Western Digital busts out two-platter 640GB 3.5-inch hard drives

Sure, you've been able to score a four-platter 1TB hard drive for over a year now, but the cooler, quieter, economical and speedy two-platter hard drive has always been a bit of a sweet spot for storage, and Western Digital has finally hit that mark with its new WD Caviar SE16 640GB SATA drive. The 3.5-inch disks hold two 320GB platters, boast 3GB-per-second transfer rates, and are available now for $140.

[Via Gearlog]

[Patriks7 @ Mar 19th 2008 12:26PM]

i so wish i could somehow stick that in my laptop :x

[Casper42 @ Mar 19th 2008 12:26PM]

According to the rule of around 20c/GB the 500GB and 750GB drives seem to have right now, this should really cost around $125-$130.

But since no one pays retail, it probably will be when it hits your favorite e-tailer.

[Zack Mahdavi @ Mar 19th 2008 1:10PM]

You can actually get it for $123.99 with free 3 day shipping at ChiefValue.com (Newegg-owned).

http://www.chiefvalue.com/product-_-productdetails.cv_-_item--CE00153939010060

[Slawek @ Mar 19th 2008 1:20PM]

I'm only old enough to remember when it was $2/GB.

[bobartig @ Mar 19th 2008 4:19PM]

@Slawek: I remember my first computer with a hard drive, the Mac SE with a whopping 20 MB HDD. It was huge. You couldn't fill the damned thing!

On a more on topic note, Samsung's SpinPoint series is reportedly using similar capacity platters for a 2 platter 500 GB drive (the other 166 GB is disabled), and a 3 platter 1 TB drive.

[Khris @ Mar 19th 2008 12:27PM]

Come to Papa!

[AlphaTeam @ Mar 19th 2008 12:33PM]

So when are the 5 platter 1.6 TB drives coming out?

[Chuckles McGee @ Mar 19th 2008 1:13PM]

I think the 1480GB 4 platter drives are a bit closer.

[jakep_82 @ Mar 19th 2008 1:36PM]

@Chuckles McGee

320*4=1280

[Chuckles McGee @ Mar 19th 2008 4:32PM]

Carry the two... ah yes...

[Seminole @ Mar 19th 2008 12:33PM]

I'm putting this baby in my PS3

[PeterF @ Mar 19th 2008 12:59PM]

no you aren't. this is 3.5", PS3 uses 2.5"

[Allen @ Mar 19th 2008 1:09PM]

@Peter:

That doesn't stop some people. Just leave it outside the slot and possibly use longer cabling.

[bjorn_ahlm @ Mar 19th 2008 1:42PM]

Well, then it's not IN the PS3.

[crho85 @ Mar 19th 2008 2:58PM]

*wah wah waaaaaaaah trumpet sound*

[Seminole @ Mar 19th 2008 3:23PM]

Aw man, thanks for the info PeterF. I never really explored the option to increase the space till I checked my memory and I only have 2 gigs left.

[Dubb @ Mar 19th 2008 4:12PM]

@Seminole - Please don't refer to your remaining hard drive space as "memory". It makes baby Jesus cry...

[bobartig @ Mar 19th 2008 4:28PM]

@Dubb: it does indeed make little 8 lb. 4 oz. Baby Jesus cry, but unfortunately, it is not incorrect. Hard disks do have memory, just not random access memory.

Eating bacon makes Baby Moses cry, but I still do it.

[fh @ Mar 19th 2008 12:34PM]

This has already been available for a few weeks, and Newegg has it for $129.

[Tom @ Mar 19th 2008 12:38PM]

Why bother saying "3GB-per-second transfer rates"? Is that really useful information? How about stating the real transfer rate, which is 121.5MB/sec according to the specs page for this drive.

[www.ssdforums.com @ Mar 19th 2008 2:18PM]

That's their 'burst rate' which is basically just the cache helping the marketing department.

[y3k.nik @ Mar 19th 2008 12:41PM]

how dense can these hdds get really?

Every other day, you see a news of more GBs being stuck into the same size. You have to wonder, how much more can you cramp into a small disks like that?

[Bigsby @ Mar 19th 2008 2:15PM]

I don't know, They've still got a long way to go, they're still not anywhere near as dense as some people I know. One day though, one day.

[Alexis @ Mar 19th 2008 12:44PM]

Yeah,

It's been available for a while.

I've actually just ordered one from Newegg yesterday!

[W @ Mar 19th 2008 12:55PM]

I've had 3 of them for about 2 weeks... and the speeds I'm getting are a bit above 90mb/sec average. Very cool and quiet as well.

[mushy @ Mar 19th 2008 12:59PM]

Ummm, these have been out for several weeks now. You can get them on the Egg for $130.

[SNP @ Mar 19th 2008 1:45PM]

I thought Samsung has their 3-platter 1TB drive out for a few months now so why is this news?

[Michael Scrip @ Mar 19th 2008 1:49PM]

This will be the next drive I purchase. I think 640GB is enough. With all the advances this drive makes with cooling and quietness... I don't think I'll ever buy another drive with more than 2 platters. This drive seems like it's hit the sweet spot.

[Zzephyr @ Mar 19th 2008 1:55PM]

Kewl - imagine how fast you can surf the web when they come out with an eight platter model.

[octoberasian @ Mar 19th 2008 2:47PM]

This has been on sale on NewEgg.com for a few weeks now for $129.99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

I may buy one.

[BigD145 @ Mar 19th 2008 4:50PM]

You'd buy one if you could, but you can't. Newegg delisted the drive.

[fh @ Mar 19th 2008 5:41PM]

Good thing I bought one two weeks ago ;)

[Neg2LED @ Mar 19th 2008 6:21PM]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

Thats why it got delisted, FOOL!

[Evan @ Mar 19th 2008 3:59PM]

I remember when you could buy 10mb HDs...

[bobartig @ Mar 19th 2008 4:33PM]

A physics prof of mine, who is very brilliant, and whose career predated solid state circuitry, would tell stories about the earliest computer catalogs, where they showed a photo of 10-kilobytes either disk or ram module (can't recall which), but it advertised that it only took two men to carry it!

[futurepastnow @ Mar 19th 2008 5:04PM]

I bought one of those a week ago from Newegg for $130. So far it's the fastest, quietest, coolest-running hard drive I've ever owned.

[Neg2LED @ Mar 19th 2008 6:23PM]

Woah, wait whaT? they were active yesterday....

[happy_penguin @ Mar 20th 2008 1:11AM]

Density, density. Keep on bringing it and keep on bringing it cheap.