Western Digital launches world's fastest SATA disk: the 300GB VelociRaptor

Overclockers and gamers, prepare to meet your next hard drive: the 300GB VelociRaptor from Western Digital. Said to be 35% faster than previous WD Raptors, the 10,000 RPM drive features a 3Gbps SATA interface, 16MB cache, and impressive 1.4 million hour MTBF thanks in part to the IcePack Mounting Frame. The IcePack heat sink not only keeps the drive spinning extra cool, it also bumps the 2.5-inch HDD to a required 3.5-inch drive bay. Available exclusively on Alienware's ALX gaming desktop this month and then up for grabs for everybody with $300 to burn starting mid-May.

Here come the benchmarks. It's freaky fast -- even holds up well to SSDs at a far better dollar-per-byte ratio according to MaximumPC.

Read -- Tom's Hardware
Read -- MaximumPC
Read -- PCPer
Read -- HotHardware
Read -- The Tech Report

[Jonthomasdesigns Posted Apr 21st 2008 10:42AM]

Looks like i will replace my 3 X 150GB Raptors in raid 0 with these

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 11:55AM]

Why raid 0??

You know that when one of those 3 HDs fail you lose everything right?

[Hydra Posted Apr 21st 2008 11:00AM]

DO WANT! Considering i got a 10,000 rpm raptor 70gb for about 180.00 when they came out, this isn't a bad deal. It was worth it (still is) and makes a huge difference to me compared to other harddrives.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 11:02AM]

really???

No one has said any thing About the name???

no Jurrasic Park Jokes????


Guess I'll do it then...........

**Clears Throat**

Samuel L. Jackson better stay away from this hard drive............

[Munkcy Posted Apr 21st 2008 2:25PM]

"We're being hunted...by a fast hard drive."


"You bred velociraptor...hard drives?"


Then there's always the classics "Shoot her!" and "Clever girl..." and lastly "They should all be destroyed."

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 22nd 2008 6:47AM]

THANX.........lol

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 11:07AM]

Considering the drive is only a 2.5", I'm wondering when some psycho strips it out of it's cooling housing and tries to put it in a laptop.

[ran Posted Apr 21st 2008 11:18AM]

It's already non-industry height; you mean to say a psycho would cut this computer up to fit this?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 11:50AM]

Non industry height???? I sincerely hope I'm not the only one who notices it's the size of a normal 3.5" HDD in some sort of case...

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 4:01PM]

@TD, I think he meant the 2.5 bit is taller than a standard 2.5" disk. As a 3.5 it's dandy :)

[The Turtle Posted Apr 21st 2008 12:05PM]

Interesting optical illusion on that post... in Firefox, if you wave the mouse over the picture of the drive and get a border around it, the border appears cockeyed!

[DaveBG Posted Apr 21st 2008 12:06PM]

I welcome the idea with the IcePAK since if you need it for 3.5" you can use it if you need it for 2.5" you can remove it. The heat reduction is also good 5C is something :)

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 12:15PM]

Western Digital SUCKS! HANDS DOWN!

I had a stack of caviar's sitting on my desk at my old job. Hated, HATED, them, and began to despise the fact that Dell would automatically shove them into their servers without question.

You get what you pay for.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 12:17PM]

Where is the Tech Report link?

Oh here it is:

http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14583

It should be at the top of the list!

Another fine job from the people at TR.

[AlexL Posted Apr 21st 2008 12:44PM]

Does anybody else think that they named the first generation of the series "Raptor" for the sole reason that they can name the second generation "Velociraptor"?

[Anderfrank Posted Apr 21st 2008 12:57PM]

to bad if you remove the IcePak it voids the warranty, according to MaximumPC

[billy5000 Posted Apr 21st 2008 2:41PM]

Hell, about time they released a new raptor... I've been waiting for something bigger than 150GB for a LONG time now. Too bad it's still a month away :P

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 6:38PM]

sony is coming out with a download video service this summer, and wd just released a 2.5" 10,000 rpm hard drive... this could be interestiing. anyone think a crazy modder will figure out how to cram one of these in the ps3 for super fast install/load/access times? im almost tempted... then again i bought my ps3 for $600 total.... putting a storage unit in it that is 50% of the original price seems a little crazy.

[Wwhat Posted Apr 21st 2008 10:58PM]

Sony is evil, just keep that in mind.

[tuaamin13 Posted Apr 22nd 2008 5:32PM]

It won't fit, unless you put this externally. The PS3 utilizes 9mm tall drives, this is 15mm tall. Also if you read, it says the SATA connections are in non-standard positions

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 4:06PM]

StorageReview is the best place for hard drive reviews, please add this to the list of reviews.
http://www.storagereview.com/WD3000BLFS.sr

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 23rd 2008 12:59PM]

That heatsink makes it look like they were headed for a 15k drive.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 22nd 2008 8:26PM]

Too bad the connector backplane isn't standard 3.5" spec. It makes me think that maybe the 3.5 SATA spec working group should have foreseen something like this and made the data and power connections closer toward the centerline of the disc chassis.

The current crop of fast SATA drives (uh, that'd be Raptors) top out at 150GB, which is a little small when you're building a nice low/mid-range storage server. These 300GB's would be sweet... but they don't fit a hot-swap cage. Arrrrrgggh.

I could sell 20 of these to clients right now if they did.

WDC, are you listening?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 26th 2008 6:50AM]

Looks like a set of hair clippers....

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 26th 2008 1:28PM]

AS I am building a new PC as we speak and shoving this one to the basement rack to serve as a Tivo server for the home I am excited to have a larger size than the 150GB,

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 27th 2008 1:39PM]

Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffff, mine samung ssd sata 2 64 gig kills this raptor...... like a cat with nine lives