New Western Digital Raptor?

hardtarget

hardtarget

hardtarget

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Hi all is it true or just another rumor that a new "Western Digital Raptor" is due out this year? Thing is I was just about to buy the 10,000RPM 150GB when a mate told me to wait as they are releasing a new Rator 15,000rpm version I think he mentioned? :(

HT
 
Hmm, I doubt it, but it's not entirely improbable. 15K drives are very expensive to make, hence why WD only developed the raptor @ 10K. If we did see a 15K one, it would only probably be a 36GB model or 74GB max as those speeds and densities are extremely expensive - look at a Maxtor Atlas or Seagate Cheetah for reference pricing, even though those are both SCSI.
 
I'd say so. I've had a look and cannot see anything. If anything does come out, you could just sell that drive and upgrade - raptor's hold their value pretty well.
 
Indeed they do, I sold my old 36gig Raptor for £70 after I'd been using it for half a year... put the money towards a 74gig one:)
 
Will they pack it in with making the raptors bigger. I want them to stay at 36gb or thereabouts, but go faster. Also, is 15k rpm a physical barrier, or can we expect to see 20k, or even 25k rpm drives in the coming decade?
 
messiah khan said:
Will they pack it in with making the raptors bigger. I want them to stay at 36gb or thereabouts, but go faster. Also, is 15k rpm a physical barrier, or can we expect to see 20k, or even 25k rpm drives in the coming decade?
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Solid State will probably be cheap enough to do in 20GB-30GB capacities, so I doubt that 20k or 25k drives will be developed anytime soon (let alone be as popular as current 15k drives)

Also, I think that it would be pointless of WD to develop 15k drives, given that Raptor 150GB already outperforms every single hard disk so far produced (including 15k SCSI drives) in Desktop applications. In short, I think that WD Raptor is probably the last great leap in performance and technology, until the solid state arrives in a reasonable cost and performance.
 
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when can we expect solid state drives to show up? surly solid state drives will be ultra reliable so manufacturers will not make them because thier can;t get more cash from people buying more drives because old ones have failed.
 
I remember seeing an article about solid state harddrives about 7-8 years ago, where they were advertising one for something like £100,000 :eek: Lets hope the price comes down before they get sold to the public.
 
jhmaeng said:
Solid State will probably be cheap enough to do in 20GB-30GB capacities, so I doubt that 20k or 25k drives will be developed anytime soon (let alone be as popular as current 15k drives)

Also, I think that it would be pointless of WD to develop 15k drives, given that Raptor 150GB already outperforms every single hard disk so far produced (including 15k SCSI drives) in Desktop applications. In short, I think that WD Raptor is probably the last great leap in performance and technology, until the solid state arrives in a reasonable cost and performance.
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Sorry thats rubbish!! My 15k Maxtor Atlas II's and 15k Seagate Cheetah's totally cream both my 74 & 150 10k Raptors 'in Desktop applications' :rolleyes:
 
lumocolor said:
Sorry thats rubbish!! My 15k Maxtor Atlas II's and 15k Seagate Cheetah's totally cream both my 74 & 150 10k Raptors 'in Desktop applications' :rolleyes:
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Storage review disagrees with this does it not? The Raptor 150GB comes in about on par in their review - it may not beat, but is certainly up there.
 
From StorageReview:

1.Overall, for non-server use, Western Digital's Raptor WD740GD is the fastest single hard disk one can buy regardless of spindle speed, interface, or price., talking about the 74GB Raptor.

2. The Raptor WD740GD's tweaks were not subtle... indeed, they elevated the drive's performance to a new level, one that found WD's scrappy contender duking it out with Maxtor's mighty Atlas 15K as the fastest drive for non-server use, regardless of spindle speed, interface, or price. On the multi-user front, however, the WD740GD remained hit-or-miss - again, talking about the 74GB version.

3. WD's latest delivers 1010 I/Os per second in the StorageReview Office DriveMark 2006 and stands alone as the only drive to burst through the 1000 IOps mark. Representing a 17% improvement over that of its predecessor, the WD1500's score essentially leapfrogs past a three-way tie previously held by Fujitsu's MAU3147, Hitachi's Deskstar 7K500, and WD's previous Raptor.

<and>

The WD1500's 775 I/Os per second improves upon its forerunner by 21% in the SR High-End DriveMark 2006, a suite that features significantly higher average transfer block sizes than the Office test. As a result, the Raptor wrests first place from the MAU3147, besting Fujitsu's potent SCSI offering by nearly 11%.

4. ... as shown in this review, building upon its predecessor's impressive legacy permits the WD1500 to vie with and arguably top the fastest 15,000 RPM SCSI drives to stake its claim as the world's fastest when it comes to non-server performance.

I'd love to quote more sources but I haven't come across any other comprehensive reviews that pitch the 150GB Raptor against top-end SCSI drives.

Not to mention all the advantages of S-ATA over SCSI as far as most desktop users are concerned - namely

1. cost of the SCSI drives
2. heat & noise from SCSI drives
3. awkward and expensive SCSI cabling
4. cost and PCI-bus bandwidth issues of the SCSI controller cards.

I'd be tempted to go SCSI if I had my hands on a few Maxtor Atlas 15K II, but it's not worth giving up the advantages of S-ATA for older generation 15krpm drives in order to gain additional speed because you're not going to find any speed advantage in most single user situations.
 
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