Western Digital’s Raptor line of hard drives held the performance crown among SATA drives for the last few years. Spinning at 10,000 RPM, these 3.5-inch drives sacrificed capacity in the name of performance (other hard drives spin at 5,400 or 7,200 RPM).
In the last couple years, however, the Raptor’s performance lead was marginalized by modern SATA hard drives. In fact, most of today’s 1TB offerings can hold their own with the Raptor, even though they cost much less.
Not one to rest on its laurels and see its high performance (and high margin) product tarnished, Western Digital has just started shipping its all-new VelociRaptor drive.
Like the Raptor, the VelociRaptor spins at 10,000 RPM, but unlike any other SATA hard drive on the market, the VelociRaptor is a 2.5-inch hard drive (like what you find in a laptop) that’s framed by a huge heat sink that’s conveniently the same size as a 3.5-inch hard drive. The smaller platters means the drive’s head doesn’t have to move as much to read data, further improving performance.
It’s not just a gimmick, either. According to the venerable Tom’s Hardware, the VelociRaptor is the fastest SATA drive out there Compared to your standard 1TB SATA drive, the VelociRaptor delivers anywhere from a 15% improvement (compared to the Samsung SpinPoint F1) or 80% improvement (Western Digital’s Green Power) in performance, although those numbers can vary depending on task and measurement.
This performance doesn’t come cheap: $299.99 for 300GB, or four-to-five times more than what is considered a good $/GB rate today (about 20 to 25 cents).
Fortunately, bragging rights among your geek friends are included at no extra charge.
