14 DAY TRIAL // Just two months ago, Western Digital released the VelociRaptor hard drives, which are now the fastest HDDs available on the market. Upon launch, these hard drives were touted to be the fastest high capacity hard drives available on the market - which actually turned out to be the case. Apparently, Western Digital is going to offer its VelociRaptors in lower capacity models as well, and they are poised to replace the company's current Raptor lineup, which is too old and lower on performance as compared to the VelociRaptors.
Besides being rumored to be working on a 20000 RPM hard drive, Western Digital is expected to release two new models as additions to its VelociRaptor lineup. According to the company's support page, a 150GB model, dubbed WD1500GLFS, and a 74GB model (WD740GLFS) are going to be part of the flagship VelociRaptors. The new drives are not yet officially confirmed, but will apparently come with the same design as the 300GB higher-capacity model.
As some of you already know, Western Digital uses a 2.5-inch hard enclosed in an IcePack heatsink for the current lineup. This design dramatically contributes to improved access times, while preserving the data transfer rates in the 3.5-inch series. Because of the heatsink and small size factor, these hard drives also have a better thermal design, enabling them to work more efficiently at full speed.
Because the new VelociRaptors have not been officially released yet, no one can say with certainty how high their price tag will be, but the company's current 300GB model can be found in the $298.50 - $396.25 range.
As also noted above, Western Digital is rumored to be working on the world's fastest HDD, meant to compete with the upcoming Solid-State Drives. The company believes that SSD is still far from becoming a standard in the storage industry.