Repackaged Velociraptor with SAS interface?

[Rubycon]

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=677

Or could this be a new design?

 

[bob4432]

enterprise>gamer/enthusiast

 

[zagood]

enterprise>gamer/enthusiast

Raptor and Velociraptor are considered enterprise drives by WD.

Correction - they're "near-line enterprise" products.

 

[taltamir]

the raptors were meant as a "budget enterprise" drive, not a "gamer" drive... it took years for WD to even admit that gamers are buying them...

 

[Emulex]

western digital is just now entering enterprise storage. they have their first SAS drives coming out now. i spose their success will be dependent on how the oem's pick them up.

seagate and hitachi dominate; honestly i'd be pissed off if my server came with anything else.

to me the drive would need to show some experience before i'd trust them. i've got 5-10 year old seagate scsi units still rocking out. that is what i'd expect from any new players.

 

[Rubycon]

enterprise>gamer/enthusiast

Well sure it is but I don't believe this is a new design from the ground up.

It may have firmware more aggressively tuned for multiple accesses found in server environments vs. an enthusiast drive that's tuned for desktop use.

Too bad Storage Review is on a seemingly permanent hiatus. That place was on top of all it all with this stuff. 🙁

 

[taltamir]

seagate has been extremely unreliable as of late. while WD is only getting better.
I'd trust WD over seagate right now.

 

[Rubycon]

seagate has been extremely unreliable as of late. while WD is only getting better.
I'd trust WD over seagate right now.

Where have you heard problems in the Enterprise market? Seagates SATA products are definitely not touting a very good track record of late. Of course the last Cheetah series I've own was the 15K.4. :Q

The problem seems to get worse as areal densities increase.

 

[MerlinRML]

Where have you heard problems in the Enterprise market? Seagates SATA products are definitely not touting a very good track record of late. Of course the last Cheetah series I've own was the 15K.4. :Q

The problem seems to get worse as areal densities increase.

The Seagate SATA ES.2 drives were quite problematic for a lot of vendors. Seagate SAS drives have been pretty solid, with only a few early problems that I'm aware of.


I wouldn't be surprised if the WD VR and SAS drives did share a lot in common, but I am going to venture that a 6Gb SAS controller, dual ports, and a different firmware make them behave quite differently regardless of what they have in common.

An interesting drive, but one that that I'd venture will take a generation or two to mature and make its way into enterprise, if it ever will. Fujitsu is teetering now thanks to uncertainty due to the Toshiba acquisition. WD could clearly come in and make a play for that business, unless they get pushed out by Seagate and Hitachi.

 

[pjkenned]

seagate has been extremely unreliable as of late. while WD is only getting better.
I'd trust WD over seagate right now.

Seagate enterprise v. consumer is completely different. In the enterprise space you are talking about Seagate, the far and away leader in enterprise drives that just need to work and perform well, versus WD who is a relative newcomer to the market. I own at least a dozen WD drives, dozen Seagate consumer drives, and another dozen Seagate 15k rpm drives. I think at this point, the 7200.11 issues have been fixed for a LONG time (read 8+ months assuming you are on the correct firmware), but the enterprise drives just work. Period. That's why Seagate has enormous enterprise market share.