When it comes to performance desktop hard drives Western Digital’s Raptor has been on top of the pile for a long time. Ever since the 36GB model was released the 10,000 RPM hard drive has been the choice of anyone looking for great performance from a SATA disk and that continued to be the case as the Raptor moved to 74GB and then to 150GB with the Raptor X. The introduction of solid-state drives to the market is changing all that though so WD is fighting back with a new model, the VelociRaptor.
The VelociRaptor is still a mechanical (disk-based) hard drive and it still spins at 10,000 RPM but significant changes were made. Though it seems like the obvious move would have been to ramp up the RPM level, WD moved the Raptor to a 2.5-inch disk instead former 3.5-inch size, the standard for desktop hard drives. We still see a 3Gb/s SATA connection (SAS is not practical for most desktop/workstation users), but more good news is that the capacity is bumped up to 300GB. With these changes WD is claiming up to a 35 percent increase in performance of the previous Raptor.
The drive (official model name WD3000GLFS) has a 16MB cache and WD says it is built on enterprise-class quality standards. This means 1.4 million hours MTBF and a 5-year warranty to help justify it’s $300 price tag.
The 2.5-inch drive comes strapped into WD’s IcePack, a heatsink that not only cools the drive, but allows it to fit into a standard 3.5-inch drive bay. So why go the 2.5-inch route? This size is becoming the standard for commercial storage and high-density environments, but if the drive has to be used in the 3.5-inch IcePack, then it’s not really a 2.5-inch drive at all. Don’t get smart modding ideas–removing the drive from the IcePack voids the warranty.