Western Digital Corp., the globe's No. 1 maker of hard drives, has introduced the world's highest-performing consumer-class external HDD system that utilizes two fastest consumer hard drives available today along with Thunderbolt interface. The new My Book VelociRaptor Duo dual-drive storage system can truly show its potential on Thunderbolt-equipped Apple Macintosh systems. In fact, currently the drive is only officially compatible with Macs.

My Book VelociRaptor Duo provides ultimate speed and performance with two 1TB 10000rpm WD VelociRaptor drives along with two Thunderbolt ports. According to WD, the new external storage solution delivers solid state drive (SSD)-like data transfer rates of up to 400MB/s for greater work-flow productivity. The dual-drive storage system offers RAID 0 for performance or RAID 1 for protection, while the twin Thunderbolt ports offer daisy-chaining multiple My Book VelociRaptor Duo drives and other high performance peripherals without impacting data transfer speeds or performance.

The new WD VelociRaptor (DHTZ- and HHTZ-series) hard drives are likely based on one or two 500GB 2.5" platters and provide 250GB, 500GB or 1TB capacities. The novelties boast with 10 000rpm spindle speed, Serial ATA 6Gb/s interface, 64MB of cache as well as advanced format technology that enabled increased areal densities and thus boosts performance. As previously, the VelociRaptor features NoTouch ramp load technology, IcePack mounting frame, pre-emptive wear leveling tech and so on. The manufacturer declares 200MB/s sustained host to drive transfer speed, around 3ms latency and up to 5.8W power consumption.

“The My Book VelociRaptor Duo is the fastest and most reliable high performance consumer storage device on the market today. Creative professionals now have access to a super-charged storage drive that will keep pace with even the most demanding projects. Daisy-chaining multiple My Book VelociRaptor Duo devices together offer even greater speed, more capacity and flexibility,” said Jody Bradshaw, senior director of WD’s consumer storage solutions group.

Additional features found on the My Book VelociRaptor Duo dual-drive storage system include out-of-the-box compatibility with Apple Time Machine and HFS + Journaled for Mac computers; capability for multi-stream workflows; and a 3-year limited warranty.

The My Book VelociRaptor Duo also comes complete with a Thunderbolt cable in the box and is user-serviceable. The My Book VelociRaptor Duo dual-drive storage system is currently available at select U.S. retailers and online starting at $899.99 MSRP.

Tags: Western Digital, WD, MyBook, MyBook Duo, HDD