Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 10K RPM Hard Drive

10K RPM hard drives have remained uncontested in the desktop space ever since the launch of the original Raptor, a 36GB model released in 2003.
But with the boon of the solid-state drive, the future for drives like the VelociRaptor became questionable. However, as we can see now, the progression of SSD development isn't quite as rapid as we thought it'd be, in terms of $ per gigabyte. And when consumers are in need of mass storage, it's unrealistic to consider a full SSD solution, and that doesn't look to change for quite some time - if ever.
So what about those who have need for both huge storage and great performance? That's the segment where WD's VelociRaptor drives reign supreme - even more so now with a 1TB model. VR drives have always been quite a bit faster than traditional 7,200 RPM hard drives, so with a 1TB option, there's ample room for those 30GB games and 100GB video projects.
Compared to the previous generation of drives, the latest models are "more than" 25% faster, and despite it being well-known that hard drives can sometimes buckle under huge loads, WD is confident that its VR drives can stand up to the challenge.
To help gain a better idea of how the latest VR drives compare to WD's other current offerings, let's check out this table:

Model	Storage	Speed	Cache	SATA	Warranty
VelociRaptor	250GB - 1TB	10,000 RPM	64MB	6Gbit/s	5-year
Caviar Black	500GB - 2TB	7,200 RPM	32MB - 64MB	3Gbit/s & 6Gbit/s	5-year
Caviar Blue	80GB - 1TB	7,200 RPM	16MB - 64MB	3Gbit/s & 6Gbit/s	2-year
Caviar Green	320GB - 3TB	~5,300 RPM	8MB - 32MB	3Gbit/s & 6Gbit/s	2-year

Like most hard drive vendors (a list that is condensing fast), WD doesn't offer actual performance numbers on the official website. Instead, all we're told is that the VR utilizes a SATA 6Gbit/s interface - which at this point in time is a given. Instead, we'll have to figure out those performance numbers for ourselves with the help of our test suite.
It's sometimes difficult to get specific information as to what sort of change was made to increase performance, but WD promises that all aspects of its VR model has been looked at. The firmware has been fine-tuned to enable excellent read and write speeds across the entire drive and handle huge workloads with ease. And of course, one of the best aspects of VR drives is the focus on reliability, so  equipped with a 5-year Warranty.by rob williams