10K RPM IDE (Sort of)

[Jonathan Hutchins]

We talked about the 10K RPM IDE drive a while back.  According to IDC, 
Western Digital is first out:

"10,000-rpm spindle speed, 1.2 million hours mean time between failures 
and a 5.2-msec average seek time. The Raptor also carries a five-year 
warranty. 

The 36GB drive will retail for $160, which compares favorably with SCSI 
drives of the same capacity, which average about $200." 

http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=787168

Standard ATA drives are described as costing $70 (about right for that 
capacity), this appears to be Serial ATA so you can't just plug it into 
your existing system.

The article says the price difference is mostly due to the testing, IDE 
drives being batch-tested and SCSI or Firewire drives being tested 
individually.  Also, they had to shrink the platter size slightly to 
achieve the 10K speed - which contradicts the point that SCSI and IDE 
drives are typically the same hardware with different electronics.

Hey, its a press release, you want technical accuracy look for IBM 
Whitepapers.

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