A few months ago Devin told you about the new VelociRaptors from Western Digital. What he neglected to mention (probably because no one knew it yet) was a significant design flaw [Devin here: can’t believe I missed that, it’s right in the picture]. When the drive was placed in its drive sled, the power and serial connections were in weird spots instead of the lower corner where they usually are. IT peeps were upset because this caused the fast drives not to play nicely in some server setups.
Since everyone was screaming about the situation online, WD has announced a new version. Pretty much all they had to do was move the PCB. Why didn’t they do that the first time?
Frustrated VelociRaptor fans will be happy to hear that the new drives are out now.
Update: WD tells us that the new version was planned when they released the original and that the unusual placement of the SATA/power connectors was not a design flaw. Thanks for letting us know, WD, but whether you call it a design flaw or not it’s still a weird place to put the things and there’s no mention of an upcoming revision in the press release. Personally, I’d be happy to make do with either one; my aging system hard drive could do with an upgrade and I could care less if it’s ports are in the usual spots. What really matters is the performance and VelociRaptors are top of the HDD dogpile right now.