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Western Digital ships 7mm HDD for Ultrabooks, losing down pavement cracks
Western Digital is whipping the sheets clear from a new, 7mm tall 2.5-inch mobile HDD that'll sit nicely inside your Ultrabook or other skinny device. The single-platter Scorpio Blue comes in 320 and 500GB varieties and will even sit nearly in 9.5mm slots (just, you know, bring along some blu-tack to pad the void around the drive bay). The units boast of super-low power management, quiet operation (with WD's WhisperDrive tech) and capable of taking a shock of 400Gs. It's available from today via selected retailers, the 320GB edition costing $80 and the 500GB version $100. Just be careful not to look at it side-on, after all, it's so thin you may not find it again.
PSA: Western Digital and Seagate commence bonfire of the warranties
Seagate and Western Digital really do have the spirit of the holidays running through their veins, as both companies are slashing the warranty periods on hard drives for the new year. Gone are the days of five-year safety periods, instead owners of Seagate's Barracuda XT, Constellation 2, ES.2 and Momentus XT drives will have three years protection. SV35 Series and Pipeline HD drives have two years while Barracuda, Barracuda Green and the 2.5-inch Momentus get a measly one year. Western Digital on the other hand, will be hacking a year off the Caviar Blue, Green and Scorpio Blue drives that ship after January 1st, each coming with just two years warranty. On the upside, you'll be given the chance to extend the package for a modest fee -- nothing like the odd nickel-and-dime to hasten the post-holiday slump, eh? [Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures]
WD's 9.5mm Scorpio Blue 1TB laptop hard drive gets benchmarked
These days, it's hard to shake the urge to pop a solid state drive into your next laptop, but even if you're down with dropping the requisite coin, the restrictive capacity choices may make it darn near impossible for pack rats to bite. For those fitting squarely into that category, there's Western Digital's newest laptop drive: the 9.5mm 1TB Scorpio Blue. It's one of the first in this form factor (read: the one that slips into most everything smaller than a Clevo) to hit the 1TB milestone, and at just $99, it's a veritable bargain. The benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware threw it through the usual gauntlet of tests, pitting it against a 500GB Scorpio Black and a 640GB Seagate Momentus. As you'd likely expect, the 1TB spinner bested the competition in SiSoftware, ATTO and CrystalDiskMark tests, though not by a tremendous margin. Still, taking performance up a notch while also boasting a full terabyte of space makes it somewhat of a no-brainer for capacity freaks, and you can hit the source for a barrage of charts proving as much.
Western Digital now shipping 2.5-inch 1TB Scorpio Blue HDD in standard height
Be still, our hearts! Could it be? One thousand twenty-four gigabytes of spinning Scorpio Blue fixed disk finally sized for standard height? If you'll recall, the line of laptop-oriented HDDs was bumped up to 750GB way back in 2010, and now Western Digital's shipping its 9.5mm-high 1TB Scorpio Blue HDDs (shortened from 12.5mm). Aside from the storage capacity increase, the dual-platter drive is essentially the same as any other Blue sporting a 5,400 RPM spin-speed and 8MB cache with Advanced Format support. This latest go-getter will be available for the rather reasonable price of $140, but hey, if that SSD-esque Scorpio black's what you're really lusting after, we understand. Full PR after the break.
WD intros standard-height 2.5-inch 750GB Scorpio Blue HDD
Western Digital already shipped the industry's first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive last summer, but unfortunately for most, it couldn't be used as a drop-in solution for upgrading one's laptop drive. The reason? It relies on an unorthodox 12.5mm height form factor, while the vast majority of laptops only support 9.5mm height drives. Now, the outfit has pushed out a 750GB Scorpio Blue, a 2.5-incher that does indeed utilize the standard height form factor, and while this here unit includes Advanced Format and WhisperDrive, the 5,400RPM spindle speed is admittedly disappointing. It's tough to argue with the $149 price, though, and it's available now if you've been hankering for more space within your mobile workhorse.
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]
WD ships industry's first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive
After being snubbed by Hitachi in the race to push out the industry's first 1TB desktop hard drive, Western Digital made darn sure it was first to ship a 2TB version. Now, the company is raising its fists in celebration once more with the introduction of the sector's first 2.5-inch 1TB mobile hard drive. 'Course, this isn't the first 1TB drive of any kind in this size, as that honor goes to none other than pureSilicon and its ultra-spacious 1TB SSD. Still, we recall thinking that a drive of this capacity wouldn't hit until 2010 at best, so we're steadfastly elated to hear that the Scorpio Blue 1TB (and Scorpio Blue 750GB) are shipping now to retailers. Of course, we can't help but gripe that both of these boast unorthodox 12.5mm form factors, which dwarfs the standard 9.5mm-height slot found in most laptops, but hey, progress is progress -- right? With that in mind, it's easy to see why both of these are being marketed hard in the external HDD market, with each unit slated to ship within a My Passport SE for $189.99 (750GB) or $249.99 (1TB). The full release is after the break.
Western Digital now shipping 500GB laptop drive: $220
If you're still having trouble tracking down Samsung's SpinPoint M6 we've got good news for you: Western Digital just started volume shipments of its own 9.5-mm high, 2.5-inch laptop drive with that still amazing 500GB capacity. The $220 WD Scorpio Blue with 8MB cache churns through a SATA 3Gbps transfer rate with 12-ms access and is said to be one of the quietest (24dBA average idle / 26dBA average seek) of any 2.5-incher spinning at 5,400rpm. A 400GB version is available for $190.
