Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10,000 RPM SATA Bulk-OEM Hard Drive WD3000GLFS
Saturday, January 31, 2009 23:55
Binding : Electronics
ProductGroup : CE
Manufacturer : Western Digital
Brand : Western Digital
Label : Western Digital
Publisher : Western Digital
Model : WD3000GLFS
Studio : Western Digital
Lowest Used Price: USD $160.00
Lowest New Price: USD $259.99
- Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
- 300 GB Capacity
- SATA 3 GB/s; 16 MB Cache
- 10,000 RPM Spindle Speed
"Engineered for maximum speed WD VelociRaptor, the newest member of our unique class of 10,000 RPM SATA hard drives, combines a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache, to deliver performance that is up to 35% faster than its speedy older brother. Key Features & Detailed Specifications: Average Latency 5.5 ms, Warranty 5 Years, Formatted Capacity 300 GB, Form Factor 3.5""-internal, Spindle Speed 10000 rpm, Compliant Standards RoHS, Interface Type SATA 3G, Cache/Buffer Size 16MB (Read: Adaptive & Write: Yes) and Average Seek Time 4.2 ms, User Sectors Per Drive -- 586,072,368. Transfer Rates: Buffer To Host (Serial ATA): 3 Gb/s (Max) and Transfer Rate (Buffer To Disk): 120 MB/s (Sustained). Average latency is 5.5 ms. Drive ready time -- 7.0 sec (average), 10 sec (maximum), Error rate (non-recoverable) <1 in 10e15 bits read. Supports LBA. Seek time: Read: 4.2 ms (average) & Write: 4.7 ms (average), Track-to-track seek time -- 0.7 (maximum). Load/unload cycles -- 50,000 minimum. Limited warranty -- 5-year "
Raptor is the way to go for serious performance and general use as it is a long term lasting HD (2009-12-30)
Firstly, I would never consider getting anything but the Raptor hard drive for any new computer I was going to be serious about(as in gaming and main rig) I usually prefer to pair it up and go "RAID 0" as it is a pretty solid drive and doesn't take damage so performance can be gained and you need not sacrifice it for "RAID 1" these things do not fail!(with proper front cooling). RAID 0/0 is good for picky games but also a distructive power to your pocket book I've not seen since owr booming days in 1999 economy! lol for it's capacity you can pair it up for good OS performence as that needs some serious acess and lots of time in the "dental chair" too(as in noise) get some other higher capacity HD of some quality and durablity like the WD SATA 2 1.5 TB with a decent cache to load all those huge games on run the acess and buffers off the Raptor(as it is loaded in your Docs for that purpose) same with movies. The price is killer in this config however so consider a single High performanc video card in place of PCIE x2/3! A "Falon NW" with this config and a cheaper(though decently not low end) vid/sound will run you on the high side of 3K+ maybe closer to 4K! self builds are cheaper but risky too. This is not cheap if you are into games(the new ones) they are performance hogs as is the OS required. If you are a "Data DaintY" or a casual user(as in storing info) this is also the way to go as it is durable and the acess time is always true! My mother would think it frivolous but if she had it "sneak loaded" on her PC(for Christmas) I think even she would find it a boon in her otherwise waistful load times of Windows and her files that always get dumped out because her old crud of a Hewlet Packard has such a droll HD that fails periodically requiring a reinstall by her "tech support" people. IF you are not a serious user consider a single raptor but also you must retain your slow moving but higher capacity HD(likely a Sata 2 by now!) IF you store critical data this is the way to go even if you don't use RAID 1 but if you do it is better still than the standard ones! aside the low capacity this is the SCSI of HD without being a Scuzz to your wallet/credit comprimise!
Very Fast Drive, very bad packaging (2009-03-26)
I can't say allot on HDD, its fast and doing the job.
Take in consideration these important factors:
1- it's not exactly 3.5" HDD size, it's non standard HDD size almost 2.5" however it's thicker fitted in heat sink to make it almost 3.5", however it's slightly bigger and can be a problem in installing it, depends on your PC case. I had to do some serious modifications to fit it in my HTPC
2- packaging is extremely bad, no cables, no connectors, no catalogues. Just a nylon cover, I wonder why they have invested in this cover?
Price: overpriced, do not expect 10x difference speed, speed difference comparing to the price difference it are extremely high.
Unless you are in audio / video processing this is not your baby, it's just waste of money.
For gaming and video playing, it perform exactly the same as my 1TB 7200 RPM 32mb, price of the 1tb is US$120
Windows Vista booting is improved for few seconds.
Good when they work.. (2009-03-22)
I purchased a case of 40 of these drives for 20 servers (RAID 1) in my datacenter. I had 6 fail within the first 3 months of operation. The drives are great when they work. Do not expect any technical support at all from WD as they will not support these drives in RAID configurations. They do RMA drives quickly, although I received the wrong drive twice in return. It took about a month each to get those drives replaced. I would highly not recommend this drive for any type of mission critical business operation, even if you are running these drives in a RAID 1 array.
fast hard drive system (2009-02-07)
I built my PC with one of these drives and then added a second to form a RAID 0 set. To say the least, I'm extremely pleased with the result.
Fast (2009-01-30)
Very fast drive, works great, only negative is that it does not lock onto the metal clip on newer sata cables, and it is pricy though Amazon has a great price.
