Aimed at appealing to the geek in all technology folk, Western Digital launched its Raptor X 150GB serial ATA drive at the Conusmer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, complete with a see-through top to display the inner workings of this modern, high-capacity disk .
With a rotation speed of 10,000 RPM, a 16 MB cache and Native Command Queuing (NCQ), the Raptor X does offer advanced performance and Western Digital argues that the system's virtues should be displayed for all to see.
So as the drive whirrs and the actuators do their own special dance, not a moment is lost as the admiring geeks can gaze at the full marvel of their new $349 (£197) drive in all its glory.
They only disappointment they might face is that if the Raptor X is modestly shielded away under the covers of a grey system box, they won't be able to see it.
Western Digital claims it is "responding to [the] widespread popularity" of the Raptor "among performance enthusiasts", as well as displaying "a radically progressive style for PC and Mac owners who modify or enhance their computing systems, thrive on high-performance gaming or otherwise demand the most extreme components available".
As the company points out, as "the only major components inside a PC with moving parts, all hard drives until now have been sealed with a solid metal top. WD Raptor X features a large clear lens embedded in the top through which the read and write action of the drive's head and disk assembly can be viewed while the drive delivers data, audio and video content and games to PC and Mac performance enthusiasts in just milliseconds".
Talkback
yea, nevermind achieving the goal of a TB drive lets make it see through. not.
In 1983 Evotek make all of their marketing drives with see thru covers, big deal !!!
How about creating storage that works.
Oh, come on! This is far from the first hard drive with a tranparent enclosure. I used to work on banks of them in the 1970s. Someone needs to check their history. Very few things are "first" anymore.
I believe the article is wrong, it's not the hard drive with a view in the world in the world, but it's the only commericially available for a long time.
And everyone, don't forget this hard drive is the fastest SATA drive on the market, it even outperforms most SCSI drives too. Definitely worth it, if you have spare cash just lying around.