Introduction and Specifications

Western Digital’s Raptor line of SATA hard drives has been the darling of the enthusiast storage community for quite some time. Their latest iteration brings twice the storage capacity and faster transfer speeds — what else do you want?

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
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Rotational Speed 10,000 RPM (nominal)
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Buffer Size 16 MB
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Average Latency 2.99 ms (nominal)
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Contact Start/Stop Cycles 20,000 minimum
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 65
Seek Times
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Read Seek Time 4.6 ms
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Write Seek Time 5.2 ms (average)
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Track-To-Track Seek Time 0.4 ms (average)
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Full Stroke Seek 10.2 ms (average)
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 65
Transfer Rates
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Buffer To Host (Serial ATA) 1.5 Gb/s (Max)
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Buffer To Disk 84 MB/s (Sustained)
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 65
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 75
Recommended Configuration Parameters
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Number of Heads (Physical) 4
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 65
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 75
Physical Specifications
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Formatted Capacity 150,039 MB
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Capacity 150 GB
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Interface SATA 150 MB/s
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Actuator Type Rotary Voice Coil
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Number of Platters 2
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Bytes Per Sector 512
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 User Sectors Per Drive 293,046,768
Western Digital Raptor X 150 GB SATA HDD Review - Storage 61 Servo Type Embedded

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