Legit Reviews

Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB SATA Hard Drive

The Western Digital 300GB VelociRaptor is the newest member of WD's 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive series for enthusiasts and gamers. The VelociRaptor still has the same DNA as the Raptor series, but it offers a whole new level of performance. WD also has something new called the IcePAK that helps keep the drive temperatures down and still allow this 2.5" HDA drive to mount in a standard case.



Article Title: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB SATA Hard Drive
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/699/1/

I'll swing by tonight and pick it up, now where is it sitting on the bench

Was just reading about it on hothardware.

Looks to be a very nice (but extremely pricy for the space) drive.

I'd love to have some of these in raid 0.

Dan

omg i need one of those thats faster than most solid state drives, even the ones that cost like 6000 dollars.

I need one. Now.

Oddly, this article made me wonder why I've never seen a watercooled harddrive...weird thought I know but it's the thought I had

Also, speaking of SSD, and out of curiosity, how long would it take to completely wipe a SSD drive? eg make ALL info unrecoverable like what the program dBan does...

Still, amazing little piece of technology, can't wait to see what it does with the final f/w.

I might have missed it in the review, but how loud was the dirve? I know my raptor 150 with the window is hella loud and i almost want to chuck it out the window sometimes.

I have short circuited my keyboard with drool...

Dragon_Cooler wrote:i almost want to chuck it out the window sometimes.

Lets put our windows together so you chuck it out of yours, and into mine. I wouldn't mind having a raptor drive for windows and a few games.

Dragon_Cooler wrote:I might have missed it in the review, but how loud was the dirve? I know my raptor 150 with the window is hella loud and i almost want to chuck it out the window sometimes.

It's the same as the Raptor 150GB drive... Same sones and dB! I honestly couldn't tell a difference between the two.

The 150 without the window seems quiet, but not the one with the window. EEEK

vicaphit wrote:I have short circuited my keyboard with drool...

Dragon_Cooler wrote:i almost want to chuck it out the window sometimes.

Lets put our windows together so you chuck it out of yours, and into mine. I wouldn't mind having a raptor drive for windows and a few games.

I put my self up for that, but I saw a comment like that comming!!! HAHAHAH nice!

Nice... I will be giving this some serious consideration when I go to build my new PC this fall. Same price per MB is not bad at all and better performance.

Man, that's sweet. Even at $299 (sure it'll be less when it's available for retail) it's still cheaper than 2-150GB Raptors.

Alathald wrote:Oddly, this article made me wonder why I've never seen a watercooled harddrive...weird thought I know but it's the thought I had

Also, speaking of SSD, and out of curiosity, how long would it take to completely wipe a SSD drive? eg make ALL info unrecoverable like what the program dBan does...

Still, amazing little piece of technology, can't wait to see what it does with the final f/w.

dont worry, we have those http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835127010
this is one of the reviews from somebody who obviously shouldnt be working with water cooling

Pros: Water cooling for my HD's. Doesn't kill you on space.

Cons: Bags of water pressed aginst the pcb side of the HD seem silly. Why can't it come in 3/8in instead of the little 1/2in?

Other Thoughts: Works well enough. My system has no air movement though the case other than the PS and the HD's run cool.

LOL

Wow supergeek apparently failed math class...that hd watercooler looks like a pretty sad attempt anyway.

Looks like it might work, but it looks way too flimsy for my liking, especially to be mounted on PCB with sharp solder points/resistors etc.

But you can get other (better) watercooling blocks for hard drives, but they aren't widely used as hard drives with just a fan over them run cool enough.

Dan

According to the Google HD study, cooling HDs excessively lowered life expectancy.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/18/mass ... ing-thing/

Anyways...

Can someone measure the 2.5" case (not the 3.5" heatsink) and verify that it isn't thicker than a normal 2.5" drive?

I have plans for this drive that don't involve the bulky heatsink.

Nice first post. I've yet to read the report, but I wonder if the cooling meant climate controlled fridge type server rooms.

It's been noted somewhere in a review, that this is thicker than a standard 2.5" drive. So wouldn't fit in a laptop if that was your plan.

the actual mechanics are housed in a 2.5" HDA drive with a 15mm z-height, similar to standard notebook hard drives--only taller.

Found the quote I was looking for, it was via hot hardware.

Dan

The first thing I looked at was noise levels. I was so hoping that this new technology would find a way to quiet the raptors down a bit. That is the only thing that has kept me from going with a 10k drive.

DMB2000uk wrote:Nice first post. I've yet to read the report, but I wonder if the cooling meant climate controlled fridge type server rooms.

It's been noted somewhere in a review, that this is thicker than a standard 2.5" drive. So wouldn't fit in a laptop if that was your plan.

the actual mechanics are housed in a 2.5" HDA drive with a 15mm z-height, similar to standard notebook hard drives--only taller.

Found the quote I was looking for, it was via hot hardware.

Dan

::SNAP:: It's too bad it's thicker.

The study doesn't mention how the HDs were cooled, but your guess is probably right.

The study looked at drive temperatures running between 15°C and 50°C. The sweet spot for HD temperatures is between 30-40°C. Running the HD lower than 30°C or higher than 40°C increased failure rates, but high temp failures didn't start to be significant until after 3 years of running.

even if you could fit it in a laptop it would probably catch a fire in no time