# Western Digital Working on 20,000 RPM Raptor Drive



## malware (Jun 6, 2008)

Sources close to bit-tech.net and the hard drive industry have revealed information that Western Digital is working on a 20,000 RPM Raptor hard drive to counter SSD drives. Just like the company's latest 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor (300GB, SATA 3Gb/s, 16MB Cache), the 20,000 RPM unit will come in a 2.5-inch form factor with custom 3.5-inch enclosure. Other details are still unknown, since the drive is still in development stage. No release date has been unveiled, too.

*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## intel igent (Jun 6, 2008)

20,000RPM!

me want!


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 6, 2008)

20K rpm ...

my ears, my wallet.


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## JrRacinFan (Jun 6, 2008)

20k rpm? Sheesh, I wonder how WD is going to keep the temps down on these. Sounds very inviting though.


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## psyko12 (Jun 6, 2008)

Me want me want  although this gonna burn a hole on my pocket.


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## magibeg (Jun 6, 2008)

At such a high RPM i wonder what the failure rate of these babies will be. Theres going to be so much more force involved now.


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## csendesmark (Jun 6, 2008)

20000 RPM ... impressive!!!


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## intel igent (Jun 6, 2008)

people don't forget that there have been 15k RPM drives on/in the market for quite some time (they just happen to use SCSI interface vs SATA) so i think the jump to 20k isn't really all that harsh


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## newtekie1 (Jun 6, 2008)

Very nice, if the price is right, this will definitely give SSD some competition.


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## tkpenalty (Jun 6, 2008)

maglev bearings?


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## Weer (Jun 6, 2008)

newtekie1 said:


> Very nice, if the price is right, this will definitely give SSD some competition.



Shows how much you know about SSD's 

An SSD makes this drive so useless, that only people who get excited by the 20k-figure would even think about buying it.


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## HTC (Jun 6, 2008)

Weer said:


> Shows how much you know about SSD's
> 
> An SSD makes this drive so useless, that only people who get excited by the 20k-figure would even think about buying it.



Unless it has more GB and / or is less expensive ...


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## Weer (Jun 6, 2008)

HTC said:


> Unless it has more GB and / or is less expensive ...



Price/performance wise, it's futile, as I've said.
Price/capacity wise, just get a 7200RPM drive.


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## regan1985 (Jun 6, 2008)

i think its gonna be to little to late and as its new and WD its going to be overpriced and i cant see it hitting off as most of us know the new tech is just round th corner!


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## HTC (Jun 6, 2008)

Weer said:


> Price/performance wise, it's futile, as I've said.
> Price/capacity wise, just get a 7200RPM drive.



It depends on how deep ones pockets are: if priced right and with good capacity, it will give SSDs a run for their money.


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## karlotta (Jun 6, 2008)

hello!  a 20,000 rpm hdd will run circles around current SDDs.  Really isnt any SDD faster that a Raptor now. There are alot of paper SDD that havent came out yet but are fast...  whatever. And they cost way to much. Like a 20,000 rpm raptor... way to much.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 6, 2008)

tkpenalty said:


> maglev bearings?



muffler bearings?


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## intel igent (Jun 6, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> muffler bearings?



that'd be a turbo


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## GJSNeptune (Jun 6, 2008)

No no. They're working on 20k RPM Raptor drives, as in raptor-shaped platter-shooters.


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## Steevo (Jun 6, 2008)

A high capacity SAS drive, like a 400GB at 15K can SUSTAIN 160MBps reads, and only has a 3-4ms seek time. This is finally a Raptor worth getting excited about.


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## BigBruser13 (Jun 6, 2008)

See this hard drive http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=ST3300655SS20PK&vid=394&src=F


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## niko084 (Jun 6, 2008)

JrRacinFan said:


> 20k rpm? Sheesh, I wonder how WD is going to keep the temps down on these. Sounds very inviting though.



I'm not even worried about temps how about motor and bearing life...


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## twicksisted (Jun 6, 2008)

psyko12 said:


> Me want me want  although this gonna burn a hole on my pocket.



heheh... watercooling loop & heatsink lol... imagine 
that would be seriously cool looking


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## twicksisted (Jun 6, 2008)

BigBruser13 said:


> See this hard drive http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=ST3300655SS20PK&vid=394&src=F



thats a serious pricing error lol.
that drive is only about £200-£300

Edit: make that £400
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...15K.5 300GB SAS 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3300655SS)


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## Steevo (Jun 6, 2008)

Yeah it is. YOu can buy a 400GB for $700 or less.


