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Data storage specialist Western Digital (NYSE: WDC), announced it is now shipping the WD VelociRaptor 1TB hard drive, the latest addition to its drive family and the largest capacity 10,000 rpm hard drive available. Designed for high-performance PCs, Mac computers and professional workstations, the WD VelociRaptor drive is aimed at enthusiasts and creative professionals.
The WD VelociRaptor will also come in capacities of 500GB and 250GB, the company noted, and are available at select distributors, resellers and e-tailers, and come with a five-year limited warranty. The suggested price for the VelociRaptor 1TB model is $319.99, with the 500GB version priced at $209.99 and the 250GB version priced at $159.99.
Leveraging enterprise-class mechanics to provide 24/7 durability under high-performance workloads, the VelociRaptor 1TB hard drive is geared for creative professionals seeking a high-performance Serial ATA (SATA) drive. Creative pros use write-intensive applications that manage large, dynamic files, for example, video editing and digital content creation and management, which can put a strain on storage devices that use write-challenged NAND memory for performance enhancement.
The VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drive comes in the IcePack enclosure, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with built-in heat sinka factory customization that fits the drive into a standard 3.5-inch system bay and keeps the drive extra cool when installed in a high-performance desktop or workstation system. Features of the VelociRaptor hard drives include SATA 6G bps interface and 64MB cache optimize the 10,000 rpm drive and Advanced Format Technology to achieve capacities up to 1TB.
The drives are designed and manufactured to workstation standards to deliver enhanced reliability in high-workload environments, and the drives consume less idle power and use similar active power as the previous generation VelociRaptor while offering greater capacity and performance. In addition, Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) optimizes operation and performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis. NoTouch ramp load technology means 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. In addition to being compliant with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), this generation of the VelociRaptor is also a halogen-free design.
The company recently released the Scorpio Blue 7mm hard drive, the latest addition to its mobile hard drive family, and the 2.5-inch drive, which functions with low power consumption. Specified to 400Gs shock tolerance, the new single-platter Scorpio Blue small-form-factor hard drives are available in 500GB and 320GB capacities, and the drives’ compatibility with industry-standard 9.5mm slots make them possible storage options for notebooks as well as slimmer notebook and Ultrabook devices that require a 7mm drive height.
Features of the Scorpio Blue 7mm hard drives include advanced power management features and algorithms that optimize the way the drive seeks data, which improves power consumption; the companys ShockGuard technology, which protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks; WD’s WhisperDrive technology, which enables quiet performance; and SecurePark, which parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. The Scorpio Blue 7mm 2.5-inch mobile hard drives are covered by a two-year limited warranty, and the suggested price for the 500GB model is $99.99, dropping to $79.99 for the 320GB model.