Hitachi GST plans for the works: 320 GB at 7,200 RPM

As shipments of notebook PCs are expected to eclipse those of desktops sometime in the second half of 2009, manufacturers are becoming more concerned about making up for the capacity and performance gaps in their hard drives.

To that end, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies today introduced the Travelstar 7K320, a fourth-generation 2.5-inch notebook drive that pushes the boundaries with several key distinguishing features.

"As operating systems have grown more complex, users have struggled with an overall decrease in system performance," said Larry Swezey, director, Consumer and Commercial HDD for Hitachi GST. "Solid state drives (SSD) have yet to deliver an overall increase in speed, and certainly not at an affordable price."

The 320 GB hard drive rotates at 7,200 RPM, and the company claims it's 12% faster than its predecessor, the Travelstar 7200. Power consumption has dropped 22 percent, with Hitachi GST now claiming the 7K320 consumes the same power as a comparable 5,400 RPM model. It supports an ATA 3.0 interface, and features support for Bulk Data Encryption (BDE).

The Travelstar 7K320 will ship before the end of May for $220.

New small-form-factor HDD releases have been confusing over the past several months, especially due to the number of paper launches with various specifications.

For instance, Fujitsu has a 2.5" 320 GB HDD at 7,200 RPM, but it won't be available until June; and other manufacturers have released 7,200 RPM models whose capacity is less than 320 GB. Fujitsu does have a 500 GB 2.5" HDD in development, though it spins at 4,200 RPM.