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Toshiba's new 2.5-inch AL13SE hard drives: up to 900GB of 10,500RPM storage
A 2.5-inch drive spinning at speeds up to 10,000RPM? Sure, we've seen it before, but only with enough room for 600GB worth of data. Toshiba, however, has trumped its forebears by upping the capacity to 900GB with its new 2.5-inch HDD, dubbed the AL13SE. 300GB, 450GB and 600GB flavors are offered as well, and all of them spin at up to 10,500RPM and promise a 32% increase in sustained transfer rates over previous-gen drives. Additionally, the AL13SE sends and receives data via a 6Gbps SAS 2.0 connection to make life easier on IT guys than those SATA drives most of us use. Unfortunately, Tosh isn't telling how much the new drives will cost, nor when they'll be available for purchase, but you can dig into all the drive details you can handle in the PR after the break and at the source link below.
WD's 1TB VelociRaptor HDD gets reviewed: substantial gains, moderate price
Western Digital has expanded its line of desktop-grade VelociRaptors to include a 1TB model that's available now for $320, but those kidding themselves with that whole "250GB is enough" thing can get in for as little as $160. Top-level specs include a 10,000RPM spindle rate and a SATA 6Gb/s interface housed within a 3.5-inch heat sink -- useful for lessening the burden of the drive's thermal output on the rest of the machine. Storage Review's tests reveal that sequential read and write transfer speeds top out around 206MB/s, thermal dissipation is excellent with low power consumption, and that random access has improved compared with its 600GB predecessor. They consider the new HDD to be a "very appealing value proposition" and "a blend of high performance, storage, capacity, and low cost." Hot Hardware discovered virtually identical numbers with their tests, but wasn't quite as forgiving when it comes to the cost-per-GB versus 7200RPM hard drives. However, they call this VelociRaptor the "fastest HDD yet" at "nearly double the capacity of previous" model. You can find even more stats and impressions to chew on at the sources below.
Distributor roadmap shows super speedy 900GB, 2.5-inch HDD
Got a hankering for smaller, faster, more capacious magnetic storage? Compellent says you'll get it soon, at long as you're buying for the IT market. According to The Register, the enterprise storage provider listed 900GB, 10,000RPM 2.5-inch hard drives on its product roadmap, as well as 300GB models that spin at 15,000RPM. Sure, we've seen smallish drives with those speeds or that capacity before, and you can get a 600GB, 10,000RPM Velociraptor even in the consumer marketplace, but it seems like the puzzle pieces are all coming together. Quick disclaimer: Compellent doesn't actually make hard drives, but it most certainly sells them, so we'd expect a company in their position to know what's what. That, or they could be making stuff up. Perhaps platter density makes those sizes and capacities inevitable, but we can't pretend that we're not jazzed about the possibilities.
Western Digital VelociRaptor VR200M review roundup: fast, capacious, but no SSD
While it's only a matter of time before solid state storage becomes cheap and reliable enough to replace magnetic media for good, companies like Western Digital are still finding ways to keep those platters a' spinning. Take this new WD VelociRaptor VR200M, for instance. Critics agree that while it doesn't offer anywhere near SSD levels of performance, it's certainly the fastest rotational SATA drive ever tested -- 15 to 30 percent improved over the last generation of VelociRaptors, depending on the benchmark -- and at roughly 50 cents per gigabyte for the three-platter, 600GB WD6000BLHX ($329), it offers more capacity than any SSD you could hope to buy without refinancing your third vacation home. Reviewers note that with a 15mm drive height, you still won't be dropping one of these speed demons in your new laptop, and your desktop might be better off with a cheaper 7200RPM drive paired with a similarly inexpensive SSD, but if you're looking for that single drive that does it all, the new VelociRaptor is your best bet. Hit the links below for the full skinny, and a deep, deep dive into the fascinating world of IOPS, read speeds and write times. Read - TechReport Read - AnandTech Read - PC Perspective Read - HotHardware Read - Tom's Hardware Read - ExtremeTech Read - LegitReviews Read - StorageReview Read - DesktopReview
