Western Digital's VelociRaptor Hard Drive Hits 1 TB

[old_newbie]

[citation][nom]amstech[/nom]Call me when a spinner can last 20+ years.7-9 years is about the most you will get out of the toughest HD's, even the industrial drives we get here at work for our big RAID/backups.I'd take an SSD over these anyday.Noiseless, rocket ship performance with great reliability. Just don't use over 65% of its space on a SSD to ensure max performance/life.[/citation]

My Quantum Bigfoot 5.25" 2GB HDD is still dutifully serving 24/7 in my Pentium2 linux router/firewall/print/web server box. Thats darn close to 20 years of spinnin'. They just dont make 'em like that anymore.

 

[mrpijey]

It's a Western Digital, which means it will last just long enough for the warranty to expire... thanks but no thanks WD, but you've toasted far too many drives for me to make me ever trust you again.

 

[Tavo_Nova]

damn this is freaking sexy and would look awesome on my system ^_^

 

[back_by_demand]

Call me crazy, but if they take a 2.5" drive and pack it into a 3.5" shell to keep it cool - why not simply have a 3.5" drive? If I put one of these babies in a laptop I will lose the cooling shell and presumably lose some thermal protection.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]slabbo[/nom]LMAO, are you saying that HDD's can last 20+ years? that's a good one...[/citation]
It might, but likely will have been rendered obselete long before that with newer drives that are bigger, cheaper and faster. I used to have a 40Gb HDD in my PC 10 years ago, now the smallest drive I would even think of buying is 2Tb. I still have that old 40Gb drive in a drawer and it still works, but the fact I have flash drives that are bigger, what's the point?

 

[shin0bi272]

Like I said over at anandtech when I read this review there, Im surprised that they didnt do 15k rpm with this drive and keep the capacity around 300-500gb. The only way to increase speed of a spinning disk is to increase areal density or rotational speed so why not do both? Of course this is for storage but what's the point? If you want a 1tb storage drive go get a 7200rpm one and put the other 2oo bucks towards a 120+gb SSD boot drive. Dont blow 300 bucks on a drive that writes just a little bit faster at the same capacity as a 100 dollar hard drive. Sure SSDs are expensive but even they are about to be rendered obsolete when PCM drives come out (assuming they do come out that is). PCM is 100x faster than flash and lasts for millions of write cycles and last year a company was working on making a pci-e drive out of it.

"Grandpa tell us what it was like when you were a kid! Well when I was a kid our storage drives had to spin to write information on a metal disk. Wow Grandpa you're old!"

 

[kitekrazy1963]

[citation][nom]amstech[/nom]Call me when a spinner can last 20+ years.7-9 years is about the most you will get out of the toughest HD's, even the industrial drives we get here at work for our big RAID/backups.I'd take an SSD over these anyday.Noiseless, rocket ship performance with great reliability. Just don't use over 65% of its space on a SSD to ensure max performance/life.[/citation]

That doesn't convince me to use SSDs.

 

[kitekrazy1963]

[citation][nom]reyNOD[/nom]My first SSD died and I replaced it with a Momentus XT.The SSD did about 2 years of constant duty ... no warning ... just died in my sleep.While I like the raptor it wasn't in my price range.I want another SSD but I am a bit wary spending that much money and having it die like the last one.[/citation]

Do SSDs have something like S.M.A.R.T. to give you a warning? I'm still gonna stick with the vintage gear.

 

[kitekrazy1963]

[citation][nom]old_newbie[/nom]My Quantum Bigfoot 5.25" 2GB HDD is still dutifully serving 24/7 in my Pentium2 linux router/firewall/print/web server box. Thats darn close to 20 years of spinnin'. They just dont make 'em like that anymore.[/citation]

Most of my IDE HDs still run but the are obsolete.

 

[halcyon]

[citation][nom]pocketdrummer[/nom]Considering SSDs are already painfully small from a storage standpoint, this only makes them less desirable.[/citation]

I don't quite agree. I've always felt that SSDs are for the OS and program launching. I may be unique but I don't need 500GB for my OS drive. I'd rather put the money towards higher performance. I use fast spindles for data and my VMs and the combination seems to work well. The RevoDrive 3 X2 I recently got only has 240GB of space but that's perfect of the way I plan to use it. Cost per GB. Sad...just sad, but the performance is eye opening.

 

[a4mula]

These things are a joke. Notice they only list sequential reads and writes. 99% of real transfers are done at 64k Random at which these drives will be just as wretched as any other spindle drive. They have no use in enterprise as SAS serves that niche. This drive is nothing more than an e-peen extender for kids who's parents have too much money. I'm so glad I ditched WD years ago, piss poor quality control and overpriced drives.

 

[G-Systems]

[citation][nom]gamerk316[/nom]Call me when SSD's can last for 20+ years. Until then, I won't touch them. I don't want to be forced to buy a new SSD every 5 years because the flash decided to die on me.[/citation]

This sentiment is warranted--I guess...but as the other person who responded to your comment: the fact that most power users+ (such as I'll presume about most people who frequent Tom's...or at least those with an account to comment with) upgrade their hardware more readily than the average joe, a five year timeline of replacement is about right (given that you're not being disingenuous). The reality is that I bought my SSD about six months ago, and I'm ready to upgrade to a bigger size with a faster controller.

On the other hand, I have plans for this SSD to go into a lesser computer and live on. So, although I disagree with your reasoning, I understand your concern.

The Velociraptor is still a great deal to use as a data/storage drive. Who in their right minds would install their OS and data on a Striped configuration...nonetheless, a Striped configuration of an HDD? The fact is that those who know, would decide to put their data on a mirrored (or better) configuration of these drives and their OS on an SSD...

 

[freggo]

[citation][nom]gamerk316[/nom]Call me when SSD's can last for 20+ years. Until then, I won't touch them. I don't want to be forced to buy a new SSD every 5 years because the flash decided to die on me.[/citation]

I have a 200MB SCSI drive back from 1985. Sucker cost $7,000 then. Still works actually in an old Amiga 2000. But would I dare using it as a regular drive ( size aside) ?

I'd never use even a 5 year old hard drive for anything 'mission critical'; so why force a 20 year demand on SSD drive ? Besides, in 20 years the thing will be hopelessly outdated both in capacity and speed.

 

[tridon]

[citation][nom]CDdude55[/nom]Still running with a 300GB Velocirapter as my games/storage drive. Moved my OS to an SSD though.I'm really only using the Velociraptor for it's space, if you want performance then an SSD would be a lot better for that price. But a 1TB Velocirapter sounds nice overall, considering it's still one if not the best line when it comes to HDD performance. Plus you're getting significantly more space than an SSD.[/citation]

Almost the same reasoning as me (I even have an old 300GB velociraptor as the games/storage drive). I have a ridiculous amount of games I play regularly, but it was still a surprise that my choice landed on a 1TB velociraptor. Almost half the price of an SSD with the needed capacity, and faster than any other HDD (though trounced by the Momentus XT in app loading) this drive was perfect for me considering cost/capacity/performance. I expect it in the mail in a couple of days. (And of course, it helps being a "nostalgic technology enthusiast" that enjoys seeing old technology improved upon. About 50% increased transfer rates compared to my 300Gb velociraptor from 2008)

 

[Guest]

...notorious...??? try synonymous

 

[tridon]

After having used it for a while now, it definitively feels faster than my previous disk. Either a nice piece of engineering, or a very persistent placebo effect.

 

[fmydog]

My Velociraptor has been kicking for 6 years now i would not trust a SSD to last that long, they need to prove themselves first. I have seen to many people loose data with them, of course with hdd it still happens but theres alot of ways to get it back