WD ships 2.5-inch 640GB standard 9.5mm-height laptop drive

Monkey see, monkey do -- ain't that right? Whatever the case, we're stoked to see one more player in the 2.5-inch 640GB game, with Seagate, Samsung and Toshiba recently introducing versions of their own. Western Digital's iteration -- the Scorpio Blue 640 -- sports a luscious standard 9.5mm-height package, which should fit just fine within pretty much any laptop out there. WD also claims that this HDD consumes some 30 percent less power than the previous generation Scorpio Blue, though the 5400RPM spindle speed certainly won't impress the performance junkies in the crowd. Look for it to slide into your next portable for $149.

[Via HotHardware]

[TruUnknowN Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:21PM]

PS3 upgrade FTW?

[CaramelZappa Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:45PM]

I really wish I could put an HDD like this on my 360.

[Professor Kaos Posted Sep 9th 2009 10:57PM]

Daniel, what the hell is your problem?

[simbadogg Posted Sep 9th 2009 11:56PM]

for sure. whenever i replace my ps3 phat w/ a slim, i'm gonna swap the 120 gb...or w/e size i get w/ something like this. then just get a hard drive enclosure for the original ps3 drive, instant portable HD. But seriously...640 for 150, thats a great deal. I'd expect to find it on sale circa 100 bucks come the holiday season.

[Ignatius Posted Sep 10th 2009 1:41AM]

What could you possibly do with 640GB of space on a 360?

Unless you install every single game available for the 360 or something... O.o

[Some Guy On The Internet Posted Sep 10th 2009 3:30AM]

@ingnatus

music/movies/pictures for starters (Don't get me wrong streaming is nice, but a on disk copy is nicer.), then add the usual fair like game demos, and of course download a few xbox originals, maybe some drive installs.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2009 4:05AM]

You can hook up an external hdd to the 360 instead if you wanted to store lots of video to watch on it, that way you could use standard size drives instead of laptop size, and have much more space available. Though a hack to use >120GB drive would be nice. I assume the problem is that microsoft would see it easily and ban people for some reason or another.

If using an external drive, use a HFS+ file system, it gets around file size limitation of FAT32 which can come up with HD quality video.

[YoYoYo Posted Sep 11th 2009 6:18AM]

Of course, the main application for the Playstation 3 remains a bit, how you say, pie-in-the-sky-y:
http://exophase.com/psp/transfer-blu-ray-movies-from-ps3-to-psp-2973.htm
http://exophase.com/ps3/future-ps3-firmware-to-support-managed-copy-4083.htm

[DougieBear Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:21PM]

Could be whats in that new dell.

[Oli D Posted Sep 10th 2009 3:02AM]

I think that would be cutting things a little bit fine, i think that dell will use a super slim SSD or 1.8" 4200rpm drive.

I hope it doesnt because those things suck even in an Ipod...

[malexandria1 Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:22PM]

I know this probably isn't the site to ask, but I will anyway - since this article is about external laptop drives. I purchased a 320 Seagate Drive to put into my PS3, but it won't recognize the hard drive until I format it Fat32. How do you format a blank External Laptop drive? I don't have anyway of connecting it to externally to my laptop and I don't want to go through the hassle of swapping it out just to format it, then putting it back into the PS3. Is there an easy way to do this? I'm assuming I'd need an enclosure to do it with.

[WilliamTM Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:24PM]

A USB enclosure would be your best bet, yes.

[Skywiley Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:35PM]

If you have a desktop with sata you should be able to plug it in and format it that way.

[Cash9007 Posted Sep 9th 2009 9:35PM]

I use the single bay version of this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9419596&type=product&id=1218102199901

It connects to your computer through USB 2.0 or eSATA (both cables included, thankfully) and accepts both 3.5" and 2.5" HDD's. I think I paid 30-40 bucks in-store 6 months ago, and I use the heck out of it, to clone or format drives, run diagnostics etc. It is so much easier then opening my case and plugging a drive into my PSU and motherboard.

[blash Posted Sep 9th 2009 11:19PM]

Dude... I dunno what laptop you have but for most Wintel machines it's usually just a single screw removal to open a tab and slide the drive out.

1) Go online,
2) Download and burn a Linux LiveCD,
3) take out your system hard drive,
4) put in the blank hard drive,
5) put in the Linux LiveCD,
6) boot to Linux off the CD,
7) have Linux format the drive
8) shut down your computer and take out the LiveCD
9) take out the blank hard drive and put in your PS3
10) screw your system drive back into your laptop

and done... easy cakes

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2009 9:12AM]

Yep, swapping it is infact the easiest thing to do.

Put in an XP cd or something and run the setup, format it to FAT32, and then cancel it.

[WilliamTM Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:23PM]

This is relevant to my interests. In other words, I'm interested. Annoyingly, it's probably going to be priced at £149 in the UK. *sigh*

[tobz1000 Posted Sep 9th 2009 9:16PM]

Sounds about right. I almost feel like there's something wrong if I'm not being ripped off these days.

