Hitachi one-ups WD with industry-first 2TB 7200RPM 3.5-inch hard drive
By Darren Murph 
posted August 6th 2009 3:01AM
posted August 6th 2009 3:01AM
HITACHI GST SHIPS THE INDUSTRY'S FIRST TWO TERABYTE
7200 RPM DESKTOP HARD DISK DRIVE
New 3.5-Inch Deskstar 7K2000 Marks a New Milestone Geared to Meet the Insatiable Performance and Capacity Needs of Desktop Users
SAN JOSE, Calif. – August 6, 2009 – Continuing its tradition of being first-to-market with industry leading hard drives, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that it is now shipping the world's first, two terabyte (2TB), 7200 RPM hard disk drive (HDD). The new, colossal, 2TB Deskstar™ 7K2000 blends high performance and high capacity with low power and other eco-friendly features designed to enable Energy-Star rated computers and other high performance desktop systems.
Leveraging a solid track record for reliability, the new Deskstar 7K2000 is now in its fourth-generation using the company's unique five-platter design with relaxed bit density and proven perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. Couple this with an ultra-quiet operation, a 32MB cache and a 3Gb/s SATA interface, and the new Deskstar 7K2000 is the ideal desktop drive for power users, gamers or anyone looking for a big, fast hard drive.
"The new Deskstar 7K2000 reflects our ongoing commitment to provide customers, channel partners and OEMs with proven, reliable solutions for enabling desktop computers, gaming systems, workstations and desktop RAID arrays," said Brendan Collins, vice president of marketing, Hitachi GST. "At Hitachi, we continue to offer one of the broadest product lines in the world with a focus on delivering industry-leading hard drives that meet the reliability, performance, capacity and power needs of a variety of traditional and emerging market segments."
"The demand for higher capacity disk drives is being fueled by the persistent growth of digital information generated by consumers and organizations alike," said John Rydning, research director for hard disk drives at IDC. "With the introduction of the industry's first 7200 RPM, 2TB HDD, Hitachi GST is building a tradition of time-to-market leadership for delivering the biggest and fastest disk drives for capacity-hungry PC users, given it was also the first HDD vendor to ship a 1TB HDD, the Deskstar 7K1000, in early 2007."
In addition to the new 2TB Deskstar 7K2000, Hitachi GST is also refreshing its high-volume desktop hard drive family. The new 7200 RPM Deskstar 7K1000.C family will deliver up to 500GB per platter, and will come in capacities of 160GB to 1TB, hitting the capacity and performance sweet spots for mainstream desktop applications. Like previous generations, both the 7K2000 and 7K1000.C Hitachi Deskstar drives feature industry-standard 512-byte sector formatting, a patented ramp load/unload design to increase shock protection, and Thermal Fly-height Control (TFC) to maintain a consistent fly-height during the read/write process for added data reliability. Volume production and worldwide availability of the new Deskstar 7K1000.C will begin in the current quarter.
Leveraging the company's eighth-generation power management technology, including power-saving innovations like the Hitachi Voltage Efficiency Regulator (HiVERT™), the Deskstar 7K2000 and 7K1000.C deliver outstanding power management and thermal emissions to help manufacturers meet energy compliance targets for their computer systems and storage-based solutions. For example, the new Deskstar 7K2000 offers 10 percent idle power savings over previous generations, and on a watt-per-GB basis, idle power has improved more than 120 percent. The new Deskstar 7K1000.C is expected to deliver best-in-class power efficiency at 4.4 watts or less idle power, which is the best in the industry when compared to current generation, competing desktop drives.
In addition to being RoHS compliant and low in power, all new Deskstar drives are now Halogen free across the entire family, earning both the Deskstar 7K2000 and 7K1000.C the Hitachi EcoTrac™ classification.
For more information about the Hitachi GST Deskstar 7K2000 and 7K1000.C hard drives, please visit www.hitachigst.com/deskstar.
About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) develops advanced hard disk drives, enterprise-class solid state drives, and innovative external storage solutions and services used to store, preserve and manage the world's most valued data. Founded by the pioneers of hard drives, Hitachi GST provides high-value storage for a broad range of market segments, including Enterprise, Desktop, Mobile Computing, Consumer Electronics and Personal Storage. Hitachi GST was established in 2003 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachigst.com.
About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 400,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2008 (ended March 31, 2009) consolidated revenues totaled 10,000 billion yen ($102.0 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials, logistics and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.
I've been waiting for this!
me too!
This only means that 2TB hdd prices are going to drop more and more since we now have 3 manufactures making 2TB HDD's, yay for everyone...
Me and my PS3 like this alot. woot for endless storage of games...
The PS3 uses 2.5" drives - you've got a long wait ahead of you if you want to get 2TB in there
Let's be clear--we're STILL waiting for this. If they're were really shipping, you'd be able to buy it. And if you troll around a bit you'll find you can't. It isn't even listed by Hitachi on their Where to Buy page. No google hits, no yahoo, no bing, not on newegg, etc etc.
And since Seagate ANNOUNCED their Constellation ES 2TB 7,200 rpm drives some time back, for delivery in Q3 (e.g. some time soon), it isn't at all clear that Hitachi is actually going to be first here. Announcing means NOTHING.
Let's be clear about this--we're STILL waiting for this. Unless you can find it available somewhere I can't, its NOT available yet. Which means that Hitachi may or may not be first to deliver a 7,200 rpm 2TB drive. Seagate announced their Constellation ES 7,200rpm 2TB drive AGES AGO, for delivery in Q3 (e.g. any time now), so who'll be first available drive in the US isn't actually clear yet.
