WD ships 10K RPM 300GB VelociRaptor SATA Hard Drive

Western Digital on Tuesday announced it has began shipping its previously announced VelociRaptor hard drive with a 300GB capacity. While the drive itself is a 2.5-inch unit, it is encased in a 3.5-inch frame that acts as a heatsink for the 10,000RPM disk. WD claims its newest, backplane-compatible Velociraptor offers twice the storage capacity and a third faster performance than the Raptor drives it replaces while running at a lower temperature.

The enterprise-class VelociRaptor is made to work in blade and 1U and 2U rack servers, and is compatible with both Macs and PCs. The drives feature a 3GBps SATA interface and 16MB cache. The mounting frame, which WD calls IcePak, features the backplane circuit board that allows it to interface with other drives without cables and has sockets for expansion cards.

The VelociRaptor is also available in a 2.5-inch form factor, without the bulky heatsink, as well as a smaller 150GB size. The 300GB versions are priced at $319, while the 150GB VelociRaptors now sell for $229.