Western Digital launches 7200RPM Scorpio Black laptop HDD

WD has been shipping a 320GB laptop hard drive for months now, but its latest line of alternatives features a few niceties reserved for the Scorpio Black label. Available in 80/120/160/250/320GB sizes, the 2.5-inch drive boasts a 7200RPM spin speed, SATA interface and 16MB of cache. The units are destined for use in OEM systems as well as by end-users looking to upgrade their current rig, and beyond the specs listed above, you'll also find IntelliSeek, SecurePark, ShockGuard and WhisperDrive technologies alongside a built-in free-fall sensor. The whole lot is available now, with the 320GB edition topping out at $249.

[Via I4U News]

[jak0b @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:28PM]

so when will we be able to buy this? In 2009???

[JMMGoalster @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:29PM]

i think this explains it:

"The whole lot is available now, with the 320GB edition topping out at $249."

[jak0b @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:34PM]

not everyone on engadget is from USA...
sometimes we get all the new cellphones - but we are still 6 months behind with everything else

[Chris2 @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:47PM]

If you are from the UK, they are available to pre order from overclockers.co.uk

[jak0b @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:53PM]

I'm not from UK I'm from DK ... Denmark... you know... nah I gues you don't...
We still haven't recieved the Apple iPhone or the Asus Eee PC

[lawyer bird @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:11PM]

Jesus...cry a little more then

[jak0b @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:13PM]

Okay then... Buh hu... WA WA WA WAAaa

[Michael LaFramboise @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:52PM]

Somebody call the WHAAAAAmbulance!


:)

[ZeroCorpse @ Jun 2nd 2008 8:00PM]

No, you don't get gadgets at the same time as the States, but since you guys have legalized prostitution and marijuana, I think those more than make up for a slower release schedule for electronics.

Go smoke a joint and bang a hooker and call us when your Eee PC comes in, you crazy Dane, you.

[nikster @ Jun 2nd 2008 10:25PM]

@JMM: "The whole lot is available now, with the 320GB edition topping out at $249". Well. If you take their word for it. Storage manufacturers, it has to be said now, are notorious for "mis-speaking" about availability.

The first thing I check is the WD online store:
http://store.westerndigital.com/product.asp?sku=3852833

Good news: The hard drive shows up in the online store.
Bad news: It's not in stock.
Fact: Not available now.

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:31PM]

expensive....

[Chris2 @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:52PM]

Not for laptop hdds, especially in the UK, they seem to be around £20 cheaper than equivalent Seagate or Hitachi drives

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:54PM]

True, true.

[Jim @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:33PM]

"Scorpio!
He'll sting you with his dreams of power and wealth.
Beware of Scorpio!
His twisted twin obsessions are his plot to rule the world
And his employees' health.
He'll welcome you into his lair,
Like the nobleman welcomes his guest.
With free dental care and a stock plan that helps you invest!
But beware of his generous pensions,
Plus three weeks paid vacation each year,
And on Fridays the lunchroom serves hot dogs and burgers and beer!
He loves German beer!"

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:39PM]

cool but expensive...
also it doesnt say anything about power consumption...7200rpm drives take up more power than the 5400rpm ones...it would be great if they consume power comparable to the 5400 ones

[BFish @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:42PM]

I haven't yet had any WD OEM -harddisk in my laptop that woud have lasted more than a 1.5 years. Just chaned one to Seagate that has 5year warranty :)

[Nick Ritch @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:46PM]

This will be the perfect thing to put in the MSI Wind I plan on getting.

[gabe @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:50PM]

does anyone see that orange/yellow thing on the right sticking the middle finger at us?

[Matt @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:55PM]

But, in true slashdot style, do they run linux?


No jokes... I wonder if these are plagued by the same aggressive power management which makes linux munch up other laptop drives without some botch-up APM settings? My drive is practically dead, despite being forced down to about 10 power cycles per hour.

[haX0r @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:55PM]

I'll keep my RAID array of 150 GB, 1.5 Gb/s, 16 MB Cache, 10,000 RPM
Raptors thank you very much.

[MadMike @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:05PM]

What, no 15k rpm SAS? Epic, Epic, fail pal. ;-)
< /sarcasm>

[Zak @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:08PM]

hax0r (ooh cool name... not) - And that raid fits into a laptop, does it?

Yes this article is about a laptop drive. Thanks for playing.

[haX0r @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:09PM]

lmao...the UltraStar 's are nice but I bought these a while back. They do the job for me. Had two Hitachi's go bad...perhaps I am bias but they are sweet.

[haX0r @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:18PM]

@ Zak...I was making a point on WD drives in general and since with you speed is King right?

Then go SSD: http://www.engadget.com/tag/ssd

0wned.

Thank you come again...

[Peter @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:20PM]

does that fit in your MacBook Pro?

[Zak @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:34PM]

You weren't making a point on WD drives in general. You were making a point about a laptop drive by using a RAID array as an example. That is FAIL. If you wanted to make a point about laptop drives, you should have made a point about laptop drives. Not a RAID array.

And seriously, are you not aware of the price differences between standard drives and SSDs? Not to mention the fact that there are no 320 GB SSDs.

Try again?

[haX0r @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:52PM]

So you now know what I was thinking? Damn you're smart Zak. Didn't know that you read minds too?