ANNOUNCING stuff is easy. And yeah I know it says they're shipping, but if that were true there would be prices, and you'd be able to at least pre-order the things.
Mmm 2Tb
That give me some Video storage room
"video storage" -- is that a fancy description for porn collection?
Seriously... Porn collection jokes are getting old. Get some new material.
I've only got 150 gigs left on my 1.5Tb. Time for an upgrade maybe?
But, but, but.. Bill Gates said that 64kb ought to be enough for everyone.
@ no_one
First off, Bill Gates never said this.
Secondly, the subject was memory (RAM), and the amount was 640KB, and not 64kb.
Lastly, I thought about eating waffles today.
The above points should CLEARLY illustrate that you were wrong.
@no_one
Sad attempt at taking my name
@VeganFreak
You make a great point with the waffles. I think I'm going to have some myself
I had waffles for breakfast 8D
"I have to say that in 1981, making those decisions, I felt like I was providing enough freedom for 10 years. That is, a move from 64k to 640k felt like something that would last a great deal of time. Well, it didn't - it took about only 6 years before people started to see that as a real problem."
- Bill Gates on his 640k quote.
Source: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/media/1989%20Bill%20Gates%20Talk%20on%20Microsoft.html
i ate your sisters waffles. :)
Hi Darren. (mwuaha)
2TB. WOW.
nice
I could be mistaken but I just upgraded my system with a used WD 2TB 7200RPM 32MB SATA II hard drive ( Model WD20EADS), about 3 weeks ago. Got it off ebay used for $170.
Don't believe me check this link
http://www.provantage.com/western-digital-wd20eads~7WNDG2NJ.htm
Thats what I'm wondering, I can't see how this is different from the WD... or is that the point? :\
Sorry but that drive is not 7200RPM. It is mislabeled. In fact, Western Digital has never given the spindle rate for that drive. They've simply stated it is between 5400RPM and 7200RPM, most efforts in pinning it down put it closer to the below 6000RPM area.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136344&Tpk=WD20EADS
Plus WD themselves have it marked as such on their site.
Sorry but... you got ripped off.
Skyring:
Yeah, I thought that might have been the case, there was no mention of the drives speed in the other article.
Ok maybe you are right, and its mis labeled. However 7200 doesn't mean crap without some benchmarks. I ran HD Tach on my WD 2TB drive and got 82.9 MB/s average read speed. Which isn't too bad when comparing it to my Dual 15K SAS drives in RAID 0 that get 186.5 MB/s.
I wouldn't say he got ripped off, the purpose of these drives is clearly mass storage, and it sounds like he got a good price.
A larger capacity drive will have an edge in straight read/write due to higher data density, though obviously not one that will come close to beating two drives in RAID 0 with more than double the RPM. Of course, I wouldn't suggest running 15k drives in RAID 0 since they're a bit temperamental to pretty much anything, but, to each their own.
It's listed as between 5400 and 7200 because the whole point is that it dynamically changes to save power. The GreenPower drives are about staying quiet/cool while using less power. They succeed at that, at the cost of performance (which isn't that much worse than other drives due to the higher areal density).
Hitachi's claims here are technically correct (it's the first 7200RPM drive in that no existing 2TB drive operates exclusively at 7200RPM), but their claims are misleading at best.
Short: Hitachi is bullshitting, they're not the first.
Long: Hitachi is stretching the truth, they're technically the first, but not in the sense that they're leading you to believe.
Adam Zey... the WD drive never reaches 7200RPM.
Also, a higher spindle rate means a lower latency. Which is a big deal in normal usage.
The WD drives DON'T change speeds. People have done frequency plots and everything, look it up. They're 5400rpm drives, period.
I care more about power consumption than speed for bulk storage. Of course the workstations must have SSD or velociraptors.
Because velociraptors are great with power consumption right?
Nothing says Al Gore friendly like 15000rpm...
Well good thing VelociRaptor are 10,000rpm drives, I would hate to see Al Gore go all Manbearpig on them.
If you actually cared about bulk storage power consumption and not about speed you'd store stuff on tape. The relative draw of HDDs is pointless when you use them for purposes that allows them to spin down most of the time. But it's nice to see you came here to brag about how your workstations apparently use velociraptors and SSDs.
So what are the fail rates on 5 platter drives vs regular 2-3 platter designs.
the title says first 7200rpm drive guys! the other 2tb drives are 5400rpm drives.
Thanks for reading. Bonus points for you, good sir!
First time reading hmm? It must feel good doesnt it? I remember my first time...
sigh...it just doesnt excite me like it used to.
Trey, your not reading the right stuff.
Hello Slough Erotic Fiction Library...
Not enough space for me yet.
I want 2 of them!
You need two. One to back up the first one. Hate to lose all that stuff if the drive crashes.
...cool, now I can almost store my porn collection on one drive...
:-)
I am buying two of these HDDs and coming right over to your place!! Address please? :-P
Great but how loud is it?
I think this is the first time I've been excited about a 3.5 Inch.
My wife used to get excited about my 3.5 inch...
obvious joke... sorry.
That's not much to get excited about. She must have very low standards...
Another Deathstar has been released!
That's the official Hitachi press release: Now you can lose even more data with a single fail.
Or fail for being silly enough to 'lose' that much data.
Couch! mirror cough!
Would formatting or seeking on a SSD be more fast I will assume? That is exactly why I dont buy 2 TB drives, they take FOREVER to do maintenence on, chkdsk, formatting, data transfers for backups. Any info?