Western Digital updates the Raptor for Modders

I hope the production versions don't look like that. My dog could do a better paint job than that.
 
Would be better if they could have figured out a way to put the LED in there they wanted to.
 
Looks pretty cool, its pretty rich for my blood though (You sure could buy a lot more space for that kind of money...).
 
Yeah, it's just too much money, and I don't think it even looks that great... I mean, the window should cover the whole top instead of just that weird little shaped section.

It's more fun to do it yourself anyways :p
 
Quoting DougLite from the Disk Storage Forum...

DougLite said:
Remember guys that the window is forcing WD to lower the MTBF rating on the Raptor X from 1.2million hours to 600,000. You guys know that I don't ordinarily place a lot of emphasis on MTBF, as HDDs are not reliable regardless of MTBF, but this window forced the WD engineers to make a lot of compromises.

I know, big deal. I think it is when the theoretical failure rate is halved.
 
screw the window, give me a reliable HD, that's all anyone should want out of their HD aside from performance
 
Techx said:
screw the window, give me a reliable HD, that's all anyone should want out of their HD aside from performance

Yeah....how many people can even see th top of their HDD? Even with a windowed case 99% of us can't. Maybe in a clear acrylic case or if you somehow mounted the hdd up to a side panel window (lol?)...
 
Waffles730 said:
Yeah, it's just too much money, and I don't think it even looks that great... I mean, the window should cover the whole top instead of just that weird little shaped section.

It's more fun to do it yourself anyways :p
You would never successfully mod a hard drive that is even half way current. Removing the cover in anything less than a clean room would instantly wreck the drive's delicate mechanical parts.

Lake, thanks for the quote.

That window makes me nervous. The turbulence from 10,000RPM is stressful enough on a solid case, let alone a cover of two pieces joined together. That window comes at a price, and that price is reliability. Adding variables to the operation of a hard drive is never a good thing, the tolerances are already ridiculously tight even on modest 7200RPM, let alone on a top flight 10,000RPM that delivers the swiftest random access performance available in an ATA drive.

I also agree with the sentiments of others that the size and shape of the window is disappointing.

Given that the firmware is essentially the same between the two WD1500xxxx SKUs, I'd pick up the enterprise version. However, be aware of the impact of TLER on your system before proceeding.
 
DougLite said:
You would never successfully mod a hard drive that is even half way current. Removing the cover in anything less than a clean room would instantly wreck the drive's delicate mechanical parts.

Lake, thanks for the quote.

That window makes me nervous. The turbulence from 10,000RPM is stressful enough on a solid case, let alone a cover of two pieces joined together. That window comes at a price, and that price is reliability. Adding variables to the operation of a hard drive is never a good thing, the tolerances are already ridiculously tight even on modest 7200RPM, let alone on a top flight 10,000RPM that delivers the swiftest random access performance available in an ATA drive.

I also agree with the sentiments of others that the size and shape of the window is disappointing.

Given that the firmware is essentially the same between the two WD1500xxxx SKUs, I'd pick up the enterprise version. However, be aware of the impact of TLER on your system before proceeding.

I thought that the top on all of the new raptors was Polycarbonate, and in this case they just simply didnt paint a portion of it. I dont see how paint/no paint would lower the MTBF. Maybe they took into account that you're more likely to screw with it/mount it incorrectly if it has a clear window. :p
 
Maybe it's just me, but it's ugly. Just give me a chromed top and I'd be happy. I don't need an ugly bean window thing.
 
DougLite said:
Unfortuantely, modding a hard drive is not a possibility.

Oh, it is.
Just don't expect it to work unless you've got a proper clean room to do it in.
 
Eh, lots of things are "pre-modded" these days... kids will install this stuff into their computers then call themselves "hardcore". :p
 
Just wanted to mention tons of people have modded their hard drive in home environments and working just fine. Just need to be carefull about it. No big whoop though, I never really cared for the idea, even in premod design as WD wants to do here. I find bigger news in things like Maxtor no longer exists and such... Who cares if WD wants to sell to a niche market... Oh well...
 
Dude, 349.99? You know what I could get a crack whore to do to me for that kinda money? No thanks WD.
That's like 70 bucks more than the enterprise version for that lame apparently mechanically inferior window. I like my 74 gig raptor, but I STILL say it wasn't really worth the money.
 
Techx said:
screw the window, give me a reliable HD, that's all anyone should want out of their HD aside from performance

I agree.

It is still a Western Digital. If want high RPM drive I'll just screw ATA and go with some SCSI Seagate Cheetahs. Far more reliable and fast. As for hard drive modding, I've seen it done before, but every one of them had access to a clean room.
 
PolygonGTC said:
I agree.

It is still a Western Digital. If want high RPM drive I'll just screw ATA and go with some SCSI Seagate Cheetahs. Far more reliable and fast. As for hard drive modding, I've seen it done before, but every one of them had access to a clean room.
Buck up and go SAS :p
 
Well its good to know that western digital is an equal opportunity employer. Its sad to see a drunk get fired when they can't help what they are doing. Looks like one of their drunks is hard at work cutting out the hard drive tops. :)
 
Semi on topic & off topic ramble follows...

