Western Digital's Raptor X

Earlier this week Western Digital announced the availability of their latest Raptor drive, with a capacity of 150GB thanks to its two 74GB platters. The 150GB Raptor is available today with a MSRP of $299.

At CES, Western Digital announced a second version of the 150GB drive called the Raptor X. Mechanically the Raptor X is identical to the first 150GB drive, the only difference is that the Raptor X features a window letting you see the spinning platters, read/write heads and actuator arm in action.

Other than the window, the rest of the specs of the drive are identical to its non-flashy brother. You get a 16MB buffer, 5 year warranty and of course, a 10,000RPM spindle speed. The Raptor X should be available in about 2 weeks for $349 while the normal 150GB version is available now for $299.

You can see a picture of the drive in action above, although for better pictures and more information on the new Raptor X you should head over to WD's site dedicated to the drive - www.wdraptorx.com.

The Evolution of Plasma Displays WLAN Enabled Nokia N80 Phone
Comments Locked

45 Comments

View All Comments

  • Sunbird - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    No problem for me here. IE6 on WinXP SP2.
  • Aquila76 - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    Hmm... I wonder if my account is experiencing the 'y2k6 bug' that wiped out some of the lifers.
  • semo - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    some lifers accounts got wiped out?

    y2k6 bug?
    man i should stop living under this stupid rock. soooo much hilarity.
  • Aquila76 - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    dwell, SampSon, buck and a few others got wiped out last week - all their posts got wiped too.
  • ukDave - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    Last word in 2nd last paragraph on pg14.

    "comarpsion" should be "comparison".

    Word.
  • Calin - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    Why they compare the quality of digital TV seen on a shiny new digital TV to the quality on a 1980's analog TV? Why not compare to the latest analog only TV they built?
    Probably because the quality difference would be underwhelming?
    Calin
  • psychobriggsy - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    If I read what that digital TV 'convertor' box did, then they have been available in the UK (and probably other European countries) for around 4 years already, initially as the ITV Digital boxes, and for the past couple of years as Freeview boxes.

    They usually have two SCART (Eurotel) outputs (what we have instead of S-Video outputs, ours can carry RGB signals as well as composite, but the connector is pig-large), one to the TV, another to a recorder, and an RF output in case the TV is old and doesn't have SCART inputs.

    Cheap models (<£40) skimp of course, or 'specialise' in not having some of the features like RF output of digital signals. They also lose the 7 day program guide and only offer Now&Next, grrr.

    Regardless, it should mean that these boxes will cost under $99 when they're released in the US, probably around $79. If they try it on with $199 then you know they're trying to rip you off, unless it downconverts terrestrial HD signals too.
  • semo - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    good point. how many ppl have tvs from the 1980s anymore (as far as the targeted audience of ces is concerned)
  • Sc4freak - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    Is it just me, or is the entire page completely screwed up?
  • gsellis - Monday, January 9, 2006 - link

    I noticed that the index and pages were one off.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now