150GB & 300GB VelociRaptors Get SATA 6 Gbps, Larger Cache
by Saumitra Bhagwat on July 28, 2011 10:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Western Digital
- HDDs
- VelociRaptor
While SSDs are all the rage these days, Western Digital is still making headway on their 10,000RPM VelociRaptors. The drives come in 150GB, 300GB, 450GB and 600GB capacities in both 2.5” and 3.5” form factors. However, until recently only the 450GB and 600GB variants were available with SATA 6 Gbps and a larger 32MB cache.
But it seems Western Digital has showered some love on the 150GB and 300GB variants, bringing them up to speed with their larger capacity siblings. The new models are now listed on WD’s website here. No word on Stateside pricing or availability yet, but it might be reasonable to expect a slight price bump.
A quick look at some online retailers still shows the older SKUs (WD1500HLFS, WD3000HLFS) with SATA II and 16MB cache going for about $119.99 and $149.99 respectively. Although SSDs have become more affordable over the years, from a pure performance per dollar standpoint, these Velociraptors are still hard to beat.
Here are the new SKUs.
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GuinnessKMF - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I hope that's the plan. I don't mind that Dailytech is politically charged, it's news, it's going to be, even if it's tech news. My problem with Dailytech is the bias as fact way they present a lot of things (Oh, it's okay because they tagged this one "blog" even though it acts as if it's news).When I think of AnandTech I think of unbaised analysis that covers both sides. AnandTech also has a standard of quality, as if someone actually read over the work after it was done. Dailytech happens to cover my interests, computer, military, medical, energy and emerging tech fields, if the writing wasn't such garbage it'd be great. If AnandTech is going to start reporting news in those fields, I'm there.
ImSpartacus - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
It's mostly the headlines that get me. It's like the writers are just asking for someone to question their credibility.And that rated comment system breeds elitism and harsh interaction.
sc3252 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
No joke, I hate ratting systems for comments. I only think someone should have +1, no negatives(unless they are a troll, which should just be banned).antef - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I used to read DailyTech but stopped a long time ago. I don't really want Anandtech spamming my RSS feeds with short news blurbs, I already have enough blog sites doing that.GuinnessKMF - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
I have a lot of faith in Anandtech, I'm sure they'll separate the feeds if that's what makes sense, but they're just starting the service so they're probably working out the kinks.banthracis - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Back on topic, why exactly do these drives needs SATA III? It's not like they were saturating SATA II bandwidth to begin with...fredgiblet - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
They don't, but it's a buzzword that will get more sales. There's a guy here at work who insisted on 6Gb SATA for his hard drive because he didn't understand that it makes no difference for anything under a third-gen SSD.Most liekly this is actually a cost-cutting measure, using the same controller across their entire line-up likely reduces costs slightly.
johnsonx - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
it's a check-box feature. if you don't have 6gbps sata, then you can't check that box.sc3252 - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
It won't exactly hurt the drive having a faster interface, also maybe there are a few scenarios where it bursts past 3Gbits. Also lets not forget marketing:).KITH - Thursday, July 28, 2011 - link
Potential performance increase for data off the cache only.