Print this article | E-mail this article | Comment on this article

WD Ships 320GB Laptop Hard Drive

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

October 31, 2007, 2:38 PM

Filling the growing demand for larger mobile storage options, Western Digital announced Wednesday it has begun shipping a 320GB 2.5-inch hard drive for laptops and portable devices. The drive features a Serial ATA interface with transfer speeds of 3Gb per second.

Called the Scorpio, WD's drive comes in a speed of 5400 RPM, which might scare off enthusiasts, but is more than capable for most situations. Acer and other laptop manufacturers are expected to begin offering the drive shortly, and it can be purchased directly from WD for $199.99 USD.

Add a Comment (7 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

By Dwiebelhaus

posted Oct 31, 2007 - 10:29 PM

Hella nice job from WD.

Score: 0

By Program86

posted Oct 31, 2007 - 3:29 PM

IS it's spindle speed 7200rpm like the Hitatchi 7K200? No? SORRY, no thanks on that slowass drive ...NEXT!

Score: 0

By Alex Stevens

edited Oct 31, 2007 - 9:57 PM

7200 RPM hard drives in a laptop are not really a good thing. You have more heat being produced which is already a huge problem for laptops, as well as reduced batter life (the other big problem with them). Keep in mind also that higher areal density means faster read and write speeds. Increasing the actual platter speed is not necessary to get decent performance. Finally, for a laptop capacity is much more important than speed.

Score: 0

By mrow

posted Oct 31, 2007 - 5:30 PM

For me, data capacity is is much more important than the performance difference you'll see between 7200rpm and 5400rpm in a laptop.

Score: 0

By daq

edited Oct 31, 2007 - 5:10 PM

200GB vs 350GB -- don't you think some people would sacrifice the speed (which also drains battery faster) for 150 extra GB??? I would.

Score: 0

By smarterthanyou

posted Nov 1, 2007 - 6:00 AM

You must be crazy. I would rather have an 80GB 7200rpm hard disk instead of a painfully slow 320GB hard disk for my primary hard disk. If I need extra storage space then that's what external 2.5-inch hard drives are for. Chances are, connecting this WD 320GB hard drive by USB 2.0 or Firewire won't be noticeably slower than connecting it directly to an IDE port on the laptop's motherboard.

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Nov 1, 2007 - 11:30 AM

7200 is much faster than 5400 as the primary hdd in laptop, however it produces so much more heat and drain more battery. Unless I decompress a big file, I don't see much different between them two.

I am thinking to grab the 320g, just need some review.

Score: 0

Nov 21 - 11:51 AM ET The Dell surprise: Higher earnings on lower revenue

Nov 21 - 11:11 AM ET Verizon admits Obama's cell records were violated

Nov 21 - 11:06 AM ET A tale of two houses, or, 'It looks like you're baking a casserole...'

Nov 20 - 6:13 PM ET Microsoft says it 'has always preferred' DRM-free content

Nov 20 - 5:48 PM ET With the petaflop barrier broken, is it time to change the benchmark?

Nov 20 - 4:17 PM ET Actors' union threatens to strike over Internet TV

Nov 20 - 3:43 PM ET Mozilla prepares for bad times, and an audit

Nov 20 - 3:11 PM ET First beta tests of AOL mail synchronization

Nov 20 - 2:44 PM ET Will iPhone and G1 owners sit still for full-length TV shows?

Nov 20 - 1:54 PM ET Microsoft's IP chief: 'Information wants to be free' is a 'disaster'