Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX 300GB 10000 RPM RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Pros: It's *supposed* to be a Western Digital.

Cons: I can't believe that Western Digital has let me down this much. I have been building my own computers for years. I have always really liked Western Digital and Seagate drives. I bought this drive as an OS and program drive because it is rated at 10K rpm, I use Adobe Photoshop and Bridge quite a bit as well as video-intensive gaming. I got not one, but TWO bad drives. This last drive is so bad that it had a fatal crash during a disk check!!!

Other Thoughts: I have a laptop and plan to use my desktop as a "work" and gaming system. I know that, for most people, desktops are going the way of the dinosaur, but I love the amount of power you get for the cost. You can build a high-end system for less than $2K that would cost a laptop more than $3K. The first WD disk was DOA. Newegg is great with RMAs. I got the second disk. It ran well for about a month and then crapped out after the last Windows update. I tried doing a re-install of Windows, but the "copying files" never got past 0%. It won't even reformat the disk during set-up! I have been messing with it and messing with it for the last 4 days. I had almost convinced myself that it was the Windows installation disk. Before I bought a new hard drive, I decided to test out the installation disk on a different hard drive. I have an 8-year old hard drive SATA I. I don't want to run Windows on it as I am using it as an archive drive for scanning my old 35 mm photos. I knew that I would have to cancel out of the installation process, but I thought that it wouldn't even reach that point- wrong!!! It blazed through the "copying files" part so I quickly cancelled the install before I lost my data. The truly ironic thing- this 8-year old disk is a WESTERN DIGITAL disk! I am switching to a Samsung SSD for my OS.

Pros: Fast

Cons: Over the last six years, I've had five Western Digital Raptor and VelociRaptor drives die on me, each within two years of life. The fifth just died tonight. They give no warning, beyond some clicking for less than a day, like bearings going bad except way too fast unless it's catastrophic failure, and then kaput. I don't know why I've kept buying them, except I keep telling myself it's just bad luck. I'm done now.

Other Thoughts: They're also incredibly loud, even under normal conditions.

Pros: Fast...

Cons: Died after less than 4 months of occasional usage

Other Thoughts: Always trusted Western Digital and figured the Enterprise Storage and 5 year warranty proved the product superior, going SSD.

Pros: Good price and good hdd capacity recommend to anyone

Cons: none easy install and works great

Pros: Fast: I love the speeds of this HDD. Haven't had any issues loading anything. It's remarkably fast.

Look: I like the case. It fits with my rig since it looks like alien tech and the VelociRaptor definitely fits the bill.

Quiet: Noise? What noise? I don't hear any loading noise from this. It's well worth it to me.

Cons: None that I'm aware of.

Other Thoughts: I mostly agree with Vamphaery's review. It's quite a great HDD but it's obvious that the next purchase will be an SSD. I have no qualms with that.

Pros: Fast and price

Cons: A little noisy if your case is not well designed to dampen noise.

Pros: Fast and reliable. Quiet. Compatible with the newer boards for maximum bang for your buck. It looks cool, but that really doesn't matter in a HDD.

Cons: No cons. None at all.

Other Thoughts: Next time I need a magnetic, non Solid State Drive, this is the one I will get again.

Pros: Western Digital, 5 year warranty, not as fast as SSDs but its the next best thing.

Cons: Its not a 1tb model.

Other Thoughts: Some ppl have complained about the noise level from this drive but I personally haven't noticed it. Possibly because the stock cooler on my Phenom IIx4 955BE is like loud as %$#!.

Pros: Quick, cool design.

Cons: Noisy, but then again i came from using ssd. I guess that's to be expected.

Pros: The fastest mechanical drive you can buy in all likelihood.

5 year warranty.

Enterprise class.

Large capacity for the price.

SATA III.

Surprisingly low operating temperature.

Cons: 117MB/sec average transfer rate in HD Tune
178MB/sec burst rate in HD Tune

Doesn't even begin to take advantage of SATA III's transfer capacity, but then, no mechanical HDD can and it's still the fastest performance you'll get out of a mechanical disk drive.

5.9 in Windows 7 index.

This is the last refuge of the mechanical HDD. It's increasingly obvious that the next time I buy a hard drive, It'll be a SSD. Hopefully by then the prices will have come down, and the capacities will have gone up.

Other Thoughts: 27C idle
28C under load (!)
No errors in HD Tune
117MB/sec average transfer rate in HD Tune
7.3 ms access time in HD Tune
178MB/sec burst rate in HD Tune
CPU use -1.0% in HD Tune

Probably the best performance you'll find anywhere in a mechanical disk drive.