Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: About 1msec drop in real access times from the previous raptors. Low power consumption. Best performing drive that isn't SAS.

Cons: SATA connector on the drive is shallow thus making it a bit flimsy. You won't be able to use SATA cables that have clips on the connectors. Quite the premium for top performance at a dollar per gigabyte.

Overall Review: This drive has 279GB capacity formatted. HD tach rates this drive at 107MB/sec avg. read, 260+MB/sec burst, 7.1msec avg random access. Compared to one of the leading 7,200RPM drives (WD6400AAKS) with 94MB/sec read, 240MB/sec burst, 12.7msec access. The difference in access times can be noticed when booting into windows, installing programs and updates, opening programs, loading certain games. If you're looking for the best performing desktop drive that isn't SAS, this is it. If storage capacity is more your concern then I recommend the WD6400AAKS as it has great performance and top value per GB. Drives tested on a GA-P35C-DS3R w/ an E6550 @ 3.33Ghz and 2GB RAM.

Pros: Very quiet, fast, easy installation. I was expecting the speed increase, but was absolutely blown away at how quiet this drive is. I can only hear it with my ear next to the drive in open case, and it only produces very muted seeks. I can't even tell it's running.

Cons: Other than price, none.

Overall Review: I use this as my boot drive. My Vista 64bit system finally feels responsive again. My Samsung F1 was very unresponsive at times when configured as boot drive. This drive reminds me of times few years ago when I bought SCSI Cheetah 15K.3 (15000 RPM) - what a difference compared to 7200RPM. The price is slightly high, but there is really no reasonable alternative for a boot/system drive. 7200RPM drives don't have the fast access time even when in RAID 0. HDTune Banchmark Results: Minimum: 79.3 MB/s Maximum: 125.2 MB/s Average: 105.5 MB/s Access Time: 7.1 ms Burst Rate: 176.6 MB/s CPU Usage: 2.3% Temperature: 37-41C depending on load

Pros: The drive is fast, and can be noticed easily with a simple file copy process. Its really small too and I dont dount that such drives might end up in laptops. Most reviews will also tell that this drive is definitely worth an upgrade from previous raptors.

Cons: As noticed, the price per GB is prety high. Drives are definitely not that usefull if your main purpose is mutimedia storage.

Overall Review: The product listing on newegg mentions retail version, however the drives I got seemed OEM, since there was no box, no manuals and were just bubble wrapped. I got two in RAID0 and have all my games on it and pagefile. I upgraded from 74GB raptors. Those who have previous raptors and have it registered on wdc.com, you can upgrade it to the new velociraptors through their customer loyalty program. You save about 20 bucks per drive. I sort of forgot to check there before I bought these, so others should definitely look it up on there.

Pros: Very fast, stable, and pretty quiet.

Cons: Gets hot, make sure you have adequate cooling.

Pros: This drive rocks!! I replaced a 72GB 15K SCSI drive with the Velociraptor and i couldn't be happier. It's as fast, if not faster than the SCSI drive was and it's absolutely silent inside of my case. The SCSI drive was annoyingly loud, so what a nice change. If you want a drive with a lot of space, speed, and doesn't make a lot of noise, this is the one for you!

Cons: I really don't have any complaints but i think the price per GB will drive some away. It's worth it in my mind though!

Pros: Quiet, fast!!!! I put two of them in a RAID1 on an intel D975XBX2. They loaded up immediately easy to install and work great.

Cons: Price

Pros: Raptors have always been fast so i am not going to bother stating it. what mostly surprised me was how cool to the touch and how silent the drives are. i had 2 150 gb raptors in raid and you can hear them crunching all day long. now i have 2 velociraptors in raid and i cant even hear a peep out of them.

Cons: price.... but you know what and why you are paying for it so its not really a con this drive is perfect.

Overall Review: the sata connectors on the drive are very loose when you plug them in.

Pros: Incredibly fast and quiet HDD. Was running on a 150GB Raptor X, and the performance improvement is noticeable. Drive is running idle at about 30C and full load at about 36C. If you have the money, this one is worth the investment.

Cons: Not really a con but SATA Plug (Data and Power) placement is unique on this drive. You can not drop this HDD into an enclosure or dock as you would other SATA drives. Also noticed the mounting holes have the drive sitting further back compared to my other drives.

Overall Review: NOT A RETAIL VERSION! This is an OEM drive! If you need the included cables/software/instructions, be prepared! Cloned my old HDD with Vista 64 in less than 4 minutes. PC was up and running not 30 seconds after. Was considering holding off for a bit to see what new SSD's were coming, but decided to just go for it. With the way technology is going, I'd be sitting around waiting for the next great thing until the day I die.