MaximumPC 2006 03

T

hough the 74GB Raptor enjoyed fame and fortune for more than a

year as the world’s fastest hard drive, its low areal density and 8MB

buffer allowed high-capacity 7200rpm drives to catch up—and even

surpass—the mighty Raptor. WD has remedied the situation with an all-new

Raptor that ups capacity, buffer size, and the ante, as it were. It’s a hella-

ciously fast drive, with a price tag to match.

The new drive sports the same 10,000rpm spindle speed as the last-

gen Raptor, but has twice the capacity at 150GB, and double the buffer size at

16MB total. The only other signifi cant change is in the drive’s queuing tech-

nology: The old Raptor used tagged command queuing, which was only sup-

ported by a few add-in SATA controllers. The new drive supports native com-

mand queuing (NCQ), which is the industry

standard for SATA drives and is supported

on all late-model chip-

sets, including Intel

915x and higher, and

nVidia’s nForce4. Other

notable specs include

a two-platter design, a

fi ve-year warranty, and

two fl avors of availabil-

ity: a standard-looking

version for $300, and

a version with a see-

through top (the Raptor

X) for $350.

During testing,

the drive performed

exactly as we’d expect a drive with these specs to perform—it blew every

benchmark record we have out of the water. To say it’s pretty fast is like

saying we kind of like

PC hardware. Even compared with the fastest 7200rpm drive available—

WD’s own WD400KD—the new Raptor eats that drive’s lunch and gives it a

wedgie to boot.

Our only issue with this drive is that it seems pricey at $300, and

especially so for the $350 X version. You can buy a pretty-damn-fast 400- to

500GB drive for less than that, but

Raptors have always sacrifi ced

capacity for speed, and this drive

is no different.

—JOSH NOREM

WD Raptor X

The fastest—and most expensive—hard drive available

E

very notebook user has confronted capacity issues at some point: The

dinky 20GB or 40GB drive that seemed big enough when you bought

your laptop fills up, and you need more storage. You could buy an external

USB/FireWire drive, but then you’d have to lug it around with you. Or you

could upgrade the internal hard drive in your notebook, but what would you

do with the old drive? Hitachi cleverly solves the problem with an upgrade

kit that gives you a new 2.5-inch hard drive ranging from 40GB to 100GB

and a USB enclosure to convert your old drive into a portable USB hard

drive. In practice, it works exactly as advertised, and it turns out to be a

decent bargain as well.

Provided your laptop accepts a parallel ATA 2.5-inch hard drive (and

most do), installation is simple. First you place the new drive inside the USB

enclosure. Next, you boot off the included CD, which clones your existing

drive to the new drive. When that’s finished, you take the new drive out of

the USB enclosure and install it in your laptop (you just have to find the hard

drive area on the underbelly of your notebook, remove the cover, remove

the drive, and perform the swap). You then take the old drive and insert it

into the USB enclosure, fasten several screws, and you’re done. On our test

machine, the process was trouble-free.

Our gripes? We’re not crazy about the external enclosure. The plastic

casing feels cheap and the drive rattles around inside when you shake it,

which can’t be good for the drive or the data on its platters. Though it’s

unlikely you’ll intentionally shake a hard drive, it’s disappointing that

the unit doesn’t feel more durable. We’d also like to see a kit with a

7200rpm hard drive, instead of

the current 5400rpm offerings.

—JOSH NOREM

Hitachi Notebook

Upgrade Kit

A kit that leaves no drive behind

0 MA XIMUMPC MARCH 2006

reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED

Say hello to

the Raptor X.

WD also sells

a window-less

version for

$50 less.

Waste not, want

not! Hitachi’s

upgrade kit

gives you a new

high-capacity

hard drive, and

a USB enclo-

sure for your

old notebook

drive.

7

HITACHI NOTEBOOK UPGRADE

$220 (100GB), http://www.hgst.com

BENCHMARKS

Best scores are bolded. *The application index is a real-world script of six

applications. The score is based on the time it takes the drive to complete the

scripts. **Hard drive temperatures measured using S.M.A.R.T. data, as reported

by the Speedfan utility.

HD TACH 3

RANDOM ACCESS TIME (MS) 8.2 13.1

BURST RATE (MB/S) 139 138

AVG. SEQUENTIAL READ (MB/S) 75 57

H2BENCHW

APPLICATION INDEX* 40.1 29.7

OTHER

DOOM 3 LOADING (SEC) 31 30

5GB READ (SEC) 100 101

IOMETER 50 PERCENT 296 230

RANDOM WORKLOAD (IO/SEC)

OPERATING TEMP WITH NO FAN** 52 52

WD WD

RAPTOR X CAVIAR SE

WD RAPTOR X

$350, http://www.wdc.com

10

MA XIMUMPC

KICKASS