Here comes a better 500GB 9.5mm notebook hard drive from WD

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 29 September 2008 20:47

Opinion and Analysis

Ok, ok, so there aren’t 11 herbs or spices, but three main “proprietary features” that WD wants to share with us all.

The first is “WhisperDrive” which “combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield WD Scorpio Blue hard drives as one of the quietest 5400 RPM, 2.5-inch drives available.”
 
The second is “ShockGuard” which “combines firmware and hardware advancements to protect the drive mechanics and platter surface to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications.”

And the third is “IntelliSeek” which “calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration”, with a demonstration available at WD’s web site.

The WD Scorpio Blue 500GB model, (the WD5000BEVT) will retail for AUD $279, and NZD $299, while the 400GB model, (the WD4000BEVT) will go for AUD $239 or NZ $265, and comes with a “3-year limited warranty”.

With such a small price differential, if you’re buying at retail, you’d hardly pass up the chance to get an extra 100GB for AUD $40... although in OEM world things could well be different, where every cent counts towards margins!

I wonder how long it will be before notebook hard drives can squeeze 500GB on each platter, giving users the ability to have a slim notebook with 1 terabyte of hard disk space?

I’m sure such things are working in the lab, but getting 500GB on a platter when they’ve just commercialised 250GB is clearly a challenge.

Still, 500GB used to be but the stuff of fantasy – I remember dreaming as a teenager with my first 60MB hard drive that one day I’d have a gigabyte of storage, and that it would be huuuuge...

But now one terabyte is commonplace... and cheap!

And now 2.5-inch hard drives with 500GB are going to become ever increasingly common, too, while the price will also inevitably decline.

Take that, space! At this rate, we’ll need to find a new final frontier...