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## DrPepper (Jun 6, 2008)

Weer said:


> Price/performance wise, it's futile, as I've said.
> Price/capacity wise, just get a 7200RPM drive.



HDD's are better for long term data storage since the SSD has a limited read and write before they lose data but I doubt a 20K HDD would last long anyway.


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## Disparia (Jun 6, 2008)

> thats a serious pricing error lol.
> that drive is only about £200-£300
> 
> Edit: make that £400
> http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...20(ST3300655SS)



That price is for 20 of them.

"Packaged Quantity  	20"


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## MKmods (Jun 6, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> muffler bearings?



I think you ment "Chrome Plated Muffler Bearings"

(I would love to see a platter failure, from behind a protective barrier)


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## twicksisted (Jun 6, 2008)

aaaah ok... now it makes sense lol

hmmm imagine Raid 0 with 20 of those puppies lolol....


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 6, 2008)

Weer said:


> Shows how much you know about SSD's
> 
> An SSD makes this drive so useless, that only people who get excited by the 20k-figure would even think about buying it.



SSD has no problems writing mass amounts of data but when it comes to reading that data it is slower that a normal HD so the 20k RPM drive would give it a run for the money unless they solve that read problem with SSD.


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## WarEagleAU (Jun 6, 2008)

So an SSD has to have constant power to it right? Hmm, not sure how helpful that is. I assumed SSDs were uber fast for reading and writing data, but apparently Im wrong. Ive not tested the 10k or 15k drives (unless you call raided servers at work and for the military testing) but I hear they are smoking fast. Seems like 20k will be awesome but I too fear the bearing, motor and noise, cooling factors of it. Wonder how the heads will do.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 6, 2008)

and with WD being so unreliable in my climes ...


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 6, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> and with WD being so unreliable in my climes ...



I don't know I think Maxtor takes the cake for being unreliable


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## Disparia (Jun 6, 2008)

twicksisted said:


> aaaah ok... now it makes sense lol
> 
> hmmm imagine Raid 0 with 20 of those puppies lolol....



Time for the Areca 24port SAS RAID controller


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## Leon2ky (Jun 6, 2008)

karlotta said:


> hello!  a 20,000 rpm hdd will run circles around current SDDs.  Really isnt any SDD faster that a Raptor now. There are alot of paper SDD that havent came out yet but are fast...  whatever. And they cost way to much. Like a 20,000 rpm raptor... way to much.



Planet are you from? a RAID0 MTRON Hard drive setup on a [Dedicated] Hard drive controller will run circles around a raptor setup, I know I've built them myself for stock traders.  And the prices on SSDs will go down, just like they did with modern hard drives.


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## Squirrely (Jun 6, 2008)

This drive will probably break the sound barrier...of the people who reside with you. ("Honey, shut that thing off!")  

Speed is cool, but mechanical drives running at that speed, there is a point at in mechanics it gets to be impractical. I think WD should just get into SSD's, since they *are* the future. Lower power consumption, nearly instant random access latency, and the most important thing personally, they are silent.


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 6, 2008)

Squirrely said:


> This drive will probably break the sound barrier...of the people who reside with you. ("Honey, shut that thing off!")
> 
> Speed is cool, but mechanical drives running at that speed, there is a point at in mechanics it gets to be impractical. I think WD should just get into SSD's, since they *are* the future. Lower power consumption, nearly instant random access latency, and the most important thing personally, they are silent.





Snipermonkey2 said:


> SSD has no problems writing mass amounts of data but when it comes to reading that data it is slower that a normal HD so the 20k RPM drive would give it a run for the money unless they solve that read problem with SSD.



Sorry I had to repost that but its true. As you could produce the motors out of titanium which can with stand a lot more heat and pressure


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## russianboy (Jun 6, 2008)

And why is WD wasting resources that could be used for improving SSDs?

Face it, mechanical drives are inherently worse, because they are MECHANICAL. WD is trying to make the motor go as fast as possible, but as others have stated, heat, noise, and especially reliability will really bring this drive down. 

Oh, BTW, mechanial drives also have limited read/writes. Read/write on an SSD is actually much better than on a standard drive AFAIK.

20,000 RPM cooling fans, anyone? That would kick so much ass (and chop so many fingers off).


