Western Digital to release faster, bigger notebook drives
You can never have enough disk space, something that is even more true with notebook computers than anything. We’re now all carrying more and more data around with us and a big drive is important to have. Western Digital is announcing a solution for that storage problem with the release of the new Scorpio Black drives. These new drives all spin at a fast 7,200 rpm and come in capacities of 80 – 320 GB which is very nice. The Scorpio drives are 2.5 inch drives so you won’t likely see them in the mini-notebooks that are all the rage but most notebooks can use that size peripheral so I expect we’ll start seeing OEMs using them soon.
actually you ARE likely to see them in all the subnotes, just look at the HP 2133. so why is that? because they are CHEAP. those awful, small, slow, 1.8″ HDD’s are very expensive in comparison. this is 1 of the advantages of cheap subnotes over the premium subnotes (Fujitsu, Sony). because they cant just pop in a 1.8″ HDD & pass the cost along to the consumer like they did before. they have to make better engineering efforts now to fit the 2.5″ in small frames.
Erm… What about power usage. I thought the limiting speed factor of 5400rpm in most notebook drives was there because it was the best balance of speed and power consumption. Have they started using more efficient motors?
Actually, you can pop one of these into the new MSI Wind (it comes with a 5400 rpm scorpio preinstalled). You’ll void the warranty on the Wind, of course, but it may be worth it.