SSD's do cost more but they ARE faster. Besides, who needs 320G on your laptop anyways? You can always get a port. drive for your pr0n Zak for half the pricing.

That is when you BUY a TOWER and build it cheaper, better and faster with a RAID of Raptors or UltraStars lamer. Go back school and get your MCSE certs. to show all of your friends how smart you are....

[Zak @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:59PM]

Are you seriously asking who needs 320 GB on their laptop? Yeah you're right, this drive is destined to be a total failure and WD should just give up now. Are you really that dense?

How is buying a tower related in any way to this topic, which is about a laptop drive? You can't put a hardware RAID array in a laptop, so again, you fail.

Maybe you didn't get it the first three times, so here it is again - this is a LAPTOP drive. It's a drive that goes in LAPTOPS. Buying towers and raid arrays have nothing to do with this topic, and it solves nothing for people who need a faster, larger drive in their LAPTOP.

Try again?

[haX0r @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:03PM]

I CAN read unlike you my English 101 failing student.

Go buy your 320g drive so you can can take it to your MCSE class and tell everyone that you have it filled with 220gigs worth of pr0n and games like quake and crysis using up most of your space.

You ARE THE MAN Zak. I bow to you! Now go pay Mozy some money to back up that puppy!

[Zak @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:37PM]

Yes, way to rebut the points I made. Good job on that. I see no proof that you can read, seeing as how you keep bringing up towers and raid arrays in an article about a laptop drive.

And why do you think I'm going to buy that drive? I don't have a laptop to put it in. It is a laptop drive after all. I'm not sure if that was made clear to you yet, but it is. But er, nice try I guess?

Well I am the man. I'll admit to that.

[xValentine @ Jun 3rd 2008 3:11AM]

lol, worst comeback ever ?

[Michael Bafico @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:55PM]

And still no Full Disk Encryption???

[MadMike @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:03PM]

Would 7200-RPM offer any 'real' speed increase over the loss from the FDE? If anything it might perform just like a non-FDE 5400rpm hdd.

I guess any boost is a good thing, right?

[Kaiser-Machead @ Jun 2nd 2008 3:57PM]

As much as I'm praying for SSD's to become truly cost-effective for regular users, the faster and cheaper and higher in capacity that these drives become, the less attractive SSD's are at the moment. These things are fragile, but when they get cheap enough, I could just make backups and swap and still spend less than a comparable solid state. I may have to pick this up though. My Macbook is begging for a bigger and faster volume.

[Macha88 @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:05PM]

Whats this? a spy from gizmodo???

[Kaiser-Machead @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:09PM]

Yes. all ur blog base are belong to us.

[MadMike @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:00PM]

This would make a decent upgrade to my work laptop. I have a 100GB 7200rpm hdd now, and I don't even use 70% of it. But I just like having the biggest and fastest thing around. Fit more pirated MP3's, Movies and TV Shows

[MadMike @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:43PM]

@ Balls:
Depends what corporation you work for... :-D

[kal326 @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:23PM]

Obviously your not working very hard if you only have 30GB of data on the drive, hell Windows alone likes to eat around 10GB. That leaves at most 20GB of pirated content?

[J @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:36PM]

Scorpio Black? They seriously named it Scorpio Black? It's a bloody hard drive, the most mundane component after the floppy disk, not a member of The Revolution.

I'll park it right above my 6-in-1 media reader, "Gemini Magenta".

[Zak @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:41PM]

That would look nice next to my USB christmas tree, codenamed Capricorn Burnt Umber.

[Aeqelae @ Jun 2nd 2008 4:53PM]

Dammit, I regret buying my 320GB SpinPoint a few months ago now, it will be a while before this hits Australia tho I assume.

I'll be looking forward to 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drives.

[Jake @ Jun 2nd 2008 5:00PM]

Nice PS3 upgrade.....

[Wesley Hester @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:10PM]

So true. My PS3 wants!

120GB isn't getting it anymore, especially with 4GB game installs and large PSN game downloads.

[Jake @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:41PM]

Still it's nice to be able to upgrade, I have no problem with full-size games and mandatrory installs, when you offset it against the 360, with costly (and limited) HDD upgrade options, crippling HDD-less core systems, sucky 150MB download limits, and slow load times.

In a year or 2, I will be fitting solidstate SATA drives to my PS3, low heat, zero noize, the Xbots will be buying new consoles (again...)

[Michael @ Jun 2nd 2008 8:53PM]

Can the PS3 handle the speed without any heating problems? I'd love to put this bad boy in. With my 60GB I don't even have enough space for the MGS4 install!

[Peter @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:18PM]

Anyone else notice how even though the press release says its available now, its not?

Prove me wrong... I could really use one now!

[Peter @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:20PM]

way for wd to make me look like an idiot... they must have just now like a second ago updated their site

[kal326 @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:26PM]

Damn, and I just bought a 320GB 5400rpm WD drive this weekend. Granted I only paid $139.99 and thats a lot cheaper then $249.99 for 1800 more rpms and 8 megs more cache.

[MadMike @ Jun 2nd 2008 6:45PM]

Kal, in response to your response to my post.

connected to this:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6752/photoyb6.jpg

0wn3d. :-)

PS.: Those are all 1 TiB drives.