VelociRaptor
While the VelociRaptor (WD3000GLFS) isn't officially a "Black series" enthusiast drive. it would be difficult to omit it, given that the 2.5-in. drive is wrapped in a black heat sink affectionately known as the IcePack. This cooler effectively moves the drive from laptop contention, giving it a 3.5-in. size that works well in desktops and servers.
What's special about the VelociRaptor is that it has a 10,000rpm spin rate -- something typically relegated to SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) enterprise disks and almost unheard of among SATA drives. There is another: Western Digital's original 3.5-in. Raptor drive, which also has a 10K spin rate, but only a 1.5 Gbit/sec. SATA interface compared with the VelociRaptor's 3Gbit/sec. SATA interface. (Both drives have a 16MB cache.)
According to Western Digital, the VelociRaptor's high spin rate and faster interface translates into a 35 per cent performance increase over its predecessor. Having never tested the original, I can only say that this drive is fast. According to HD Tach, the VelociRaptor racked up a 250.3MB/sec. burst speed, the highest I've recorded for a mechanical drive. It equaled that record with a 105.6MB/sec. average read result. (Random access was a jaw-dropping 7ms.)
What's that? You have an enterprise situation, and you could really use some 2.5-in. drives with this kind of performance? Not a problem. Western Digital has just announced a WD3000BLFS version of the drive sans heat sink. Both drives soak up a meager 225mA during read/write on the 12V leg and 675mA on the 5V side. Idling takes 200mA and 425mA, respectively.
Right now, the top- (and only) capacity WD3000GLFS is 300GB, and pricing hovers around US$300 (MSRP). The WD3000BLFS will be offered in both 300GB and 150GB versions and should be available in the near future.
Bill O'Brien has written a half-dozen books and more than 2,000 articles on computers and technology, ranging from Apple computers and PCs to Linux and commentary on IT hardware decisions.