Clear covers on a HDD is hardly new; at least from a R&D perspective. Many years ago, around late '93 or so, I used to work security at the Scotts Valley Seagate campus... building five IIRC. Anyway, the testing labs were in this building and I remember looking at all sorts of HDD's they had there with clear covers. Granted these weren't 10,000rpm drives, maybe 7,200rpm SCSI drives at best, but OTOH this was 12+ years ago. No weird cut out shit either, just a 100% clear top panel... and a whole row of them would damn near hypnotize you. ;)

As for clean rooms, been there done that too... at Intel, AMD, IBM & ST Micro Electronics fabs all over the world. :D Kind of cool at first, but got old REAL QUICK. The bays are pretty damn clean, as you'd hope would be the case in a class-1 fab; but the chases tended to get rather dirty; so to speak at least when compared to the bays. Besides, being dressed up in a glorified plastic bag for hours on end got old damn near immediately! :p

/ramble

Regards,
fastgeek
 
Be sensible, are you nuts?

We're talking about things beyond your control outside of a clean room. Things like hair, dirt, and more likely dust. The tolerances are so low on a hard drive that one tiny particle of dust gets on that platter and the head hits it then you're going to be saying goodbye to a hard drive.

Granted, maybe this guy got lucky and I'm not saying you can't do it without a clean room but your chances of success are so low I have to ask why bother?
 
PolygonGTC said:
Be sensible, are you nuts?
Granted, maybe this guy got lucky and I'm not saying you can't do it without a clean room but your chances of success are so low I have to ask why bother?


:Sniff: THIS GUY?
Linear is a god at modding, or close to it. He is not a "this guy".

I remember when linear perfected that mod....or at least shared it with the [H]. Right after he modded that I do believe he stated that he doesn't keep anything critically important on that drive tho.
 
Wang191 said:
:Sniff: THIS GUY?
Linear is a god at modding, or close to it. He is not a "this guy".

I remember when linear perfected that mod....or at least shared it with the [H]. Right after he modded that I do believe he stated that he doesn't keep anything critically important on that drive tho.

I'm sorry I don't keep up with who the elite of the modding community is. Fact is that 99% of the people that try that without the clean room will regret it. Also, I don't give a crap who he is. Without a clean room he has no control over what is floating around in the air and what might end up on that platter.
 
Fact is, it's been done many more times than you would think. Heck, a couple of years ago on the {P} forums, people would just say "Hard drive mod? Meh." and move on.

I think the Raptor X is ugly... and ricer-y. Goshdarnitall. Now those friends of mine who think the Dell XPS is an uber gaming rig are going to try to get me to buy one of these :rolleyes:
 
I seem to recall, in just about every thread about windowing a hard drive, about half the posts would be people saying "damn, that's cool, I wish hard drive manufacturers would do that so we wouldn't have to risk destroying our drives to do it". A hd manufacturer finally does it, and all people can talk about is how shitty it looks. And I'm one of them. :p I just fucking think it looks like ass. The window is too small, and the black just isn't cool. A hard drive(imo) should have a nice shiny, polished, metalic look. Not a dull, matte black. A nice sized(and shaped) window + mirror finish on the rest of it would be fucking sweet. Though I can't afford it, window or not, so it doesn't really matter to me. :D
 
Effectively its a useless mod, and a dangerous one at that. Modifications should no impede on the quality of your rig. From that second linked one, it seemed he accomplised it easy enough although there is no proof the drive booted up after that. If they could accomplish something that looked like that, with close to normal stablity i would probably look into it if i had an acrylic case, but otherwise my hdd's are well hidden behind its' cage.

As for as hardcore modding goes, don't turn this into a mac elitist fad. All modders should respect one another, but i agree anyone who buys an OEM machine and can't even open the case without geeksquad doesn't belong here, in fact i would spit on them for thinking otherwise.

but overall give me a hard drive that will last, its pointless otherwise unless you want to mount it on your wall and call it art.
 
that's a lot of green for not a lof of space. and you think wd would be able to cut a better window than that...
 
Seran wrap is your best friend if trying to do this mod on your own, duh.

You don't have to leave the platters totally exposed for long periods of time while you prepare your acrylic lid.


But still, $350 for that drive is rediculous. I thought the original Raptors were expensive. Ayyyye.
 
_Korruption_ said:
Eh, lots of things are "pre-modded" these days... kids will install this stuff into their computers then call themselves "hardcore". :p

Ha, the only thing hardcore about the clear raptorX is the hardcore hole in my wallet if I purchased it.

Gimme function over form. Then make it somewhat cost effective.
 
Wang191 said:
:Sniff: THIS GUY?
Linear is a god at modding, or close to it. He is not a "this guy".

I remember when linear perfected that mod....or at least shared it with the [H]. Right after he modded that I do believe he stated that he doesn't keep anything critically important on that drive tho.

damn straight
 
not worth the extra 50 dollars for just a window im never gonna see or look at .. but it is cool .. id just get the enterprise edition
 
I think it'll look perfect in my QPack. The right side window has a clear veiw of the HDDs, so I could buy just one and it would look tight. Not to mention, my QPack's painted black on the inside, much like this Raptor. If it were cheaper, I might plunk down the cash.
 
This is the same thing that happened when the first company made a pre-modded case. We had all liked modding our case and we wanted a few things premade so that we didn't have to make everything ourselves. But the second they made a pre modded case everyone said the same things, not worth the money, why buy premod, etc etc. you all know the lines.

Maybe some day they'll drop in price and somone can incorporate it in a cool mod.

For now i think the real modders will just make their own because well, that's what we do.
I know i wouldn't touch a pre-modded case and i probably won't ever touch a pre-moded harddrive. But the fact that a company is making it shows that we're having an influence.
 
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