Specifications, Pricing and Availability

When Western Digital puts out a spec sheet they really like to go all out. Here we see the spec sheet for the 600GB drive. Western Digital is also releasing a 450GB drive with similar specifications, but some items do differ. Today we will focus on the 600GB drive since that is what we have on hand to review.

Above is the feature list that is a little easier to read through. On the surface we see that the capacity and cache has been doubled from the previous generation VelociRaptor. Performance has increased, but not doubled.

As we mentioned earlier, there is a 450GB drive, but that is not the end of the new product lineup. A 450 and 600GB 2.5 inch form factor version is available to OEMs and will most likely make their way into the entry level servers. End users don't have to worry about adapting the 2.5 inch drive to 3.5 inch desktop cases since the VelociRaptor is hitting the shelves again with a heatsink / adapter. The adapter is being called an IcePack by WD.

When it comes to the price, things lean towards the 600GB drive. With an MSRP of 329 USD for the 600GB and 299 for the 450GB, you would pretty much have to be brain dead to not spend the additional 30 USD on the larger drive. For comparison the first generation VelociRaptor can be found for 199 USD in 300GB capacity; we will have to look at the performance difference today to see how everything evens out.

The second generation SATA 6G VelociRaptor is already shipping to distributors and retailers and we should start to see the drives listed any day now.