Western Digital, the world’s second-largest disk drive maker behind Seagate Technology, revealed April 21 that it has started shipping its fastest hard drive yet for PCs and Macs: the VelociRaptor.
The 2.5-inch VelociRaptor SATA (serial ATA) drive runs at 10,000 RPM and can hold up to 300GB of data–35 percent faster and double the capacity of previous versions. Thanks to its 3.5-inch mountain frame, the new drive can be easily mounted into any standard system bay.
The drive also includes 16MB of cache.
Another feature that differentiates this drive from others is that the VelociRaptor is a 2.5-inch drive encased within its own IcePack drive cooler, which helps keep the heat from the drive under control but allows it to be used within most standard drive configurations, a company spokesperson said.
“We created WD VelociRaptor hard drives to lead PC enthusiasts into the next era of PC and Mac storage performance and satisfy their insatiable thirst for computing speed,” Western Digital Enterprise Business Unit General Manager Tom McDorman said.
The $299.99 drives will be available through WD and at selected resellers in mid-May.