Western Digital plans to unveil the 3rd generation of the popular, high-performance Serial-ATA Raptor hard drive as reported by DarkVision Hardware. I personally own the 1st (single platter, 36.7GB) and 2nd (two platter, 73.4GB) generation Raptors, which run at 10,000RPM compared to the more common 7,200RPM hard drives. The latest addition to the Raptor line will hold 150GB and is still aimed at the server and gamer market. This drive features a doubled onboard memory cache of 16MB, NCQ or Native Command Queuing (the 2nd gen Raptor had this as well) for smarter transfers and a RAFF technology to detect and correct errors caused by drive vibration (typical in a server environment running many drives). This new Raptor likely features four 36.7GB platters for a real capacity of 146.8GB, but that is only my speculation. To get a feel for how fast these drives are, Windows loaded about 20 seconds faster on my 2nd generation Raptor compared to a 7200.7 160GB SATA Seagate Barracuda drive. Oh and when you RAID 0 two Raptor hard drives, it is possible to install Windows XP in under 10 minutes. Yeah, I know.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
under 10 minutes, typo?
Now look what you did! I just drooled all over my damn keyboard. ;-)
alright, alright ;) got the irony moment after I posted the comment…
how noisy is this disk?
It is a little louder than most convential hard drives, but they have really done their best. The 1st generation had an unbearable, high-pitched whining sound but the 2nd gen was much better.
Update: WD has announced a version of the Raptor dubbed Raptor X aimed at the modding community that has a clear cover! However it costs $349.99. Link.