[roosta Posted Sep 9th 2009 11:08PM]

i hate companies that have never heard of an exchange rate.

[Oli D Posted Sep 10th 2009 3:27AM]

The worst thing is when English companies import Chinese/Japanese products from America.

You have to pay for two plane tickets and you get diddled on the exchange rate.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:29PM]

I feel like small (physically) HDDs that get upgrades into the TB range are absolutely pointless now. Everyone who needs space like that (that I know) has a dedicated storage solution for storing things in one spot and then a backup. For instance, I have one internal 1.5TB on my media PC and one external for backup. Then all my other PCs (especially laptops, which can't hold that much) use that for their media. If I want to bring something with me, I just copy it for the time being.

640GB... I mean, if your entire collection of everything was that size and you were upgrading around your laptop, sure. But who wants to carry all of their media around with them? Too dangerous. I am always much much more interested with the 3.5" guys climb higher and get cheaper. That has more of an impact.

[CaramelZappa Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:40PM]

For me it would be nice to have an HDD on something like the PS3, so you can keep all of your movies and music on it.

[CaramelZappa Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:48PM]

Also, a lot of people have laptops and no desktop, and it's nice to be able to carry all that data around with you (especially if it's for your work) without the need for an external or networked drive. Bigger drives are obviously better value for home and backup use, but there will always be a place for small drives with a lot of storage.

[Jonny Posted Sep 9th 2009 9:04PM]

Not quite.

A lot of 17" laptops can hold two of these, and if you're going on a long trip or just want to have all of your content with you to go wherever you go with your laptop, its really convenient.

[blash Posted Sep 9th 2009 11:22PM]

It's infeasible for some of us to own desktops. I myself am a college student who travels often (home for breaks, college for classes, study abroad) and often for weeks at a time if not longer. It's crazy expensive to keep shipping a desktop around, and SFF rigs aren't quite small enough for me. I need a laptop that I can just slot into a backpack and bring onboard the plane - and as an enthusiast just like you, I have the same storage requirements. Large enclosures don't make sense for me because of that either.

[Oli D Posted Sep 10th 2009 3:13AM]

I have all my media on my laptop, then i just have multiple backups shared with desktops.

What happens if i remember a song from 1999 and want to listen to it when im riding a horse?

(Fictional situation)

[reallynotnick Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:32PM]

And here I was just enjoying my 500GB WD Blue, oh well I only paid like $90 for it and it is so over kill for my needs. Just wouldn't mind having the higher density platters for faster speed and the fact that is uses less energy is always nice.
I'm guessing this 500GB will be the last HDD I will have and the next upgrade will be a cheap SSD.

[KAL326 Posted Sep 9th 2009 9:47PM]

500GB 7200rpm for 120's isn't overkill, I have two!

[CaramelZappa Posted Sep 9th 2009 8:35PM]

Probably gonna pick one up for my laptop, and move the laptops 320gb over to my ps3. Not terribly priced at all.

[Dafrety Posted Sep 9th 2009 9:14PM]

I'm very tempted to do the same, however my 320 GB drive has a 7200 RPM speed. I don't know if this would be a downgrade or what.

[bakedbeans6 Posted Sep 9th 2009 9:40PM]

@ Dafrety

You might actually see a perfomance increase, but the tradeoff is a little more heat coming out of your PS3.

Might I direct you to: http://playstation.joystiq.com/2007/10/02/7200-rpm-hdd-may-increase-your-ps3s-performance/

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2009 9:31PM]

Not really worth it IMO unless it's 7,200 rpm. I can deal with a faster,smaller capacity drive and just keep my data on a 500 gig Western Digital external usb Passport, those things are great.

[tacitus Posted Sep 9th 2009 10:16PM]

The best thing about the new 2.5-inch 640GB drives is that the 500GB drives will lose their premium pricing.

[sithkhan Posted Sep 9th 2009 10:31PM]

The question I have is: Can you shoehorn it into a 4th gen iPod?

[Professor Kaos Posted Sep 9th 2009 10:58PM]

YES, YES you can, will it work afterwards? Probably not.

[PCBen Posted Sep 9th 2009 11:08PM]

iPod's with HDD's use 1.8" form factor drives - so no (additionally, the connector types aren't the same either). So unless you want to make yourself a huge back panel for your iPod and hack together a custom connector - nope.

[Oli D Posted Sep 10th 2009 3:25AM]

I have seen a nice giant ipod build, made using a 2.5" drive and upscaled components to look like a classic.

Its not considerably bigger than the proper ipod, but its pocketability that counts.

Next is 3.5" Giant ipod.

(And then one with a 5.25" tape drive....)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 10th 2009 2:11AM]

finally i can upgrade in my Archos 504 from 160 to 650 WOW:-)

[Oli D Posted Sep 10th 2009 3:26AM]

Um... 640.