Home > Consumer Reviews > Western Digital 150 GB VelociRaptor SATA 10,000 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD1500HLFS
Western Digital 150 GB VelociRaptor SATA 10,000 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD1500HLFS
See it at Amazon.com for $159.99Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
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Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Fast and cool, but could be a bit quieter
(5 out of 5) by zemes on Mar 10, 2009Very impressive speed. Nearly 40% increase in RPM over the 7200 RPM drives is a significant improvement. The system start-up is noticeably faster. But the benefit to actual application programs varies. For example, programs that require small amount of data exchange will see minimal benefit. The speed of these programs is largely determined by the processor speed and RAM, because nearly everything is loaded into the RAM and not dependent much on the hard drive. On the other hand, applications like virus scanning which heavily depend on disk activity to access files will see the biggest benefit. I did a controlled test which showed that virus scanning is at least 30% faster with this disc than a 7200 RPM disk.
Noise could be an issue. Anyone who claims this is quiet is probably used to noisy computing environments. If you have a quiet computer in a fairly quiet room, you hear this hard drive distinctively. I have an Antec 900 with all fans running at low speed. The case is quiet but by no means silent. In this environment, the velociraptor is audible, although not terribly noisy. The noise was a bit distracting in the beginning, but I got used to it gradually and will now have to listen intentionally to hear it. To be fair, this hard drive is actually quieter than most old hard drives. But the consumer-grade hard drives have improved so much in noise in the last five years that most of them have become near silent. This hard drive is noticeably noisier than some other new hard drives I've seen recently.
Despite the slight noise, the hard drive is quite cool. My computer has a second hard drive (7200 RPM) in addition to this one. Both have very cool temperatures. The VelociRaptor is even 1° cooler. This is very impressive.
To those who are concerned about the small storage capacity of this hard drive, I'd say, think in terms of your true needs, not numbers. I believe this hard drive is ideal for computers that have multiple hard drives. In a two hard drive system, for example, the faster VelociRaptor can be the primary hard drive for running operating system and programs, and the second hard drive can be a regular large capacity drive for data and backup. For running the operating system and programs, 150 GB is more than enough. I have Windows 7 and tons of programs, which all together occupy only 50 GB, making the VelociRaptor more than sufficient. In fact, I could have just got a much cheaper 74 GB Raptor and still be plenty happy. For your need of greater capacity, just get a 1 TB drive as a dump drive to hold everything else including data and backup.
All in all, I highly recommend this hard drive to anyone who is building a multiple hard drive system. There is no better choice for the primary operating system drive.
Noise could be an issue. Anyone who claims this is quiet is probably used to noisy computing environments. If you have a quiet computer in a fairly quiet room, you hear this hard drive distinctively. I have an Antec 900 with all fans running at low speed. The case is quiet but by no means silent. In this environment, the velociraptor is audible, although not terribly noisy. The noise was a bit distracting in the beginning, but I got used to it gradually and will now have to listen intentionally to hear it. To be fair, this hard drive is actually quieter than most old hard drives. But the consumer-grade hard drives have improved so much in noise in the last five years that most of them have become near silent. This hard drive is noticeably noisier than some other new hard drives I've seen recently.
Despite the slight noise, the hard drive is quite cool. My computer has a second hard drive (7200 RPM) in addition to this one. Both have very cool temperatures. The VelociRaptor is even 1° cooler. This is very impressive.
To those who are concerned about the small storage capacity of this hard drive, I'd say, think in terms of your true needs, not numbers. I believe this hard drive is ideal for computers that have multiple hard drives. In a two hard drive system, for example, the faster VelociRaptor can be the primary hard drive for running operating system and programs, and the second hard drive can be a regular large capacity drive for data and backup. For running the operating system and programs, 150 GB is more than enough. I have Windows 7 and tons of programs, which all together occupy only 50 GB, making the VelociRaptor more than sufficient. In fact, I could have just got a much cheaper 74 GB Raptor and still be plenty happy. For your need of greater capacity, just get a 1 TB drive as a dump drive to hold everything else including data and backup.
All in all, I highly recommend this hard drive to anyone who is building a multiple hard drive system. There is no better choice for the primary operating system drive.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Quiet AND fast!
(5 out of 5) by Devin Baskin on Feb 25, 2009I replaced my 160GB 7200 RPM system drive with this and it is great! Much faster, and not any louder during normal use. Under heavy use, like when defragging there is slightly more disk noise. There is no annoying whine like older 10k drives.
Great drive!
Great drive!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Fast
(5 out of 5) by A. Petrosyan on Mar 23, 2009This drive is fast, fairly quiet, very stable. There's a slight difference in boot time and programs seem to load a bit faster. It is expensive compared to other drives but it's worth it if you're after speed.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Get two of these and run together in RAID 0
(5 out of 5) by Eric Sorensen on Sep 4, 2009 (Louisiana)That's what I did. Amazing speed. Photoshop CS4 and all my brushes and plugins loads in less than 2 seconds. I can load a 100MB TIFF file in less than 2 seconds. Game levels like the first level in Crysis loads in about 5 seconds. This is a serious boost to your computer speed.
Getting two puts you at around 300GB and $350, while the 300GB version is about $300. Pay a little more and run two together at the same time in RAID 0 - you will basically double it's already fast speed. Then get a 1TB or more storage drive to store all your files. Keep the programs and Windows on the fast 10K RPM drives. You will not be disappointed!
Getting two puts you at around 300GB and $350, while the 300GB version is about $300. Pay a little more and run two together at the same time in RAID 0 - you will basically double it's already fast speed. Then get a 1TB or more storage drive to store all your files. Keep the programs and Windows on the fast 10K RPM drives. You will not be disappointed!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Hard Drive
(5 out of 5) by Richard G. on May 23, 2009 (Glendale, Ca USA)The hard drive was as expected. I have install it and it has made a noticeable difference in the performance of my computer. I would not hesitate to buy it again.