Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, we are left asking one question. Is this the fastest hard drive available today? The short answer is no. That dubious honour is still held by many solid state hard drives. However, the Western Digital VelociRaptor does close the gap between mechanical and solid state drives when it comes to performance. The upside is that you don’t have to rob a bank to afford one.

The Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB hard drive is a definite performer. Its fast burst speeds and low access times places it right in the crosshairs of any enthusiast looking for a speedy drive for their performance rig. It’s also extremely quiet; something not shared by previous Raptor-class drives.

There’s still the nagging issue of SATA standards, and how this drive breaks them by design. The rear connectors make this drive very difficult to install in a 3.5″ hotswap bay, or on a backplane in a decent server chassis. It’s really unfortunate that Western Digital is targeting most of their marketing for these drives to the Enterprise sector, because these drives are much more suited to the enthusiast market. Those enthusiasts may be paying what appears to be a high premium for this level of performance, but when one considers all the factors pointed out here it’s still worth it.

So where does that leave us? Well we have a longer version of the answer to the question I first posed. The Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB is the fastest drive you can have for a desktop system, without having to win the lottery. I’d recommend this drive to any enthusiast looking for the drive that will load their system faster then it drains their bank account.

The Good

• Quiet
• Burst performance is quick
• Slick looking chassis

The Bad

• High price per GB
• Doesn’t follow SATA connector standards

Overall Rating: 9.0/10.0

 

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