Western Digital Readying 600 GB VelociRaptor HDD

[Mussels]

simple points make this better than SSD's for now:

1. you dont need to worry about degrading performance/TRIM

2. you dont need to worry about the drive physically dying in 2 years time

SSD's and raptors might not make much of a difference to a gamer, but that should be blatantly clear - its not targeted at them. its for high performance systems like rendering workstations, or servers.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

That is true, but cost doesn't go down in a linear fashion. In fact newegg just had a 30GB SSD for $65 yesterday as their shell shocker. However, the price per GB is still horrible. By the end of the year we might see consistant $2 per GB on SSDs, but it won't come close to the $0.50 we already see for this drive, and the $0.10 we see for standard drives.

Agreed, the price per preformance ratio is horrible. But even so they are gaining market share steadily. Thus is why WD should go for price > preformance. If they had made a 1 platter 300gb model for around $100-150 USD, people would be splatting their pants to get a hold of them. When you could have almost twice the speed for the same price, would you really rather a single drive ?

 

[CDdude55]

simple points make this better than SSD's for now:

1. you dont need to worry about degrading performance/TRIM

2. you dont need to worry about the drive physically dying in 2 years time

SSD's and raptors might not make much of a difference to a gamer, but that should be blatantly clear - its not targeted at them. its for high performance systems like rendering workstations, or servers.

It's still significantly faster then my old HDD's when gaming.(loading wise)

Much better then both my old 160GB WD Caviar 7200 and Seagate Barracuda 7200 drives i had.

 

[newtekie1]

Agreed, the price per preformance ratio is horrible. But even so they are gaining market share steadily. Thus is why WD should go for price > preformance. If they had made a 1 platter 300gb model for around $100-150 USD, people would be splatting their pants to get a hold of them. When you could have almost twice the speed for the same price, would you really rather a single drive ?

You keep saying that, but did you read the original post? There is a single platter 300GB model in the works. And if the 600GB is going to be in the $250 range, $125 sounds about right for the 300GB model.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

You keep saying that, but did you read the original post? There is a single platter 300GB model in the works. And if the 600GB is going to be in the $250 range, $125 sounds about right for the 300GB model.

I did read that, I'm still confused what the hell is the point of this thing. W/E

 

[CDdude55]

You keep saying that, but did you read the original post? There is a single platter 300GB model in the works. And if the 600GB is going to be in the $250 range, $125 sounds about right for the 300GB model.

They're essentially the exact same drive just with more space, i doubt they would put the price that low for the 300GB drive(it might go down to about $190 or so), the 150GB version is already about $170 or so, so they would have to push that drive's price down even further to.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

They're essentially the exact same drive just with more space, i doubt they would put the price that low for the 300GB drive(it might go down to about $190 or so), the 150GB version is already about $170 or so, so they would have to push that drive's price down even further to.

Don't forget the improvements in IO performance seen by all newer standard drives. These new drives should boast improved throughput as well as increased capacity. I don't have one, but I understand the VRaptors now get the best burst reads/writes, highest max read/writes, and the lowest seek times. Add in all the IO, throughput, cache, and other speed improvements that have it losing some raw test to The Sammy F3 and WD newest Blacks, then these drives be the fastest non-SSD drives money can buy.

While it still will not saturate a SATA 3.0 link, I am sure it will come with SATA 6.0 connectors just to give it more data lanes. There is a lot they can improve here beyond just bumping up space from its previous brothers.

 

[Baum]

thanks for the hint with the new drive i just thought that the keep real 2.5 inch size this time as the last raptors where too high :-( (modding in 12V won't be the problem and powersaving is not important as the battery is for wallchanging )

just an upgrade over my current 2.5" sata 7200 hitachi 80GB drive which has a single pattern and is fast.

i will look into it any imput appreciated as raptors are maybe to hot

 

[TAViX]

VelociRaptor is a 2.5" HDD.

Yeah, but it's height (thickness) is almost double, so no chance you can plug this in a laptop, even a custom one. Also even if is 2.5" size, is mounted on a 3.5" carcase which acts as a radiator. Not to mention the power reqs....

Regarding the comparation between this and an SSD, it's nonsense. For 1 quoter of its size you pay a fortune, and it lasts less than 2 years...lol

 

[Mussels]

Yeah, but it's height (thickness) is almost double, so no chance you can plug this in a laptop, even a custom one. Also even if is 2.5" size, is mounted on a 3.5" carcase which acts as a radiator. Not to mention the power reqs....

^ what he said

 

[overclocking101]

ill buy one for sure

 

[Kantastic]

ill buy one for sure

+1

 

[newtekie1]

They're essentially the exact same drive just with more space, i doubt they would put the price that low for the 300GB drive(it might go down to about $190 or so), the 150GB version is already about $170 or so, so they would have to push that drive's price down even further to.