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## Haytch (Jun 6, 2008)

SSD has been proven to be unreliable over long durations of time, so the ssd technology is far from ready to take over, regardless of the unreliablility factor a 20k rpm hdd would have.

My 10k Raptor is pretty much faster then then my 15k Cheetah.
That said, the 20k WD will be the most dominant performing hdd available vs price untill ssd prices are reduced significally.

Heat and cooling is only an issue for those that have issues!  Try moving to a more computer friendly country as opposed to bitching about ambient temps.

20,000 rpm isnt just a random number.  Its to symbolize how fast we can read the cornflakes box.


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 6, 2008)

Haytch said:


> SSD has been proven to be unreliable over long durations of time, so the ssd technology is far from ready to take over, regardless of the unreliablility factor a 20k rpm hdd would have.
> 
> My 10k Raptor is pretty much faster then then my 15k Cheetah.
> That said, the 20k WD will be the most dominant performing hdd available vs price untill ssd prices are reduced significally.
> ...



I love reading the cornflakes box.


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## lemonadesoda (Jun 6, 2008)

RUBBISH concept by WD.

Well actually, its a nice boost, but there are better ways to get extra performance. They are not thinking "out of the box".

1./ If they want better performance, then they need to make sure that each platter and each head reads simultaneously, rather than just one platter/head at a time. AND, multiple heads per arm per platter.  The extra mass/momentum of the heads will slow down movement and consequently seek times might increase a little, but it will double the transfer rates without additional noise or power requirements or wear. Basically hardware RAID **within** the HDD itselg.

2./ Hybrid drive. Combination of SSD (say 8 or 16GB) with 500GB HDD on 2 separate partitions. That would be perfect. We install the OS on the SDD partition. Data on the HDD. Imagine that for laptops. CHEAP with the benefits of a SSD and the price/capacity of HDD:


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 6, 2008)

you guys also realize 2.5 drives have less inertia than 3.5 due to its smaller size 













also less kinetic energy due to its lower mass


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 6, 2008)

lemonadesoda said:


> RUBBISH concept by WD.
> 
> Well actually, its a nice boost, but there are better ways to get extra performance. They are not thinking "out of the box".
> 
> ...



sounds like a good idea ...


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## lemonadesoda (Jun 6, 2008)

Can you do the ACTUAL numbers for us please IRA. Based on 7200rpm and 10000rpm 3.5" and a 20k 2.5" drive. Those formulas are making my HeadDrives spin. LOL. Thanks! :cheers:

OK, the 1st formula is OK, rotational. But the second isnt. That kinetic energy of a mass moving on a straight line. Not a valid formula here.

Forgive the scaling on these calcs. I'm keeping it simple:

2.5" rotational formula = m x 20*20 x 2.5"

3.5" rotational formula = m2 x 7.2 * 7.2 x 3.5"

and m2 is bigger than m due to size = m x 3.5 x 3.5 / 2.5 x 2.5 (approx) and thickness x 3.5 / 2.5 (approx)

hence 2.5" factor = 1000 x m units

and 3.5" factor = 497 x m units 

NO, these 20K 2.5" drives have TWICE the angular momentum of the 7200 3.5" drives.

*** all this assumes your formulas are correct).


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 6, 2008)

lemonadesoda said:


> Can you do the ACTUAL numbers for us please IRA. Based on 7200rpm and 10000rpm 3.5" and a 20k 2.5" drive. Thanks! :cheers:



id need more data and above 1 year physics :|


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## Bundy (Jun 7, 2008)

lemonadesoda said:


> Can you do the ACTUAL numbers for us please IRA. Based on 7200rpm and 10000rpm 3.5" and a 20k 2.5" drive. Those formulas are making my HeadDrives spin. LOL. Thanks! :cheers:
> 
> OK, the 1st formula is OK, rotational. But the second isnt. That kinetic energy of a mass moving on a straight line. Not a valid formula here.
> 
> ...



You have struck on the main factor - the platter average velocity is approximately 2 times faster and this is what delivers the performance boost.

In terms of reliability, 20000 rpm isn't that special these days. There are industrial devices that have rotational speeds much faster. The bearing will run a bit hotter and needs to run longer but thats not that much of a challenge to deal with. I think they avoided the most obvious problem (IMO platter stretch from centrifugal forces) by keeping the platter smaller.


