Western Digital's Raptor WD360GD is perhaps the most interesting drive in this comparison because it brings 10K RPM technology and Serial ATA together. Serial ATA itself is a relatively new standard, making the Raptor WD360GD especially cutting-edge. The real question will be whether 10K-RPM Serial ATA can run with its 10K-RPM SCSI competition in enterprise environments, or whether the technology is better suited for enthusiasts and budget-conscious IT managers.

A bargain-basement price tag, at least when compared with 10K-RPM SCSI drives, certainly makes the Raptor WD360GD the most affordable 10K-RPM drive we'll be looking at today. The fact that its Serial ATA port makes it compatible with just about every high-end desktop motherboard released in the last few months should help, too.

Although it's a Serial ATA drive, the Raptor WD360GD also supports standard 4-pin MOLEX power connectors, which means users won't need a power supply upgrade or MOLEX adapter to get the drive running. Among competing SATA drives, Maxtor's Serial ATA DiamondMax Plus 9 is also backward-compatible with 4-pin MOLEX power, but Seagate's Serial ATA Barracuda V is not.

Being a relatively new player at the Serial ATA and 10K RPM game, Western Digital is only offering the Raptor WD360GD in a 37GB size. The drive uses a single platter, so larger capacity versions could theoretically be offered in the future. For now, however, the Raptor WD360GD seems looks like a poor choice for those looking to maximize their storage capacity potential—at least until you get into multi-drive RAID arrays.

Like its popular line of "JB" IDE hard drives, Western Digital's Raptor WD360GD features 8MB of cache. All the 10K-RPM drives we're looking at today feature 8MB caches, which makes me wonder if perhaps it's time for 16MB or larger caches to make an appearance. After all, the extra cache memory would be one more way for drive manufacturers to differentiate their products, and it could offer better performance in certain applications.

Western Digital's "Special Edition" ATA drives carry a three-year warranty, which I applaud. With the Raptor WD360GD, Western Digital has upped the ante by offering a five-year warranty, just like the 10K-RPM SCSI drives we're looking at today. Five years is the longest warranty period available for Serial ATA drives, highlighting the Raptor WD360GD's suitability for enterprise environments. Just like Seagate's Cheetah 10K.6 SCSI drive, the Raptor WD360GD has a MTBF of 1,200,000 hours.