Western Digital Raptor X 150GB HDD

A hard drive with a view

By Lars-Göran Nilsson • Get more from this author

21st March 2006 14:56 GMT

Western Digital Raptor X

The Raptor X is not only an incredibly fast hard drive, but it's specifically targeting the modding market...

Suggested Price:: £225 inc. VAT
More info:: Western Digital Raptro X product page

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Review The Western Digital Raptor, possibly the most talked about hard drive among the PC performance community, but why would you even consider buying a 36 or 74GB hard drive? Well, most people wouldn't, but with the introduction of the latest Raptor products Western Digital has remedied this problem to a certain degree by upping the drive size to 150GB...

Raptor X 2

This might still seem tiny in comparison to the latest generation of desktop drives that topple the scale at 500GB, but a Raptor drive is so much more than your average HDD - it's a freak of nature in its own right as it sits between the SATA and SCSI market. With a spin speed of 10,000rpm and 16MB of cache, it is in direct competition with many SCSI drives, at a lower cost.

But what we have here today is not the standard Raptor drive. Enter the Raptor X, the first retail hard drive to feature a crystalline polycarbonate window. Um, yes, that's it, that is the main selling point of the Raptor X over the standard model. A transparent bit.

I have to say that I'm not big on case modding, but having windows in your case - or even a clear case - has become something that many people aspire to so that they can show off their hardware to their chums. The Raptor X fits in to this mentality and to be honest, it's actually quite cool to see all the bits inside your hard drive move around. Still, I wouldn't go through the hassle of placing the Raptor X in a suitable location in my PC so I could see the bits moving. Still, if you've got a fully modded PC with lights, windows and the lot, then this is definitely the hard drive for you.

Raptor X