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Seagate trots out 2.5-inch 1TB Constellation.2 hard drive, dares you to wear it out
Western Digital may have shipped the industry's first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive, and PureSilicon may have done likewise for the SSD sector, but Seagate is still finding a way to lay claim to a "first" with its newfangled Constellation.2. This here 2.5-incher is hailed as the "first 1TB 2.5-inch enterprise HDD," with it being primed and ready for the insane demands generally found in DAS, NAS, SAN and other nonstop business environments. You'll get 6Gb/s performance, T10 Protection Information (you know, for keeping your scanned travel receipts safe and sound) and 1.4 million hours MTBF. There's a self-encrypting drive option for those who just can't be too careful, and it'll be out and about later this month in capacity choices of 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. Mum's the word on pricing, but Dell ought to be offering 'em across its enterprise products before the dawn of 2011.
Hitachi intros Travelstar 5K750 and 7K750 mobile hard drives: 750GB at 9.5mm
It's a common story, really. Your puny 120GB mobile hard drive has been overflowing for months, and you've been waiting for what feels like an eternity for an affordable, capacious SSD. It's about time to give up the fantasy and get real, and thankfully Hitachi GST is making said pill a touch easier to swallow. The company's new Travelstar 5K750 (5400RPM; 8MB buffer) and 7K750 (7200RPM; 16MB buffer) have been announced this morning, and they're the company's first to feature Advanced Format. In other news, they're also the industry's largest drives in a standard-height form factor, cramming up to 750GB (375GB per platter) into a conventional 9.5mm shell that'll slip into just about any laptop made in the last decade. Yeah, WD managed to stuff 1TB into a laptop drive earlier in the year, but you'll need a machine that's beefy enough to handle a 12mm height drive in order to take advantage. At any rate, the drives will also be available in 500GB and 640GB sizes for those who can't handle three-quarters of a terabyte, and while the 5K750 family is already shipping in volume with a starting tag of $129.99, the speedier 7K750 crew won't be out until Q1 2011.
Samsung ships 1TB Spinpoint MT2 2.5-inch hard drive, but it won't fit in your laptop
So, we've good news and bad news. Given that we aren't accepting votes for which you'll be fed first, we'll go ahead and extol the virtues of cramming a full terabyte of space into a 2.5-inch form factor. Not that this feat hasn't been accomplished before, but the 2.5-inch 1TB HDD realm could certainly use the competition. Now, the rough part -- Samsung's Spinpoint MT2 boasts a 12.5mm height, which is 3mm too high for your existing laptop. Unless, of course, you're rocking one of those otherworldly Clevo machines with enough space for a Karmann Ghia in there. There's also the fact that it's humming along at just 5,400RPM and rocks just 8MB of buffer memory, meaning that this one's entirely more likely to find a home within a portable HDD case than inside of Apple's next MacBook Air. Oh, and there's no price being made public, but honestly, we're sort of glad Sammy didn't bother teasing us. Update: We're hearing that 12.5mm drives fit just find in Apple's newer unibody MacBook Pro machines.
Ask Engadget: best non-SSD laptop hard drive?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Jason, who needs a laptop drive upgrade that doesn't involve the words "solid state." Or "really expensive." If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I am in the market for a 2.5-inch notebook drive for my new Core i7 MacBook Pro. The biggest concern for me is performance, with storage after that, and impact on battery life last. Every SSD I have seen is over my budget. I am wondering which hard drive will be the best non-solid state drive to fit in a MBP. Some people mentioned Seagate's Momentus XT, which is a hybrid drive -- are they any good? Thanks!" One thing Jason left out was his capacity requirements and actual budget, but we'll go ahead and assume he wants something larger than 40GB and cheaper than the average SSD. Any blazing HDDs out there for the taking? Go on, it's not like giving up your secret will make everyone reading this go buy up the remaining inventory. No promises on that, though.
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.
Toshiba announces 750GB and 1TB laptop HDDs, gives them awkward model names like MK7559GSXP
Time for us to welcome the world's most capacious 9.5mm-tall hard drive, the 750GB MK7559GSXP. Yeah, it's quite a mouthful, but then it's not every day that you come across a storage disk that packs data quite so tightly, so maybe this is a name worth remembering. Not only is Toshiba's new two-platter 5,400RPM beastie the first ever to rise above 640GB without expanding to the chunkier 12.5mm height profile, it's also claimed to be 14 percent more energy efficient than the Japanese company's previous biggest model. If you don't mind moving up to the 12.5mm class, Toshiba's also bringing out a new MKxx59GSM series, which can stretch all the way up to 1TB, thanks to fitting three platters into the 2.5-inch diagonal space. Samples of both will be distributed to system manufacturers by the end of April, with mass production following soon thereafter.
