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First 320GB 2.5" HDD on the way

Published on 22nd August 2007 by Phil Cogar

320GB of storage... I wonder how long it would take me to fill it.

Fitting all of your media onto your laptop is now set to become a little bit easier after the announcement of the world's first 320GB notebook drive. Currently, you can only find 2.5" HDDs in variations up to 250GB.

Toshiba Storage Device Division announced a new line of 5,400 RPM HDDs that will vary in capacities from 80GB up to 200GB in the MK-46GSX and MK-52GSX series. These new drives will sport 120GB and 160GB-per-platter technologies, respectively, and will use the Serial ATA interface with a 3.0Gbps data transfer rate.

If a 5,400 RPM HDD just isn't right for you, you can go with the new, high-end MK-49GSY series that features capacities up to 200GB at 7,200 RPM. These faster RPM drives will have a 895.9Mbps media transfer rate as opposed to the 801Mbps and 759Mbps media transfer rates of the MK-52-GSX and MK-46GSX lines.

All three families will have free-fall sensor options available on select models.

As digital distribution becomes an increasingly popular way to get your media, is this truly enough space to hold your favourite TV shows when you're on the go? How many of you still think that you still just won't have enough storage capacity on your laptop? Let us know how much more room you need over in the forums or in the comments box below.

12 Comments

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Confused Fishcake 22nd August 2007, 17:37

320GB is just enough to store my media collection, but the trouble is the drives with the highest current available capacity always carry a price premium. 250Gb drives seem to be going for ~£110, so these are going to be a lot more :(

mclean007 22nd August 2007, 17:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Confused Fishcake
320GB is just enough to store my media collection, but the trouble is the drives with the highest current available capacity always carry a price premium. 250Gb drives seem to be going for ~£110, so these are going to be a lot more :(

I guess you have to question whether you need 320GB of media to take with you on the move, however! Can't you keep the main stash on a server and copy over what you are likely to want? Or keep a lossless version / direct rip on the server and transcode for your lappie?

identikit 22nd August 2007, 20:19

To photographers more space is always a godsend. Not having to lug around an external to shoots means one less device and two fewer cables.

victorres2 22nd August 2007, 20:26

ill stick to burnin any kind of video media to a dvd-r since its cheaper to me, and it keeps my hard drive clean and empty. for some reason having 10gigs of video files, slows my hard drive down, but 25gigs of audio files doesn't.

Kipman725 22nd August 2007, 21:13

320Gb ... thats almost the size of my music collection! (I jest it's more like 100GB but still seems like a very small amount of storage to me).

mikeuk2004 22nd August 2007, 22:19

Would be a nice upgrade for PS3 owners. I would consider one if I got a PS3 to store music and video etc

2JSC 22nd August 2007, 22:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeuk2004
Would be a nice upgrade for PS3 owners. I would consider one if I got a PS3 to store music and video etc

Exactly!

DougEdey 22nd August 2007, 22:52

Put a load of 32GB microSD cards in a RAID 5 array :P

teamtd11 22nd August 2007, 23:07

i think these would be perfect for a raid5 file server. low power dont need much/any cooling and a lot of storage for there size. *wates and hopes for someone to do it*

TNash 23rd August 2007, 00:17

200GB for 7200RPM? Why can't they up the capacity more on the fast drives!

zachjowi 23rd August 2007, 05:38

Alienware will love to get their hands on these and tack on another 1k to their laptops

its cool to see that they offer 32GB Serial ATA Solid State Drive but it has a price tag of adding $500 to the ttal and is not very practical for a laptop certinly a gaming one.

ralph.pickering 23rd August 2007, 08:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by TNash
200GB for 7200RPM? Why can't they up the capacity more on the fast drives!

I'd assume because reading microscopic bits of magnetic information off a platter the size of a flattened beer cap* becomes a fair bit harder the faster you spin it.

Personally I don't like the idea of that much data sitting on a laptop given how easily they're lost/stolen and also how often laptop drives fail. As a sysadmin for a SME, I spend a fair number of hours trying to coax laptop drives to give up one last gasp so I can recover those crucial documents the user never thought to save on the network (I've done 2 this past couple of weeks). It's bad enough with a 20-40Gb drive...

*I was up till 3am - I guess beer is still on the forefront of my (semi)conciousness.