Western Digital VelociRaptor sale date?

[Sheninat0r]

I'm looking forward to seeing its noise/heat improvements more than its speed improvements.

 

[dv8silencer]

Hurry up! Haha j/k

 

[n7]

I expect to see pics, reviews, benchmarks, & more from all of you wealthy people buying VRs

 

[imported_pk]

I posted my first impressions few days ago in the following thread:

http://forums.storagereview.ne...ex.php?showtopic=26887

 

[Rubycon]

The 2.5" to 3.5" adapter is flawed - very very flawed. WDC should have offset the drive instead of mounting it down the middle. Why is this a big deal? Because it eliminates this drive as a contender for those of us that use SAS/SATA hotswap bays, that's why! I would order a 20 pack of these if this were not the case. I'm still toying at the idea of getting them anyway and removing the drives from the sleds and having a machinist make a custom carrier out of a solid block of aluminum to adapt them to a proper 3.5" drive to fit my SuperMicro hotswap bays. Expensive? Yes but a bargain compared to an equal number of 128GB SSD's. :Q

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: pk
I posted my first impressions few days ago in the following thread:

http://forums.storagereview.ne...ex.php?showtopic=26887

Very nice.

Minimum speeds are almost as good as my 150 GB Raptor's maximum, & better seek times also

I don't think i can justify one yet, but maybe if the prices come down a bit.

 

[DoctorDeath]

Got my 4 VelociRaptors Weds from newegg $299 each and installed one in each rig, and saved the last two for my new build that will have two GTX 280s. I have noticed a big diff in performance over my 150Gb Raptor X drives.

 

[LightningRider]

Originally posted by: DoctorDeath
Got my 4 VelociRaptors Weds from newegg $299 each and installed one in each rig, and saved the last two for my new build that will have two GTX 280s. I have noticed a big diff in performance over my 150Gb Raptor X drives.

man you must be loaded! 4 Velociraptors? 2 GTX280s at ~700$ each?

 

[Xed]

My quick far from scientific observations..figured it's better than nothing.

Exact same setup I just switched hard drives, and the drive was mounted in the same place.

Drive runs about 4.5c cooler on average than my raptor 150

Vista Ultimate64 installed almost 3 minutes faster

Vista Ultimate64 boots about 3 seconds faster from initial ms loading screen.

Heavy access/seek on the raptor 150 is easily heard (quiet room) in my chair (2 or so feet from the case). With the Velociraptor I have to just about put my ear to the side of the case to hear it.

Noticeably less stutter from loading while gaming (mmo's etc) Everything "feels" snappier and more fluid.

Again these are just early impressions and are to be taken with a grain of salt. I hope to have more time to do actual detailed benchmarking and such soon. =)

 

[LightningRider]

That sounds great, man I can't wait to get mine on Monday!

 

[DoctorDeath]

lol i wish i was loaded. I sold my 4 / 150GB Raptor X drives and used my $600 tax check to buy the 4 VelociRaptors. As far as the two GTX 280s ill be using my two 9800 GTX's to step up to the two GTX 280s. I guess ill keep my two 9800GX2s in this rig for now. My boss just told me that i should be getting the new Antec 1200 for review, so once thats finished ill use the 1200 for the new build. I'm just not sure if the Boreas will fit in the 1200 so i might have to use the Elite. I own a shop so i always have alot of extra parts hanging around, plus doing reviews help.

 

[LightningRider]

I wish I was loaded too. I guess it helps when you're in the business when it comes to hardware though. Still, pretty sweet rigs you are gonna have there.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Are these actually worth the money? They perform like a beast, til you look at their price tags. D:

I would be very interested if WD decides to release single platter 150GB versions for half the price. I wish.

 

[LightningRider]

The 150GB versions are coming, they've already been announced. We just don't know when yet.

 

[DoctorDeath]

I think they are worth the $299, the performance is truly there and i have found the two i have installed run 5c-8c cooler than my Raptor X drives. When the Raptor X frist came out they were over $200 for 150Gbs so $299 for 300Gbs is worth it. I did find that every review that said it ran 35% faster was in fact true. The VelociRaptor beat alot of the SSDs out there unless you want to spend $1500 or more. This makes the VelociRaptor the best choice, plus you can just about hear it run.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie
I was shooting for one of these, but I don't need 300GB.

I'm waiting for the little brother 150GB VelociRaptor.

Hopefully, they won't be too far behind.

I couldn't wait for the 150.

My 300 VR is coming tomorrow.

I just hope it gets here before my wife comes home from work. :roll:

 

[Rubycon]

147GB Fujitsu MBA 15K's at $247 are a better deal IMO.

Solution for mounting these hotswappable.

I believe WD states that the warranty is voided if the drive is removed from the sled? I wonder if it's installed in these mobile racks if the warranty is still valid since they are actively cooled.

 

[capeconsultant]

I had to have one. $299 at Newegg with free shipping. I sure do hope it is fast, silent, and cool. If it is not, look for a good deal on ebay

I wonder if the 150GB coming soon will be able to go in a laptop??? I bet it will, and that that is why they are coming out with it.

This should be a good steppingstone till I can get an SSD cheap enough. dave

 

[Old Hippie]

I wonder if the 150GB coming soon will be able to go in a laptop???

Probably not.

When the dimensions for the 150 were on the WD site, they were exactly the same as the 300.

They've since disappeared, but can be found on a Google cache here.

Bummer!

 

[LightningRider]

Got mine and installed it today.

Transfer Rate:

Minimum: 76.3 MB/sec
Maximum: 119.5 MB/sec
Average: 101.2 MB/sec

Access Time: 7.0 ms
Burst Rate: 164.0 MB/sec (Running in IDE SATA 1.5Gbps mode)
CPU Usage: 8.9%

Noise Levels: I can't hear this thing at all over the rest of my computer when idle. During the seek test on HD Tune I heard the seeking but it was a little less loud than my 7200.11's. But the HD Tune seek test always causes more noise than real world seeks from my experience. So after I install Windows on this beast I will edit this post and see what I think about the noise levels.

UPDATE: I've installed Windows Vista x64 Ultimate on it and the thing is definitely very very quiet. I can barely hear it when it is seeking, and idle it is inaudible. System is very snappy, I missed having a 10000RPM drive. So far no problems and I'm pretty happy with it.

Temps are around 30C.

By the way, what firmware version are you guys getting? I got 03.03V01.

 

[theorignalAMD Overclocker]

Here is what four of them in R0 on a Areca 1280ML will do:

http://74.62.162.105/pic.jpg