Seagate's Momentus Thin to ship in 160GB / 250GB sizes this January
We weren't waiting on too many more details surrounding Seagate's 7mm thin laptop hard drive, but one critical tidbit has just now been unearthed by the outfit itself. The Momentus Thin will make its official unveiling at CES here in just a few weeks, where it'll be available in 160GB and 250GB capacities and with 8MB of cache, a 5400RPM spin speed and a SATA 3Gbps interface. We're also told that it'll be far less expensive than similarly sized 1.8-inch HDD options, which means this bugger could soon be planted into Atom D410 / D510-based netbooks. The drive is slated to ship to OEM and integrator partners next month, though specific price points have yet to be mentioned. Have a peek at the first press shots below. %Gallery-80243%
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]
Toshiba intros 2.5-inch 5400RPM 640GB hard drive in internal / external flavors
It's no speed demon, but Toshiba's newest 2.5-inch hard drive sure lets you store an awful lot of illicit images precious memories on a single unit. The 640GB MK6465GSX drive spins at 5400RPMs and is said to be the industry's largest in this form factor. The range also includes 500GB, 320GB, 250GB and 160GB models, with the whole lot shipping out to OEMs and distributors later this month. In related news, Tosh is also slapping these bad boys into a few shiny enclosures (Vivid White, Liquid Blue, Komodo Green and Rocket Red if you must know), giving storage junkies an even more capacious offering to slide into their briefcase. Of note, As of now, there's no pricing information available on the bare 640GB unit, but it should be available as we speak for $179.99 in external form.[Via HotHardware]Read - 640GB 2.5-inch hard driveRead - External editions
Hitachi ships 500GB Travelstar 7K500: 7200RPMs in a 2.5-inch form factor
Itching for a speedy and spacious new upgrade for your laptop? Ain't got the cheddar required to pop in a 512GB SSD? Then have a look at Hitachi's latest, a half-terabyte drive that spins at 7200RPMs yet draws just 0.69 watts when idle and 1.8 watts during read / write operations. The Travelstar 7K500 plays nice with the SATA interface and promises 16 percent better application performance than its predecessor, and for the paranoid in attendance, you can rest easy knowing that a BDE (Bulk Data Encryption) option enables users to have each and every byte encrypted as it's written. As of now, it's only shipping in "limited quantities" to top tier OEMs, but whenever it strolls into retail it'll land for $159.99.
WD and Fujitsu could offer 1TB 2.5-inch HDDs in 2010, sun could rise tomorrow
We've been around this stuff long enough to know that hard drives just keep getting bigger with time, but if you were eager to know exactly when a 1TB unit would be prepped and ready for your notebook, try 2010. According to those infamous "undisclosed sources," both Western Digital (which started shipping a 500-gigger today) and Fujitsu are looking to pump out 750GB 2.5-inch HDDs by mid-2009 and 1TB variants in 2010. Keep the faith, brethren.
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]
SanDisk intros 2.5-inch 32GB SSD hard drive
No, SanDisk's latest offering in the ever-populating SSD realm is far from the largest, but just a tick after releasing a 1.8-inch edition, now the firm is unveiling a laptop (and external enclosure) friendly 2.5-inch flavor. The SanDisk SSD SATA 5000 2.5-inch is touted as a "drop-in replacement for the hard disk drive," and also boasts the durability that purportedly comes with being a fifth-generation product. Additionally, the NAND-based drive features a sustained read rate of 67-megabytes per second, reportedly enabling it to boot Windows Vista Enterprise on a lappie in "as little as 30 seconds." Of course, SanDisk didn't mind flaunting the low power consumption on this one either, as it boldly proclaims the 0.9-watts used during "active operation" as being nearly half as conservative as typical drives. While we're not exactly sure just how much these things will run the average consumer just yet, they are supposedly shipping to computer manufacturers now at around $350 a pop.[Thanks, Vinit]
