In the computer industry rarely is there ever one well defined leader. Yet when it comes to enthusiast hard drives, Western Digital is clearly in front. It's Raptor series are fast Serial ATA desktop hard drives that have caught the attention of enthusiasts for all the right reasons. The RaptorX in particular for its visual and performance attributes.

With the 150GB Western Digital RaptorX WD1500AHFD, WD deals with the biggest criticism that affected its Raptor line, namely the lack of storage space.

A hard drive of 150GB isn't big by any means, but you can comfortably install the operating system like Microsoft Windows Vista along with all supporting applications without resorting to a slower secondary hard drive.

As an enterprise class hard drive, the 150GB Western Digital RaptorX WD1500AHFD comes with a enterprise class price of $206 CDN ($196 USD, £96 GBP). When you compare with other hard drives in the 150GB RaptorX's class it's actually not too bad... but it's more than what desktop users are used to paying.

The read, write and seek times of the 150GB Western Digital RaptorX WD1500AHFD are half that of high end desktop 7200 RPM drives (ie. much faster) and that alone should tell you that the RaptorX is quick. Of course with a 10,000 RPM rating means the WD RaptorX is more audible than a standard hard drive, but to be fair once the drive is behind the walls of a case it is not very noticeable.

The RaptorX WD1500AHFD is equipped with both Serial ATA and molex power connectors, so it is a good candidate for users with older power supplies that lack SATA power adapters.

The plastic window on the RaptorX WD1500AHFD is a defining element to this hard drive, and there is nothing else like it around. For the computer enthusiast with everything, a RaptorX is that one piece of kit which can really trick a PC out.

During operating the 150GB Western Digital RaptorX WD1500AHFD can get quite warm and you won't want to stack other hard drives close to the RaptorX. Having good system airflow is also recommended!

The 150GB Western Digital RaptorX WD1500AHFD was obviously fast and we're quite surprised that it performed quite a bit better than the 74GB WD Raptor.

If you're a performance user and want your system to be more responsive, the 150GB WD RaptorX WD1500AHFD should definitely be on the list of things to upgrade - with or without the window. As a Raptor user, I can say that I definitely noticed a speed increase from moving from regular desktop 7200 RPM HDDs.

Hardcore PC users need apply only, and the 150GB WD RaptorX WD1500AHFD is not for everyone. The price will turn off some users, but if you've built an ultimate gaming rig there's nothing else on the SATA desktop market that can match the RaptorX.