Western Digital has just released its new series of VelociRaptor hard-disk drives. Touted as being faster and more reliable than any previous generations of hard-disk drives from Western Digital, the new units have been named after one of the smallest and fiercest carnivorous dinosaurs in the Jurassic.

The new HDD offering from Western Digital is an evolutionary update of the company's previous best-seller, the Raptor family. The VelociRaptor packs more performance and reliability in a notably smaller form factor.

Contrary to the customers' expectations, Western Digital traded large storage capacity for a fully-fledged hard-disk drive, able to compete with any existing flash-based solid-state drive. The manufacturer completely redesigned the drive in such a way to make it fit for both the enthusiast and the low-end server market.

Unlike its predecessors, the new VelociRaptor drives come in a 2.5-inch form-factor that dramatically contributes to improved access times, while preserving the data transfer rates in the 3.5-inch series. Moreover, the size update also keeps the residual heat to a minimum.

"Demand for ever-higher PC performance continues to increase and WD is the leader in this category with the WD Raptor. We created WD VelociRaptor hard drives to lead PC enthusiasts into the next era of PC and Mac storage performance and satisfy their insatiable thirst for computing speed," said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of WD's enterprise business unit. "The new WD VelociRaptor delivers the greatest performance and reliability of all SATA hard drives currently on the market."

The new VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS hard disks will come with a maximum storage capacity of 300 GB. The company had to make the capacity compromise in order to keep the drive's size to a minimum. The 10,000 RPM drives come with a SATA interface, given the fact that the newer and more powerful SAS interface would minimize compatibility and account for increased production costs.

According to the company, the new storage offerings will initially be available in Alienware's high-performance ALX gaming desktop until the end of this month. Generall availability is slated for mid-May at an estimative price tag of $299.99.