Western Digital VelociRaptor 150GB 10K Drive

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150GB? What, is this drive 5 years old, or something?

Yes it is.

Omg over a dollar a gig what a gyp$$$$$!1

OK OK guys. This is for people who want the absolute best performance in server based machines (in whatever RAID config or what not) only. Admittedly for the vast majority of us it is not worth it. I think it is interesting though that these are all 2.5" drives! just with a huge heatsink on them to make them 3.5" sized.

The only ones complaining about this drive are the ones who can't afford it...

This is a 10K RPM harddrive. It has the fastest ramdom access time of any harddrive I have ever use. This translate to a more responsive computer. The differences is not day and night, but it is not the point. This drive is for someone who want absolutely best performance. Just like video card, you can get $500 one, but $25 one will do just fine for daily task

my 2 cents:

i use this drive as host for my os and for games.

all my data is loaded onto a separate drive.

this reduces significantly load time for the games. i don't need the extra i/o for smaller data files like office docs.

also, with data saved on a separate drive, i can format/reinstall the primary drive with a minimized chance of data loss.

It is amazing how many people who post here on ben's can't read. 10k drives are 'spensive. You're paying for speed not capacity. It's idiots like #1 & #2 that keep companies like gateway in business... "oh, please sell me a turd in a box for a dollar!"

#8, you haven't been here long, have you?

SSD's outperform this, or so I have heard

@#9.. teehee... Yeah, I've been here a while. Every once in a while I just get fed up with the idiots.

@#9.. teehee... Yeah, I've been here a while. Every once in a while I just get fed up with the idiots.

#10: Have you compared SSD write speeds to this drive?

Yeah, the read speeds are more compelling.

Glad to see that the 150GB Velociraptor is finally shipping - I was starting to worry that I'd have to shell out $300 for the 300GB version for the next computer build coming up.

The $180 price is reasonable, but nothing to jump at if you're not needing it immediately, especially if you live in a state where Newegg charges sales tax.

#4, virtually all 10-15Krpm drives have been 3" or 2.5" platters for some time now, even if packaged in 3.5" (4" x 1"/25.4mm) form-factor. In reality, more and more 10-15Krpm drives are just being made in 2.5" form-factor, although not always the standard 9.5mm high, but possibly sub-1/2"/11.5mm for server hot-swap bays'n trays (typically with SCSI-2 firmware, aka SAS).

Oink

#8 are you new. Oh you MUST be new.

$180 BUCKS, I can get what; three 320GB hard drives for $180!

speed for size, it's reasonable.

Stupid question though: Does this thing really make the computer run noticeably faster?

ironbadge wrote:

Stupid question though: Does this thing really make the computer run noticeably faster?

Increased density improves data transfer rates (DTR).
Increased spindle speed improves both latency and data transfer rates (DTR).

DTR is great for sustained, sequential transfers with only one (or maybe a couple) threads doing I/O.
Latency is more of a consideration for servers, or desktop boot-time/multi-threaded operations where you have lots of I/O.

Caching, buffering disk controllers with multiple disks, help improve latency and data transfer.
But for boot times and select operations, having high spindle disks are ideal in any and all cases.

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