WD VelociRaptor HDD From 600GB to 1TB

Western Digital Technologies, Inc. is shipping the WD VelociRaptor 1TB hard drive, the largest capacity 10,000 RPM hard drive.

Designed for high-performance PCs, Mac computers and professional workstations that require a balance of performance and capacity, the VelociRaptor drive is for enthusiasts and creative professionals.

It will also come in capacities of 500 GB and 250 GB.

Leveraging enterprise-class mechanics to provide 24×7 durability under high-performance workloads, the VelociRaptor 1TB hard drive is geared for creative professionals who demand the ultimate SATA drive. Creative pros use write-intensive applications that manage large, dynamic files; for example, video editing and digital content creation and management, which ultimately put a strain on storage devices that utilize write-challenged NAND memory for performance enhancement. VelociRaptor’s read and write performance across the entire disk capacity makes it a match for the creative professional and enthusiast who want to optimize their tools, enhance productivity, and increase storage space at the same time.

"WD is committed to providing customers with the best performing and most reliable SATA hard drives and our WD VelociRaptor family of drives underscores that promise," said Darwin Kauffman, VP and GM of WD’s enterprise storage. "With ever-increasing demand for greater capacity, the new 1TB WD VelociRaptor drive delivers the ultimate combination of speed and storage for the power user."  

The VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drive comes in the IcePack enclosure, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with built-in heat sink – a factory customization that fits the drive into a standard 3.5-inch system bay and keeps the powerful drive cool when installed in a high-performance desktop or workstation system.

Features of the VelociRaptor hard drives include:

• Speed – SATA 6 Gb/s interface and 64 MB cache optimize the 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor.
• Capacity – VelociRaptor SATA hard drives employ Advanced Format Technology to achieve capacities up to 1TB.
• Reliability – Designed and manufactured to workstation standards to stellar reliability in high workload environments.
• Cool operation – Consumes less idle power and uses similar active power as the previous generation VelociRaptor while offering greater capacity and performance.
• 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 less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection when in transit.
• Environmentally conscious – In addition to being RoHS-compliant, this generation of VelociRaptor is also a halogen-free design.

Price and Availability
WD VelociRaptor hard drives are available at select distributors, resellers and e-tailers, and come with a five-year limited warranty. MSRP) for the WD VelociRaptor 1TB (model #: WD1000DHTZ) is $319.99, the 500GB version (model #: WD5000HHTZ) is $209.99 and the 250GB version (model #: WD2500HHTZ) is $159.99.