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## ShadowFold (Jun 7, 2008)

7200.10 is fast enough for me  Only 60$ too! Im guessing these will be over 500$ since the new 10k rpm raptor's are 300$.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 7, 2008)

lemonadesoda said:


> Can you do the ACTUAL numbers for us please IRA. Based on 7200rpm and 10000rpm 3.5" and a 20k 2.5" drive. Those formulas are making my HeadDrives spin. LOL. Thanks! :cheers:
> 
> OK, the 1st formula is OK, rotational. But the second isnt. That kinetic energy of a mass moving on a straight line. Not a valid formula here.
> 
> ...


i was a bit imprecise what i meant  a 20K 3.5 hdd is going to have more inertia than a 20K 2.5 drive.


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## MilkyWay (Jun 7, 2008)

So a combo of a hdd and a ssd that effectivly you have working as one?
Like the ssd is only for the operating system? well i think id want the ssd to have programs for fast access times and the 

a 100gb ssd will do me for games and id have another hard drive for all the rest like video and music and small programs ect

this is fast but you can bet it will cost LOADS


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## GJSNeptune (Jun 7, 2008)

I think Newegg has the 640GB AAKS drive for $100 shipped. If not them, then maybe ZZF.


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## DrPepper (Jun 7, 2008)

MilkyWay said:


> So a combo of a hdd and a ssd that effectivly you have working as one?
> Like the ssd is only for the operating system? well i think id want the ssd to have programs for fast access times and the
> 
> a 100gb ssd will do me for games and id have another hard drive for all the rest like video and music and small programs ect
> ...



How about the SSD as a pagefile


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## AsRock (Jun 7, 2008)

Sounds kinda cool. And knowing WD they will put a 5year warranty on it too if not more..  Think the price will be to much for me but should be a good if not a very good HDD.


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## hat (Jun 7, 2008)

In a related story, watch as this man from WD labs generates a mini black hole with the motor of thier new 20k rpm hard drive.


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## Error 404 (Jun 7, 2008)

Snipermonkey2 said:


> SSD has no problems writing mass amounts of data but when it comes to reading that data it is slower that a normal HD so the 20k RPM drive would give it a run for the money unless they solve that read problem with SSD.



Looks like they are getting there with the read problem, as this article shows:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=62222



> Another interesting part can be found in form of a compact flash card. The 16GB Turbo version is now a bit faster than before (up to 300x from 266x), *but the 300x now applies to write speed as well as read speed!* The microSD card capacity has been bumped to 8GB. There is nothing new with the 2.5 inch SSDs besides the new labels, but A-DATA is also offering 1.8 inch versions now.


Also, if you wanted to set up a multimedia center in your lounge room, with super-fast video streaming, then you'd want to use an SSD instead of a fast hard drive. Same if you wanted good gaming performance with a quiet computer.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Jun 7, 2008)

1 TB is in hot deals section for 160


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 7, 2008)

Error 404 said:


> Looks like they are getting there with the read problem, as this article shows:
> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=62222



Thats good that they are working on fixing that read issues.


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## Laurijan (Jun 7, 2008)

If this new 20k drive comes with the same price/performance ratio the 10k comes with.. it is still no option for me.. 10k Raptor 36.7GB = 98,90€ LOL (price taken from verkkokauppa.com a big player in finland)


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## Drac (Jun 7, 2008)

WD the most unreliable company, damn, i will never buy something of them, and its late for 20k, in 1 year the people will start buying SSD and in 2 years the normal HDD's will be dead, its a waste of money, this will consume more than 2 times of energy of a 7200 rpm hdd and more than 4 times of a SSD, and the heat and noise and failures, no thanks


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## AsRock (Jun 8, 2008)

Drac said:


> WD the most unreliable company, damn, i will never buy something of them, and its late for 20k, in 1 year the people will start buying SSD and in 2 years the normal HDD's will be dead, its a waste of money, this will consume more than 2 times of energy of a 7200 rpm hdd and more than 4 times of a SSD, and the heat and noise and failures, no thanks



Well i have used WD's since there 800MB drives and had less issue's with them than any other. Then again i did have 1 issue which was the PCB of the 800MB HDD which came loose and easy fix.  Other from that nothing.  I guess thats why i run 5 of them in just this setup.


