Toshiba Intros 1.8" 320GB Hard Drive

[Charles P. Jefferies]

Toshiba Intros 1.8" 320GB Hard Drive

Toshiba has introduced a new family of 1.8-inch hard drives. The new MKxx33GSG series is available in 320GB, 250GB, and 160GB capacities and feature a SATA interface. Additional specifications include a 5,400RPM spindle speed and a 16MB cache.

Toshiba also introduced the MK1235GSL, which the company claims is the most power-conservative hard drive on the market. The 120GB single-platter drive has a 4,200RPM spindle speed and only a 5mm profile.

The MK1235GSL is shipping now while the MKxx33GSG series will enter mass production in early December.

Toshiba Press Release (PDF FILE)

[John Ratsey]

That is good news for those with the thinner notebooks that don't have room for a 2.5" HDD. Bigger capacity also means faster transfer rates.

John

[Serg]

Max speed is 830Mbps for the 320GB.
It sounds interesting, considering those 1.8" can be 4200RPM only, and that sounds like a pain.

[dtwn]

Max speed is 830Mbps for the 320GB.
It sounds interesting, considering those 1.8" can be 4200RPM only, and that sounds like a pain.

There are some 5400 1.8" HDDs.

[Angelic]

Sigh, I want more SSD innovation, not hard drive innovation! I suppose this is a good thing though.

[QuadAllegory]

Cool can't wait to install this into an Envy 15 when it gets E2E.

[Kamin_Majere]

320GB in a 1.8 factor is very impressive. Maybe they will start using 1.8 as the new standard drive size. That would easily yeild notebooks with 3 and 4 hard drive slots as standard

[Red_Dragon]

Hm, Toshiba should be focusing on SSD IMO. There HDD's are not that bad but they have a good opportunity now that SSD is coming down.

[John Ratsey]

320GB in a 1.8 factor is very impressive. Maybe they will start using 1.8 as the new standard drive size. That would easily yeild notebooks with 3 and 4 hard drive slots as standard

Such small discs are inherently crippled by slower transfer speeds due to the smaller diameter. The outside (fastest) tracks of a 1.8" HDD will have similar transfer speeds to the slowest tracks on a 2.5" HDD. However, the smaller size also means lower power.

John

[Angelic]

Such small discs are inherently crippled by slower transfer speeds due to the smaller diameter. The outside (fastest) tracks of a 1.8" HDD will have similar transfer speeds to the slowest tracks on a 2.5" HDD. However, the smaller size also means lower power.

John

Yet hard drives are already the largest bottleneck on computers today, so these 1.8" drives are only going to exasperate that. I expect to mostly see these in the thin and light low voltage class anyway, which is a good fit, but SSD's are still going to be the way to go eventually.

I wonder how much battery life will be gained with these? A couple minutes or so? And also, the power usage compared to SSD's.