Western Digital Raptor
The Western Digital Raptor ( often simply referred to as WD Raptor ) is a series of high-performance hard drives that are manufactured by Western Digital. Currently taking the drive the niche market for enthusiasts, workstations and small servers. Traditionally, the majority of server hard drives is connected due to its advantages in performance and reliability with a SCSI interface, the Raptor hard drives, however, use SATA.
Although published as an enterprise-class drive, he won the favor of enthusiasts because the Raptor has been able to achieve speeds that are normally managed on more expensive SCSI drives. The use of the SATA interface meant that it can be easily used on all modern motherboards without having to buy separate ( and often expensive ) controller cards. In addition, the integration easier by using a standard 4 -pin molex current terminal of the first model, in addition to the standard SATA port.
There have been presented several series that drive the work of 10,000 min -1 and thereby have provided a greater capacity. Despite ongoing since 2003 production and development of this album, there are no comparable SATA drives on the market. Since the advent of solid- state drives this hard drive is becoming less important.
Models
WD360 ( EL36 )
In 2003 published the first incarnation of the Western Digital Raptor series: The WD360GD.
Presented with a capacity of 37 GB on a single plate and a Serial ATA interface, it was the first ATA hard disk drive with a spindle speed of 10,000 revolutions per minute. How many early SATA drives, the Raptor was not a real SATA drive since he was a PATA drive in reality, which used a 88i8030C interface bridge chip from Marvell. However, this fact does not decrease the performance. WD360GD -Raptor hard drives use the 3.3 V Serial ATA power adapter port. There is no need to use a SATA power connector, as it is not fully exploited.
WD740 ( EL74 )
The second generation of the Raptor was introduced in early 2004, with two platters for 74 GB of storage. Unlike its predecessor, the WD740GD no ball bearings had supported the rotating disks, but fluid dynamic bearings used. This allows the new Raptor to come to a noise level equivalent to that of a quieter drive with 7200 min -1.
WD1500 ( EL150 )
The third generation of the Raptor from Western Digital was released in January 2006. He had two 75 - GB disks ( for a total of 150 GB) and an expanded system of Native Command Queuing. At the same time, the Raptor X was released with 150 GB. He had the same specification to the standard Raptor, but with acrylic glass COVERED window in the lid and the label on the bottom, the window provides a view on the heads and a section of the data slices, so you can see the hard drive when working.
WD3000 ( VR150M )
The fourth generation of the Raptor from Western Digital was announced in April 2008. From now on called the VelociRaptor drive. The VelociRaptor is in contrast to the Raptor, a 2.5 " drive, and has in the first generation up to 2 Platter with jewels 150GB. Mounted he is on the IcePack heatsink, which consists of the actual 2.5 " drive 3, makes 5 "drive. Moreover, the volume and power consumption of a traditional hard drive with 7200 rpm came much closer. henceforth was not a 4-pin Molex connector longer available. beginning were the models ending GLFS criticized because of the IcePack frame ( see photo) the drive is not made backplane compatible, so that the drive could not be installed in hot- swap frame. 's why the IcePack framework has been revised and the new models have the extension HLFS. This revised framework remained in the subsequent generations unchanged. Additionally, there were the BLFS models, which had no IcePack Ramen and were intended for blade servers. removing a IcePack frame destroyed a warranty seal. Moreover, these drives are too thick with 15 mm for notebooks and also the power consumption does not allow the use. There was shortly after the introduction of a version with full plexiglass lid, but very few models were produced in this embodiment.
WD6000 ( VR200M )
The fifth generation of the Raptor was announced by Western Digital in April 2010. The data density was increased and the SATA interface has been extended to 6Gbps. As well as the predecessor was this drive 3,5 'version as well as in the 2.5 " marketed version. The endings of the names of these plates were HLHX (3.5 ") and BLHX (2.5 "). Each platter could hold up to 200 GB, the largest model WD6000HLHX this generation has 3 of these platters. Other well-known representatives were the two platforms Fingered WD3000HLHX and the 1- Platt Fingered WD1500HLHX. However, other sizes are built, such as the WD1600HLHX with just 160 Gb or 450 Gb with the WD4500HLHX.
WD1000 ( VR333M )
The sixth generation WD Raptor (or 3rd generation VelociRaptor ) has a repeated increase in data density and a capacity of up to 1TB ( WD1000DHTZ ). It was introduced in April 2012. The model WD1000DHTZ has 3 discs, each with 333 GB. The other models of this generation have installed disks with exactly 250 Gb.
Appropriate models of this generation ( with the extension HHTZ ) are: WD5000HHTZ (500 GB) and WD2500HHTZ (250 GB)
The 2.5 " versions have the extension BHTZ for models with 250Gb per disk, and CHTZ for the model with 333Gb per disk. Unlike its predecessor, all models of this series have a 64 MB buffer instead of 32 MB as the VR200M and a sector size of 4096 bytes, Advanced Format. Moreover, could the volume and power consumption are also reduced, while the performance of the drive was increased. the VR333 is all legacy with IcePack as is the 2.5 "versions were only against the end of 2013 released. During the data transfer rate was significantly increased, the access time did not improve appreciably.