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## twicksisted (Jun 8, 2008)

Drac said:


> WD the most unreliable company, damn, i will never buy something of them, and its late for 20k, in 1 year the people will start buying SSD and in 2 years the normal HDD's will be dead, its a waste of money, this will consume more than 2 times of energy of a 7200 rpm hdd and more than 4 times of a SSD, and the heat and noise and failures, no thanks



your sources????....

more specifically... for reliability, power consumption of a drive that hasnt been released, the heat of the unreleased drive and the noise...
To be honest (and im guilty of this too)... people have one component fail on them, and they suddenly hate it... blaming that manufacturer of having crap components and never to buy from them again.

im 29, have been involved in IT for the last 12 years professionally... have always sworn by WD drives and still have a few IDE drives from when i first got in the game... they have never skipped a beat. I bought one Maxtor drive... it failed after 2 years... now what? qwell... i have never bought maxtor again...and i tell everyone i know to stay away.

moral of the story... i buy WD... why?... becuase for me i have never had any problems in 12 years... luck?... perhaps


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## candle_86 (Jun 8, 2008)

magibeg said:


> At such a high RPM i wonder what the failure rate of these babies will be. Theres going to be so much more force involved now.



thats why its 2.5 instead of 3.5 so they dont shatter the platter. There is alot less force the shotter the circumferance is


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## aximbigfan (Jun 8, 2008)

BigBruser13 said:


> See this hard drive http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=ST3300655SS20PK&vid=394&src=F





> $13,079.00




What...?

Chris


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## lemonadesoda (Jun 8, 2008)

That price is only for government contracts! LOL


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## Atnevon (Jun 8, 2008)

If it spins fast enough it might just send your compy back in time.

But what a waste in my opinion. SSD is the new way. Thats it. They should concentrate on that FSB problem first to make computers faster.


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## jonmcc33 (Jun 8, 2008)

I wonder what the reliability of the new 2.5-inch form factor is? Seen so many laptop hard drives fail that I'd question the 300GB VelociRaptor. 20K RPM? Does it sound like a GeForce FX?


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## Solaris17 (Jun 8, 2008)

i dont understand either..i wouldnt buy one...SSD all the way how a hard drive can ever beat an SSD is beyond me...i mean moving parts versus not...it just makes sense.


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 9, 2008)

Wait hold everything I found the issue with SSD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208064

IDE connection come on people:shadedshu FAIL


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## Disparia (Jun 9, 2008)

Well, don't buy the IDE models then 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...Subcategory=636&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=


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## Mussels (Jun 9, 2008)

DO. NOT. WANT.

my 10k raptor is excessively loud, and no matter the RPM it cant match the access times of an SSD drive.


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## Breit (Jun 9, 2008)

Haytch said:


> SSD has been proven to be unreliable over long durations of time, so the ssd technology is far from ready to take over, regardless of the unreliablility factor a 20k rpm hdd would have.
> 
> My 10k Raptor is pretty much faster then then my 15k Cheetah.
> That said, the 20k WD will be the most dominant performing hdd available vs price untill ssd prices are reduced significally.
> ...



dude, how old is your cheetah? i mean they build them for a while now and comparing a seven year old drive to a new one isn't that fair. maybe you try again with a fujitsu mba or the new seagate 15k.6 ... 

but to be honest, i don't beleave the 20k hdd thing anyways. if it is technically possible to manufacture such thing with the reliability of the actual 15k sas hdds then why hasn't any major player in the enterprise storage market even thought about it? i mean this is the market where the fast drives where build for and not those lousy home computers...


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## Breit (Jun 9, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> 1 TB is in hot deals section for 160



hmm i think there is a difference between a huge drive and a fast drive like it is for cars... no one expects a schoolbus to run 320km/h at top speed or get the quarter mile done in under 10 sec...


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## Mussels (Jun 9, 2008)

Haytch: SSD drives have proven unreliable over long periods of time... who the hell has had one for a long period of time? please dont make facts up, thats impossible as no one has had an SSD for more than a year anyway. You're talking about FLASH drives, which are similar, but not the same tech.


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 9, 2008)

Yeah but right now SSD cost more than 15rpm drives and SSD is still slower on its read times compared to a 7200rpm, so it is not cost affective yet. Unless prices and speeds beat a 7200rpm drive I wouldn't touch a SSD. Its not worth giving the speed up for less power usage and less noise if it can't even out do a 7200rpm drive.


