Western Digital has announced a series of 5400 RPM 2.5″ hard drives in capacities from 40 gb to 80 gb.
According to a PC World article on the drives,
The company claims that models in the Scorpio line are the quietest mobile hard drives on the market. Heat won’t be a problem either, according to spokesman Darrin Bulik. “Scorpio has run cooler in our tests than the competing 4200-rpm and 5400-rpm models we’ve.
. . .
With the market growing at about 20 percent annually, according to industry research analysis firm TrendFocus, demand for mobile hard drives is increasing. Western Digital’s customers have been urging the company to offer mobile drives, says Bulik. With their strong resume, Scorpio drives are likely to thrive under these conditions.
Hmmm…if the market is so strong, why is progress so slow on increasing capacity in 2.5″ hard drives? Is making high capacity 2.5″ drives a really challenging engineering problem or is there a perception that the laptop market is demanding quieter, faster and lower power consumption drives rather than higher capacity ones?
There are now 400gb 3.5″ drives, so where’s my 200gb 2.5″ drive? Come on folks, get with the program here.
Source:
New Cool, Quiet Laptop Hard Drives. Rex Farrance, PC World, October 7, 2004.