running w/ a 250gig HD for my main system drive, it is only 1/2 full. I do have a 500gig USB drive that I use to store backup data on as well as useing it as a media drive so 300gigs seems like a good size for me. Those that need more may want to think of how there useing there storage space and do something like what I do.
I just dont know about the price, anything over $200 puts it out of my budget.
 
$300 is still expensive for a hard drive. I guess I am gonna be looking for a used one.
 
Diablo2K said:
Its funny how people can't do math. The drive has 3 Platters. So most likely there won't ever be a 150meg version sense that would be 1 1/2 platters. There might be a 2 platter version w/ 200megs so it will fit into a standard laptop, but if the 300gig version requires a heatsink in a desktop case how many laptops will be able to provide enough cooling regardless of size, my guess is none. Maybe Dell will come out with an new XPS specially designed to handle the extra heat and size, Maybe.
I would just forget useing these in a laptop.
I am running w/ a 250gig HD for my main system drive, it is only 1/2 full. I do have a 500gig USB drive that I use to store backup data on as well as useing it as a media drive so 300gigs seems like a good size for me. Those that need more may want to think of how there useing there storage space and do something like what I do.
I just dont know about the price, anything over $200 puts it out of my budget.
Click to expand...

The velociraptor has two 150GB platters.
 
I think these things are nice. Might make a nice system drive for my new gaming rig :p

Deviationer said:
sorry I fail to understand why the hell you would want to have this in a removable bay drive or use it for hot swapping.
Click to expand...

High performance storage servers, as an alternative to the even more ludicrously priced enterprise-level drives?
 
I just found my boot drive. Mmm, can't wait.

But mid-May, if no problems? Gah, call me impatient, but I want one now! :)
 
I don't know why people complain about the noise. All you have to do is put it in an internal hard drive cooler, and you can barely hear it! I will definately be looking to get one of these this year to complement my 150 raptor x and my wd 500gb hd.
 
Dangit these things need to come out NOW. Hard drive upgrades are some of the most rewarding you can do. I'm ready, money in hand. Wonder why WD didn't go with 32mb cache? I bet they're saving that for the "refresh" a year year from now...
 
Too little, too late. I give it less than a year before the 7200rpm drives catch up with it.

I have a 74 second gen Raptor, and its not fast enough for Vista, and this one will only just make Vista slightly more usable. but really, why cant they just put a single 3.5" 320Gb platter, and 32Mb cache in the thing, and call it a day, it would have given much better performance, all in a desktop friendly package.
 
Stimpy88 said:
Too little, too late. I give it less than a year before the 7200rpm drives catch up with it.

I have a 74 second gen Raptor, and its not fast enough for Vista, and this one will only just make Vista slightly more usable. but really, why cant they just put a single 3.5" 320Gb platter, and 32Mb cache in the thing, and call it a day, it would have given much better performance, all in a desktop friendly package.
Click to expand...
well i have the first gen 36gb raptors in raid 0 and its plenty fast for vista. if you noticed most of the 15k drives use a small platter like the new raptor
 
ALL4AMD said:
then explain how current sata drives get their power. i have ran my sata laptop drive in my desktop.
Click to expand...

current 2.5 inch sata laptop drives use only 5v. 3.5 (and the velociraptor) desktop drives use both 12v and 5v rails.
 
Stimpy88 said:
Too little, too late. I give it less than a year before the 7200rpm drives catch up with it.

I have a 74 second gen Raptor, and its not fast enough for Vista, and this one will only just make Vista slightly more usable. but really, why cant they just put a single 3.5" 320Gb platter, and 32Mb cache in the thing, and call it a day, it would have given much better performance, all in a desktop friendly package.
Click to expand...
I don't even know where to start with this one :rolleyes:
 
ANGRYEAGLE said:
I don't know why people complain about the noise. All you have to do is put it in an internal hard drive cooler, and you can barely hear it! I will definately be looking to get one of these this year to complement my 150 raptor x and my wd 500gb hd.
Click to expand...

Call me crazy, but I actually like the noise my WD150 makes. I like to hear it is hard at work especially when I think Vista is locking up. No hd noise means it has frozen again! :mad:

I usually wear headphones during gaming so I never hear anything except the game.
 
JOESKURTU said:
Call me crazy, but I actually like the noise my WD150 makes. I like to hear it is hard at work especially when I think Vista is locking up. No hd noise means it has frozen again! :mad:

I usually wear headphones during gaming so I never hear anything except the game.
Click to expand...


ya rly i love the sound of hard drives pounding away. hell it might be a reason for me to not get the new drive :p
 
EnderW said:
I don't even know where to start with this one :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh come on, you must have seen the speeds the latest WD640 puts out, as well as some of the Samsung F1 HDs. Really, apart from the access times, the rest is not looking that hot is it? (Just think that WD probably expects this thing to compete in the ENTHUSIAST market for the next 3 years!!!) Especially if you think that this drive will be competing with SSD's next year! This may possibly be the last mechanical "raptor" they put out.

I put my life on my first post. "Too little, too late..."
 
Stimpy88 said:
Oh come on, you must have seen the speeds the latest WD640 puts out, as well as some of the Samsung F1 HDs. Really, apart from the access times, the rest is not looking that hot is it? (Just think that WD probably expects this thing to compete in the ENTHUSIAST market for the next 3 years!!!) Especially if you think that this drive will be competing with SSD's next year! This may possibly be the last mechanical "raptor" they put out.