These are replacing the current models, so the 150GB model will be eliminated from the market when these come out, so it's price has no effect on the prices of the new drives.

I would expect the 300GB model to be about half the price of the 300GB model to be competitive, maybe a little higher at the $150 range.

 

[TAViX]

So, when are they going to release those drives??? Next year?????

 

[TheLaughingMan]

So the drives are like out and on newegg.com (link below). Anyone game to get one. I think this will be my next upgrade once I confirm the improvement performance is worth it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...555&cm_re=velociraptor-_-22-136-555-_-Product

 

[TIGR]

So the drives are like out and on newegg.com (link below). Anyone game to get one. I think this will be my next upgrade once I confirm the improvement performance is worth it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...555&cm_re=velociraptor-_-22-136-555-_-Product

One of the reviews there lists the following HDTune results for the drive:

Read transfer rate
Transfer Rate Minimum : 80.1 MB/s
Transfer Rate Maximum : 145.6 MB/s
Transfer Rate Average : 121.1 MB/s
Access Time : 7.2 ms
Burst Rate : 260.5 MB/s
CPU Usage : -1.0%

If you want something "snappy" as well as something with high read/write speeds, SSD is of course the way to go. In the latency department, the VelociRaptor is bound to feel so much more like a normal HDD than an SSD that I wouldn't consider it worth the cost per GB over regular HDDs just for the latency. And for the read/write speeds, you can just use RAID at a much lower cost per GB.

One could argue that it's at a reasonable price point for where it lies performance-wise between HDDs and SSDs, but I think if you want high read/write speeds, you're better off with inexpensive HDDs in RAID, and if you need low latency, better go SSD rather than half-assing it with a VelociRaptor.

 

[Wile E]

This would be perfect for small form factor PCs that only have the space for one drive, but still want performance with a decent amount of storage. Otherwise, I honestly see very little use from an enthusiast standpoint, when there are SSDs out there for speed, and cheap 1TB+ hard drives out there for storage.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

I don't even know of an application or instance when I would need non-existence Latency. I just want improved load speeds for my computer and game application. While some could argue a point of SSD's to me, I have scouted the option and getting the improved load speed on games would be impossible as I have over 100 GB of games on my computer. The cost of an SSD large enough to install all of my games, OS, and applications I need for school (and yes I do play them all on occasion and want them all installed and at my finger tips) is simply too high.

I was thing I would either RAID my current drive or replace it with the 300 GB VRaptor when it is released. RAID is currently in the lead, but I honestly have no experience. Tell me, can a single VRaptor 2 out perform 2x 1TB (2 platter) Sammy F3's in say RAID 0 or 1 in any performance catagory (Exception to RAID 1 writes, I already no that will be the same as it is now)?

 

[Wile E]

I don't even know of an application or instance when I would need non-existence Latency. I just want improved load speeds for my computer and game application. While some could argue a point of SSD's to me, I have scouted the option and getting the improved load speed on games would be impossible as I have over 100 GB of games on my computer. The cost of an SSD large enough to install all of my games, OS, and applications I need for school (and yes I do play them all on occasion and want them all installed and at my finger tips) is simply too high.

I was thing I would either RAID my current drive or replace it with the 300 GB VRaptor when it is released. RAID is currently in the lead, but I honestly have no experience. Tell me, can a single VRaptor 2 out perform 2x 1TB (2 platter) Sammy F3's in say RAID 0 or 1 in any performance catagory (Exception to RAID 1 writes, I already no that will be the same as it is now)?

To be honest, RAID is nice, but the performance gains aren't that noticeable unless you move a lot of huge files around between arrays. The VRaptor will have faster random access, the Sammies in RAID will have faster continuous read/write. Neither will load your games zomg fast.

 

[TIGR]

I don't even know of an application or instance when I would need non-existence Latency. I just want improved load speeds for my computer and game application. While some could argue a point of SSD's to me, I have scouted the option and getting the improved load speed on games would be impossible as I have over 100 GB of games on my computer....

A couple threads that might interest you:

SDD or HighPoint RocketRAID 640 ?
2 SSD drives in RAID 0 vs 2 Velociraptors in RAID 0 (including the external benchmarks link)

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

This might be an option for people who put their pcs in another room, but from experience I can tell you using a raptor is highly annoying. At first you might think you're ok with the sound but it will get to you eventually. I think I'm in agreement with many reviewers that this isn't a very appealing product.... you won't notice much dif between this and a much cheaper and bigger F3 in speed terms.

 

[TIGR]

This might be an option for people who put their pcs in another room, but from experience I can tell you using a raptor is highly annoying. At first you might think you're ok with the sound but it will get to you eventually. I think I'm in agreement with many reviewers that this isn't a very appealing product.... you won't notice much dif between this and a much cheaper and bigger F3 in speed terms.

Do you mean a Raptor or VelociRaptor? The VelociRaptors are significantly quieter than the old Raptors.