Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 2.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 10,000 RPM SATA II WD3000GLFS
by Western Digital
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 2.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 10,000 RPM SATA II WD3000GLFS
Customer Review: Raptor is the way to go for serious performance and general use as it is a long term lasting HD
Summary: 5 Stars
Firstly, I would never consider getting anything but the Raptor hard drive for any new computer I was going to be serious about(as in gaming and main rig) I usually prefer to pair it up and go "RAID 0" as it is a pretty solid drive and doesn't take damage so performance can be gained and you need not sacrifice it for "RAID 1" these things do not fail!(with proper front cooling). RAID 0/0 is good for picky games but also a distructive power to your pocket book I've not seen since owr booming days in 1999 economy! lol for it's capacity you can pair it up for good OS performence as that needs some serious acess and lots of time in the "dental chair" too(as in noise) get some other higher capacity HD of some quality and durablity like the WD SATA 2 1.5 TB with a decent cache to load all those huge games on run the acess and buffers off the Raptor(as it is loaded in your Docs for that purpose) same with movies. The price is killer in this config however so consider a single High performanc video card in place of PCIE x2/3! A "Falon NW" with this config and a cheaper(though decently not low end) vid/sound will run you on the high side of 3K+ maybe closer to 4K! self builds are cheaper but risky too. This is not cheap if you are into games(the new ones) they are performance hogs as is the OS required. If you are a "Data DaintY" or a casual user(as in storing info) this is also the way to go as it is durable and the acess time is always true! My mother would think it frivolous but if she had it "sneak loaded" on her PC(for Christmas) I think even she would find it a boon in her otherwise waistful load times of Windows and her files that always get dumped out because her old crud of a Hewlet Packard has such a droll HD that fails periodically requiring a reinstall by her "tech support" people. IF you are not a serious user consider a single raptor but also you must retain your slow moving but higher capacity HD(likely a Sata 2 by now!) IF you store critical data this is the way to go even if you don't use RAID 1 but if you do it is better still than the standard ones! aside the low capacity this is the SCSI of HD without being a Scuzz to your wallet/credit comprimise!Customer Review: Fastest rotating SATA drive at the moment
Summary: 5 Stars
First, there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding this drive. Regarding the position of the SATA connectors; this is a 2.5" form factor drive in a 3.5" aluminum cooling bezel for convenient use in most desktop computers. Look at the product picture and you can see this. If you need to use a drive in a docking situation where location matters, don't buy this drive.
This is the OEM version of the drive. The retail box version sells at significantly higher price. This means a warehouse worker will re-package the drive from a bulk shipping container into an anti-static bag. Mistakes can happen and it's also not really the proper way to ship hard drives, so if you want the retail box version pay the extra $50 and get it. If you roll the dice and take a chance to save the $50 then suck it up if you have to return a DOA drive once in a while.
This drive is fast and performance costs money. It is also very energy efficient and quiet when compared to the fastest 3.5" drives. I have owned every one of the WD Raptor series starting with the original 35GB and most recently the 150GB and every one of them carried a stiff price premium. All have served well in my high utilization business environment. This latest revision is the best of the bunch by a significant margin. The combination of access time, transfer rate, (finally) NCQ, and low heat and noise dissipation make this drive a very reasonable bargain for those that actually need it. It's not designed to win the $/GB prize. Write times actually beat Intel's X-25 SSD (solid state drive). If you need the performance, this is the drive.
Customer Review: You will notice the speed difference!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a loyal Western Digital fan. So when my C:\ drive started making noises and locking up windows (an old WD 320GB Caviar) it was time to upgrade.
First off, this drive is incredibly fast. It fits in the 3.5inch bay on my Dell Inspiron 530 perfectly. Booting up windows (didn't time it) was noticeably faster. Usually when I log into windows I have to wait 1-2 minutes for everything to load. Now, with the VelociRaptor I can open programs instantly after logging into Windows.
Now for some official numbers: Malwarebytes quick scan. On my old 7200RPM 320GB - a scan would take 3.1 minutes. With the Velociraptor the scan takes one minute and 56 seconds.
As far as noise - it seems a tad bit louder than my 320GB Caviar when seeking for data but not noticeably louder when idling. However the noise is not noticeable when the computer is under the desk as mine is.
I didn't think that going from 7200RPM to 10,000RPM would be that much of an upgrade but it is amazing how much faster everything is. Windows boots faster, Windows logs in 2x as fast, programs open up faster, World of Warcraft loads a ton faster, and backups in Acronis are 2x as fast.
Definitely recommend this drive! Beware it is OEM so you need your own SATA cables and screws. I was replacing a drive so that was ok. I also bought this from Amazon (at the time Amazon was selling) - not a third party.
Customer Review: WD does it again!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is certainly one of the fastest drives available to consumers. Look at the specs, SATA II 3Gbps, 4.2 ms read seek time, 300GB 2.5" 10,000 RPM drive in a 3.5" casing on 4 heads and 2 platters. This is also faster than previous Raptors which were only 1.5Gbps products. The old Raptors had 4.6ms read seek times and 5.2ms write seek times versus 4.2ms rst and 4.7ms wst. Although this is not the fastest drive available (That title belongs to the Intel X25-E SSDs and the X25-M drives), it is the best value among the performance leaders. I had the opportunity to purchase the Intel X25-M 80GB drive in an EPP for $399 (MSRP is $600+)! This 300GB drive costs less than $200 after rebate.
While Intel's SSDs are faster at most applications, the Velociraptor is competitive. For instance, Spore load times on the Intel X25-M were 16 seconds while the VRaptor was 17. Oblivion was 37.9 seconds for Intel and 46.7 for WD VR. Crysis GPU bench was 48.2 FPS avg for Intel and 46.8 avg FPS for the WD VR. Other benchmarks were similar but the VR beat Intel on a few of the benchmarks like multitasking and Sysmark video creation.
If you have to get the fastest drives, go with Intel SSDs or SCSI 15,000 RPM drives, but you will pay a lot more for a little bit of extra performance in most cases. I'll stick with the Velociraptor until SSD prices are comparable.
Customer Review: FAST!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was eager because spending as much money, or more, for a 32GB SSD drive is dumb. (And people complain about the Velociraptor being pricey!) And I like performance; every review I read said this thing flies like a budgie on amphetamines. And, yes, it runs relentlessly fast. STABLE too. Vista loads in half the time and EVERYTHING is far more responsive.
I was hesitant because others reported the unit dying after x number of days. On my system, the drive was instantly found, cloning software worked without a hitch, and a full chkdsk scan revealed 0 sector failures. Time will tell and I might post a follow-up review. Others have mentioned bad sectors or the drive dying after x number of days/weeks. Mine was manufactured on June 8 2008, if that date helps anybody.
I was also eager to spend, because I don't want to go through the hassle of making a RAID 0 array; knowing if one drive fails I lose the whole array. Most reviews show this drive, on average, on par with RAID 0 if not better. Rather less time consuming to put in too...
Also, why only 16MB of cache for this puppy? I can think of reasons for and against keeping only 16MB, so I won't complain too much... :)