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## Mussels (Jun 9, 2008)

Snipermonkey2 said:


> Yeah but right now SSD cost more than 15rpm drives and SSD is still slower on its read times compared to a 7200rpm, so it is not cost affective yet. Unless prices and speeds beat a 7200rpm drive I wouldn't touch a SSD. Its not worth giving the speed up for less power usage and less noise if it can't even out do a 7200rpm drive.



no they arent. there was a news item here recently of a 256GB  samsung SSD that managed 200MB/s sustained read. SSD's ARE faster than mechanical drives - its merely that people testing them are using really old models because they're cheaper.

Not to mention in access times, any old SSD is faster than even a 20K RPM drive.


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## Snipermonkey2 (Jun 9, 2008)

Mussels said:


> no they arent. there was a news item here recently of a 256GB  samsung SSD that managed 200MB/s sustained read. SSD's ARE faster than mechanical drives - its merely that people testing them are using really old models because they're cheaper.
> 
> Not to mention in access times, any old SSD is faster than even a 20K RPM drive.



That is not true for when you are trying to read a mass amount of data. If SSD was faster for access times then the music industry would use them. Also if the 256GB Samsung is $1,000 its not worth it at all. I Could build a SCSI raid setup for that money. Or have a few Raptors in a raid.


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## Mussels (Jun 9, 2008)

Snipermonkey2 said:


> That is not true for when you are trying to read a mass amount of data. If SSD was faster for access times then the music industry would use them. Also if the 256GB Samsung is $1,000 its not worth it at all. I Could build a SCSI raid setup for that money. Or have a few Raptors in a raid.



ummm what? seriously if you think SSD's are slower in access times, you need to really get your facts straight. SSD's are in nanoseconds, mechanical drives in miliseconds. its a massive difference. the music industry dont use them.. BECAUSE THEY ARE NEW.

Congratulations on the price comment, again - these are NEW TECH. theyve barely reached the market, and only in very expensive circles... that doesnt make them useless. that makes them new, and not mass produced yet.


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## AsRock (Jun 9, 2008)

Breit said:


> dude, how old is your cheetah? i mean they build them for a while now and comparing a seven year old drive to a new one isn't that fair.



Yeah really i remember having a 3.2GB one on a Adaptec 2940.  And did not think much of it even back then.


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## jbunch07 (Jun 9, 2008)

20k rpm huh?
im sorry but that just sounds dangerous!


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## Breit (Jun 9, 2008)

the problem with ssd (at least up to now) is that they CAN be fast, but not in all cases. especially writes are horrible low and access-times for writes are WAY lower than for reads! yeah they advance over time and every new product is better than the old ones, but at least up to now they are NOT faster than a recent 15k sas or scsi disk, they not even come close in the majority of tests. only for multithreaded random access patterns the concept of ssd is superior. but as always: it depends on the application... 

btw. interesting read: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/ssd-iram.html

i'm glad i got a fujitsu mba... 8)


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## HTC (Jun 10, 2008)

Breit said:


> the problem with ssd (at least up to now) is that they CAN be fast, but not in all cases. especially writes are horrible low and access-times for writes are WAY lower than for reads! yeah they advance over time and every new product is better than the old ones, but at least up to now they are NOT faster than a recent 15k sas or scsi disk, they not even come close in the majority of tests. only for multithreaded random access patterns the concept of ssd is superior. but as always: it depends on the application...
> 
> btw. interesting read: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/ssd-iram.html
> 
> i'm glad i got a fujitsu mba... 8)



VERY interesting read!!!

DAMN: that I-RAM is AWESOME!!! Too bad the size is so small


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## Ben Clarke (Jun 10, 2008)

Christ, won't need SATA-3 or anything...


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## hat (Jun 10, 2008)

hold up, off topic question
ssds are just about as fast as memory then? 
I can imagine feeling a lot less pain when windows starts loading stuff into the pagefile, even with a single ssd


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## Mussels (Jun 11, 2008)

hat said:


> hold up, off topic question
> ssds are just about as fast as memory then?
> I can imagine feeling a lot less pain when windows starts loading stuff into the pagefile, even with a single ssd



yes thats pretty much the key behind them. they're in the 100's of MB/s range as opposed to GB/s, but remember the data when power cuts out.

The i-ram is an extreme example as it uses real ram but yeah... the access times are incredible. windows loads a lot faster (lots of small files) and you dont have to worry about defragmenting anymore.


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