Introduction

Today we take a look at the new 600GB VelociRaptor from Western Digital. The new drive looks just like it’s older brother, with similar noise levels and power consumption. It may look and sound the same, but this new drive packs some additional punch in both speed and cost/GB. Check out our full review for the scoop.
Today we see the release of a new VelociRaptor!  It’s been nearly two full years since the VR 300 hit the streets.

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Old school VelociRaptor logo (from 2 years ago!)

This new unit doubles the capacity of its predecessor, as well as doubling the interface throughput.  Most of its other specs remain the same, as well as its physical appearance:

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The new and improved VelociRaptor!

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Unlike the early version of the original VR 300, the new model will initially ship with the 2nd gen IcePack.
Here we see the SATA data and power connectors are in the standard location for 3.5″ drives.
This enables hot-swaps with standard 3.5″ enclosures.

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While Western Digital intends to sell the new VelociRaptor without the IcePack cooler, removal of the 2.5″ unit that was mated to the IcePack at the factory will void your warranty.

This new drive is meant to handle heavy enterprise-level mixed read and writes, which may include single sector writes.  It therefore does not incorporate Advanced Format, as that would add unnecessary overhead to that type of random access.

Read on for the full review!

 
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