I put my life on my first post. "Too little, too late..."
Click to expand...
how many times do I have to post this?

http://www.storagereview.com/WD3000BLFS.sr?page=0,1
Some Perspective
It is important to remember that access time and transfer rate measurements are mostly diagnostic in nature and not really measurements of "performance" per se. Assessing these two specs is quite similar to running a processor "benchmark" that confirms "yes, this processor really runs at 2.4 GHz and really does feature a 400 MHz FSB." Many additional factors combine to yield aggregate high-level hard disk performance above and beyond these two easily measured yet largely irrelevant metrics. In the end, drives, like all other PC components, should be evaluated via application-level performance. Over the next few pages, this is exactly what we will do. Read on!
Click to expand...
 
To the questions as to why some of us want capacity in the high performance hard drives, Because some of us do not like having more then 1 or 2 hard drives in our pc. I dislike the extra heat, noise and power consumption of more then 2 hard drives. Honestly in todays age there is no reason we should not be able to get a 1tb+ hdd with those kinds of speeds other then marketing milking the cow. I personally despise having 2 hard drives in my system, though I currently am forced to for performance.

I don't mind the price, I just want larger capacity. I would buy this IF it was at least 500gb even at $1/gb. Less then 500gb makes it not worth my trouble.
 
Dekoth said:
To the questions as to why some of us want capacity in the high performance hard drives, Because some of us do not like having more then 1 or 2 hard drives in our pc. I dislike the extra heat, noise and power consumption of more then 2 hard drives. Honestly in todays age there is no reason we should not be able to get a 1tb+ hdd with those kinds of speeds other then marketing milking the cow. I personally despise having 2 hard drives in my system, though I currently am forced to for performance.

I don't mind the price, I just want larger capacity. I would buy this IF it was at least 500gb even at $1/gb. Less then 500gb makes it not worth my trouble.
Click to expand...

I agree, except not about 500 GB (150 is enough for me ;)). I never liked having a bunch of HDDs in my PC. I want 1 in the PC and a bunch in my seperate storage server. Performance is nice, but not nice when I have to put EVERYTHING on my storage server and access it over Ethernet!
 
Stimpy88 said:
Too little, too late. I give it less than a year before the 7200rpm drives catch up with it.

I have a 74 second gen Raptor, and its not fast enough for Vista, and this one will only just make Vista slightly more usable. but really, why cant they just put a single 3.5" 320Gb platter, and 32Mb cache in the thing, and call it a day, it would have given much better performance, all in a desktop friendly package.
Click to expand...

Really? You being the great hard drive engineer that you are, I'm sure they could just take your advice to heart and increase profits 1000%! :eek:
 
What most of the "drive-by armchair reviewers" here keep missing:

1. higher throughput
2. lower latencies
3. cooler operation
4. lower power requirements
5. less noise

All this compared to nearly EVERY OTHER DRIVE!!! People are STUCK on thinking that Raptor's are loud, grab a stat somewhere and complain about it. Seriously people, read the damn reviews, only your ignorance shows. Some drives excel in space, some in acoustics, some in power, THIS ONE CLEANS UP IN ALL OF THEM! This is like that Noctua CPU heatsink I just got, it is like they break some law of physics or something. How can they be better in nearly every way? Granted, space and price I'll give you. It isn't perfect after all, so I guess the universe is safe.

I've had Raptor's for years, loud is relative and these aren't that to me. Drives of circa 2000 were loud, who complained then? I am definitely going after one of these drives, though I may hold off for a closer to $250 price point. I also dislike the warranty voiding if you remove the crappy heatsink. It doesn't need it, and some people are obviously getting the wrong idea due to that anyway. The server models for the enterprise markets won't have them, why do we need to?

Lastly though, I ain't a WD fan, Kyle. :rolleyes: I had three WD250's fail on me, after the IBM GXP fiasco got me as well. Been using Seagate's ever since, except for, obviously, the Raptor's. Both have 5 year warranties, so at least I can return them when they fail. But, individual users' experiences vary. As for the 36 GB Raptors I have, they've had a long life and can no longer be of much use to me. If they fail now, then it is because I really should have already replaced them anyway. Nothing else in a computer lasts that long anyway, not even my case.
 
Dekoth said:
To the questions as to why some of us want capacity in the high performance hard drives, Because some of us do not like having more then 1 or 2 hard drives in our pc. I dislike the extra heat, noise and power consumption of more then 2 hard drives.
Click to expand...

I've been using multiple drives for years, mainly for performance and fragmentation issues. The stats show performance for single running benchmarks, not multiple programs all running at once. I'll have a DVD ripping to one drive, encoding to another drive, the OS on its' own drive, and gaming on and off on one as well, four drives total.

My storage drive NEVER needs defragging, my rips don't really need it since they're temporary and only usually have a few fragments in the large files, but gaming apps and Windows always needs defragging. Running Apps on the same drive as you store data makes them badly fragmented, I see that every day at work. Most people just don't want to manage more than one drive, fine, I am just explaining why I do.

You can reduce fragmentation on one drive by just partitioning it to separate your data, but that does not address a high use, multiple access environment.
 
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