What if ... WD never releases the 'new' 36GB Raptor?

[SUOrangeman]

The spiffy 74GB Raptor is here. Many, including myself, have speculated that WD wouldn't continue making the 36GB model with the 'old' technology once the new goods online. I'll agree that it doesn't make sense to keep two versions online, especially if one is more advanced than the other. Therefore, many of us are wondering when we'll see the new 36GB drives ... and how will we know that these are indeed the updated model.

To date, I'm not sure if any knowledgeable person (say, someone from WD or a respectable reviewer) has ever acknowledged that WD would indeed update the 36GB Raptor.

In reading a thread over at 2CPU today, a strange and slightly disturbing thought occurred to me: What if WD just stops making the 36GB model altogether?

-SUO

 

[jdogg707]

If WD stopped making the 36GB drive, they would loose a portion of the market that SCSI owns, the smaller faster disk for server use. It wouldn't make sense, but it does make sense for WD to wait on the new 36GB drive, it will allow them to sell more 74GB drives with the new enhancements and make more money.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Has the Raptor, being serial ATA, actually made a dent in the server market?

I'm just concerned that a lot of folks are waiting for the new 36GB, yet I have not seen an actual confirmation that it is coming.

-SUO, winks at his 'old school' Raptor

 

[jdogg707]

not a huge dent since SATA requires a motherboard upgrade or a PCI card, but it's still intended to be an equally performing SCSI alternative that is easier to setup than SCSI.

I have an "Old School Raptor" and am in no rush for the new ones, mine performs fine.

 

[SUOrangeman]

I also wonder if the WDxxxxJBs will go away with the fluid-bearing WDxxxPBs now coming online (only on sale at 250GB right now). I'd also be interested in the serial ATA like (WDxxxxPD). WD's site doesn't seem to mention these new drives yet.

-SUO

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: jdogg707
not a huge dent since SATA requires a motherboard upgrade or a PCI card, but it's still intended to be an equally performing SCSI alternative that is easier to setup than SCSI.

I have an "Old School Raptor" and am in no rush for the new ones, mine performs fine.

Seems like WD isn't going after the server market IMO, but rather the high end desktop/workstation market.
Server performance of the Raptor is rather lackluster compared to SCSI drives, and SCSI holds many other advantages over S-ATA, so unless WD decides to price dump the Raptor, I see no reason for server vendors to go with the Raptor.

 

[JimRaynor]

It's about time WD started switching to fluid bearings, they were really stubborn about converting.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: JimRaynor
It's about time WD started switching to fluid bearings, they were really stubborn about converting.

I agree.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: jdogg707
not a huge dent since SATA requires a motherboard upgrade or a PCI card, but it's still intended to be an equally performing SCSI alternative that is easier to setup than SCSI.

I have an "Old School Raptor" and am in no rush for the new ones, mine performs fine.

Seems like WD isn't going after the server market IMO, but rather the high end desktop/workstation market.
Server performance of the Raptor is rather lackluster compared to SCSI drives, and SCSI holds many other advantages over S-ATA, so unless WD decides to price dump the Raptor, I see no reason for server vendors to go with the Raptor.

But the Raptor is also a cheaper, easier to use alternative to SCSI , providing better performance than IDE drives, with comparable performance to 10K SCSI drives. The new Raptors further prove this by including TCQ, a feature found on pretty much all SCSI drives. Maybe more directly WD has tried to market the Raptor to compete with 10K SCSI drives and hope to replace them wherever they are implemented.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: jdogg707

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: jdogg707
not a huge dent since SATA requires a motherboard upgrade or a PCI card, but it's still intended to be an equally performing SCSI alternative that is easier to setup than SCSI.

I have an "Old School Raptor" and am in no rush for the new ones, mine performs fine.

Seems like WD isn't going after the server market IMO, but rather the high end desktop/workstation market.
Server performance of the Raptor is rather lackluster compared to SCSI drives, and SCSI holds many other advantages over S-ATA, so unless WD decides to price dump the Raptor, I see no reason for server vendors to go with the Raptor.

But the Raptor is also a cheaper, easier to use alternative to SCSI , providing better performance than IDE drives, with comparable performance to 10K SCSI drives. The new Raptors further prove this by including TCQ, a feature found on pretty much all SCSI drives. Maybe more directly WD has tried to market the Raptor to compete with 10K SCSI drives and hope to replace them wherever they are implemented.

Even when compared to the latest gen 10K SCSI drives the Raptor lieaves something to be desired with regards to server performance.
This is of course ignoring many other things, like needing one channel per device, being new to a market that doesn't like the latest and greatest, what RAS features does it provide(and yes, that's a serious question, haven't looked into it myself), and WD being a completely new name in the enterprise world.

95% of all the HD's I see in servers are either Seagate or Fujitsu, I've seen one Maxtor, and this is despite Maxtor's impressive performance.

 

[jdogg707]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: jdogg707

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: jdogg707
not a huge dent since SATA requires a motherboard upgrade or a PCI card, but it's still intended to be an equally performing SCSI alternative that is easier to setup than SCSI.

I have an "Old School Raptor" and am in no rush for the new ones, mine performs fine.

Seems like WD isn't going after the server market IMO, but rather the high end desktop/workstation market.
Server performance of the Raptor is rather lackluster compared to SCSI drives, and SCSI holds many other advantages over S-ATA, so unless WD decides to price dump the Raptor, I see no reason for server vendors to go with the Raptor.

But the Raptor is also a cheaper, easier to use alternative to SCSI , providing better performance than IDE drives, with comparable performance to 10K SCSI drives. The new Raptors further prove this by including TCQ, a feature found on pretty much all SCSI drives. Maybe more directly WD has tried to market the Raptor to compete with 10K SCSI drives and hope to replace them wherever they are implemented.

Even when compared to the latest gen 10K SCSI drives the Raptor lieaves something to be desired with regards to server performance.
This is of course ignoring many other things, like needing one channel per device, being new to a market that doesn't like the latest and greatest, what RAS features does it provide(and yes, that's a serious question, haven't looked into it myself), and WD being a completely new name in the enterprise world.

95% of all the HD's I see in servers are either Seagate or Fujitsu, I've seen one Maxtor, and this is despite Maxtor's impressive performance.[/q

I don't disagree that the Raptor does not perform as well as all SCSI drives, but that is the market that WD is attempting to market these towards, people who would buy a 10K SCSI drive. With IT budgets being cut frequently in order to save money, these drives are cheaper to implement than SCSI, and that fact alone may make up for the performance difference. WD has also paired these with 5 year warranties, so at least there is some insurance if something goes wrong. I agree that SCSI is faster for a lot of applications, but WD is going in the right direction with the Raptor to take a bite out of the server/workstation market.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Is everyone afriad to speculate whether WD will release a new 36GB Raptor? Whole lotta talk, but nothing on the original question.

-SUO

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: SUOrangeman
Is everyone afriad to speculate whether WD will release a new 36GB Raptor? Whole lotta talk, but nothing on the original question.

-SUO

Maybe they just wanna make sure the 360's out there are sold first?

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: SUOrangeman
Is everyone afriad to speculate whether WD will release a new 36GB Raptor? Whole lotta talk, but nothing on the original question.

-SUO

Maybe they just wanna make sure the 360's out there are sold first?

This is what I'm gonna go with myself. They don't want to force the older Raptors into obsolesence prematurely. I'll wait a year to buy a 36GB Raptor if this winds up to be the case.