Western Digital VelociRaptors

Western Digital may be marketing their new VelociRaptor family of high-speed hard drives as enterprise-class hard drives but they are also very popular with hardware enthusiasts who just cannot resist their 10,000 RPM spindle speed. Everything just seems much faster when you use a hard drive that spins at such a high speed.

To cater to this exclusive group of enthusiasts, Western Digital first introduced the Raptor and Raptor X hard drives with capacities of 36 GB to 150 GB. These Raptors evolved into the first-generation Western Digital VelociRaptor hard drives with twice the storage capacity in a much smaller 2.5" drive form factor.

Western Digital has since introduced an improved version of the VelociRaptor, with double the storage capacity and support for SATA 6 Gb/s. The new VelociRaptor 6 Gb/s is available in storage capacities of 450 GB or 600 GB. Both models use three platters. The only difference is the 450 GB model has five read/write heads while the 600 GB model has six read/write heads. Both models boast these key features :

Killer speed - WD VelociRaptor SATA drives are available in capacities up to 600 GB, double the capacity of the previous generation.

Rock-solid reliability - Designed and manufactured to mission-critical enterprise-class standards to provide enterprise reliability in high duty cycle environments. With 1.4 million hours MTBF, these drives have the highest available reliability rating on a high capacity SATA drive.

Ultra-cool operation - Consumes less idle power and uses similar active power as the previous generation WD VelociRaptor, while offering double the capacity and higher performance.

IcePack mounting frame - The 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor is enclosed in a backplane-ready 3.5-inch enterprise-class mounting frame with a built-in heat sink that keeps this powerful little drive extra cool when installed in high-performance desktop chassis.

Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF™) - Optimizes operation and performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis.

NoTouch™ ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.

Environmentally conscious - In addition to being ROHS compliant, this generation of WD VelociRaptor is also a halogen-free design.

Today, we will look at the Western Digital VelociRaptor 600 GB hard disk drive - the WD6000HLHX, which comes with the IcePack mounting frame.

Packaging

Like most OEM-packed hard drives, the WD VelociRaptor 600 GB hard disk drive came in just a sealed anti-static plastic packet with a sachet of dessicants to keep it dry. Other than the sparse packaging (and no documentation), this OEM-packed drive is no different from the retail version, right down to the 5-year warranty.

All you need to do is just cut open the plastic packet and slide out the drive. Be sure to ground yourself before removing and handling the hard disk drive as static can damage it. In particular, you should try to avoid touching the exposed PCB located at the base of the drive.

If you like your packaging or need to deliver this hard disk drive by mail, you can always opt for the retail version of the drive. It comes with its own box and proper padding to ensure the drive survives a mail delivery. Of course, the retail package comes with a price premium as well.

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