Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Western Digital offers 500GB laptop drive

Western Digital Corp. today announced that it is shipping its Scorpion Blue 500GB 2.5-in. hard disk drive. It costs $219.99.

The new Scorpion Blue 500GB drive fits in standard laptop drive bays. The drive crams 250GB onto each of two platters into a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard-drive mechanism suitable for installation in laptop computers. The two platters reside in a 9.5mm hard disk drive mechanism -- the standard height for a laptop hard drive.

Three hundred gigabytes remains the largest hard drive that can be ordered from Apple Inc. for a Mac laptop; that's an option on the 17-in. MacBook Pro. MacBooks and MacBook Pros both take commodity hard-drive components, and user interested in upgrading their systems could add this 500GB drive themselves (or pay a technician to do it).

The drive operates at 5400rpm and features Western Digital's "WhisperDrive" technology, which the manufacturer claims allows it to operate more quietly. "ShockGuard" firmware and hardware protect the drive if it's dropped or bumped, while "IntelliSeek" calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption.

source: Peter Cohen

No comments: