In the world of enthusiast PCs, no other hard drive captured the hearts of users quite like the Raptor.  Starting with its first iteration at 36 GB and followed later by the 74 GB model, Raptors have clearly had the performance lead since their introduction.  Any computer user that wanted the fastest storage in their system knew they needed at least one Raptor hard drive.  The industry knew it too, as every system we received in for reviews from AMD, NVIDIA and others featured the Raptor to showcase the best possible user experience.

Unfortunately, many users think that the 74 GB model has sat on top of that throne for too long, and we all eagerly await an update from Western Digital.  That update is finally here as the Raptor X is widely available offering added capacity, higher platter density and a special twist for modders.  

Specifications (from wdc.com)

Performance Specifications
	Rotational Speed	10,000 RPM (nominal)
	Buffer Size	16 MB
	Average Latency	2.99 ms (nominal)
	Contact Start/Stop Cycles	20,000 minimum

Seek Times
	Read Seek Time	4.6 ms
	Write Seek Time	5.2 ms (average)
	Track-To-Track Seek Time	0.4 ms (average)
	Full Stroke Seek	10.2 ms (average)

Transfer Rates
	Buffer To Host (Serial ATA)	1.5 Gb/s (Max)
	Buffer To Disk	84 MB/s (Sustained)

Recommended Configuration Parameters
	Number of Heads (Physical)	4

Physical Specifications
	Formatted Capacity	150,039 MB
	Capacity	150 GB
	Interface	SATA 150 MB/s
	Actuator Type	Rotary Voice Coil
	Number of Platters	2
	Bytes Per Sector	512
	User Sectors Per Drive	293,046,768
	Servo Type	Embedded