Friday, June 6th 2008
Western Digital Working on 20,000 RPM Raptor Drive
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.
Source:
bit-tech.net
82 Comments on Western Digital Working on 20,000 RPM Raptor Drive
"Packaged Quantity 20"
:laugh:
(I would love to see a platter failure, from behind a protective barrier)
hmmm imagine Raid 0 with 20 of those puppies lolol....:D
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. :D
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).
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.
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:
also less kinetic energy due to its lower mass
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).
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.
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 :nutkick: