WD Delivers My Book VelociRaptor Duo External HDD System with Thunderbolt Interface and 10K RPM Drives

Not to be outdone in the speed department by the new USB 3.0-capable WD My Passport for Mac external drives, Western Digital’s new My Book VelociRaptor Duo line of external drives boasts a pair of smoking fast Thunderbolt ports.

What’s more, the device has two 10,000 RPM 1TB WD VelociRaptor drives rumbling inside, and between them and the Thunderbolt interface, the unit offers about as much speed as you can get from an external storage system without slapping in an SSD.

In fact, WD states that the My Book VelociRaptor Duo offers transfer rates of 400MBps. According to the company, the unit can transfer almost two dozen full-length HD movies in under 65 seconds; two thousand picture of 5MB in size in under 33 seconds; and five hundred 5MB songs in under 8 seconds.

Other features include RAID 0 and RAID 1 support, Thunderbolt daisy-chaining capabilities so you can add other Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals to the party without suffering speed loss, and compatibility with Time Machine and HFS + Journaled for Macs.

The My Book VelociRaptor Duo starts at $899.99 with a 3-year warranty.

WD My Book VelociRaptor Duo

WD® INTRODUCES ITS FASTEST MY BOOK® EXTERNAL HDD SYSTEM EVER

My Book VelociRaptor™ Duo Combines Extreme Speed of Two 1 TB 10,000 RPM Hard Drives with Revolutionary Thunderbolt™ Technology

IRVINE, Calif. – Aug. 30, 2012 – WD®, a subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC), and a world leader in external storage and connected home solutions, is combining two high-speed technologies to produce one of the fastest and most robust dual-storage systems ever offered. Supported by the Mac OS X operating system, the new My Book® VelociRaptor™ Duo dual-drive storage system becomes the ultimate storage drive for performance hungry Mac computer users and creative professionals.

My Book VelociRaptor Duo provides ultimate speed and performance with two 1 TB 10,000 RPM WD VelociRaptor drives along with two Thunderbolt™ ports. The 2 TB dual-drive storage system is ideal for editing high resolution video, 3D rendering, graphic design, and other demanding digital media applications. This boost in performance delivers solid state drive (SSD) -like data transfer rates of up to 400 MB/s for greater work-flow productivity. The dual-drive storage system offers RAID 0 for performance or RAID 1 for protection; and 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 My Book VelociRaptor Duo also comes complete with a Thunderbolt cable in the box and is user-serviceable.

Photographers, graphic designers and post-production professionals can conduct several high intensity tasks such as video editing and 3D rendering, while completing other graphics-intensive projects. My Book VelociRaptor Duo customers will now have the ability to transfer 22 GB full-length HD movies in less than 65 seconds, 2000 5 MB pictures in less than 33 seconds and over 500 5 MB songs in less than 8 seconds.

“The My Book VelociRaptor Duo is the fastest and most reliable high performance consumer storage device on the market today,” explains Jody Bradshaw, senior director of WD’s consumer storage solutions group. “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 offers even greater speed, more capacity and flexibility.”

While RAID 0 maximizes the drive's speed and capacity, RAID 1 support allows users to create a second copy of their digital content on the drive for added protection, security and peace of mind. The drive also provides a JBOD (just a bunch of disks) option for users running a Windows® operating system on a Mac.
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.

Price and Availability
The My Book VelociRaptor Duo dual-drive storage system is currently available at select U.S. retailers and online at www.wdstore.com, starting at $899.99 MSRP USD. Additional information can be found on the WD website at http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=860.