1TB Platters Will Lead to Much Bigger Hard Drives in 2011
1TB Platters Will Lead to Much Bigger Hard Drives in 2011
Posted 12/23/2010 at 8:02am
| by Paul Lilly
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We're still waiting for solid state drive (SSD) pricing to fall to pedestrian levels in terms of price-per-gigabyte, but in the meantime, those capacious mechanical hard drives just keep getting bigger.
As the new year rolls around, 1TB platter designs will begin to mature, DigiTimes says. This means you can expect 2.5-inch notebook drives to reach 2TB in capacity, while 3.5-inch desktop drives will scale all the way up to 4TB, and likely beyond.
While the industry tries to sort out booting from large capacity hard drives on the desktop, it's the notebook segment that stands to really benefit from 1TB platters. According to the IDC's figures, some 22 percent of notebooks already sport 500GB hard drives, while 500GB models are expected to account for 35-40 percent of total 2.5-inch shipments in 2011. As the year goes on, look for 640GB, 750GB, and 1TB hard drives to show up in high end laptops, DigiTimes says.
Image Credit: Samsung
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livebriand
December 24, 2010 at 1:33pm
There is plenty of use for traditional HDs. With HD movies becoming more common, and people storing music and photos on their HDs, SSDs are just too expensive and don't have the capacity. Also, how long do the SSDs last? I'm OK with an SSD as my OS drive (for speed), but until SSDs can be cheap enough and have a higher capacity (think terabytes), I'll stick with a spinning HD for my data.
Also, I don't see an end to 3.5" drives any time soon. They have a MUCH higher capacity than 2.5" ones, and are far cheaper. I can get a 1TB 2.5" external HD for $110, $100 can get me a 2TB 3.5" one. Both are the same brand (WD Elements). Sure the 3.5" is smaller, but is it worthwhile? As a desktop user, I don't mind the bulk of a 3.5" in return for a lot more capacity and a lower price.
Peanut Fox
December 24, 2010 at 4:03pm
An SSDs MTF is estimated to be much higher than a standard hard drive as there are no moving parts that can fail.
Jono
December 23, 2010 at 6:56pm
I wish they'd just let this tech die already. It's like big oil vs electric. Just put your resources elsewhere so we can move ahead already with SSDs. We shouldn't have to wait a decade to see tech develop anymore.
Deanjo
December 24, 2010 at 11:15am
Replacing one technology with another before it can compete on every level is a dumb idea. SSD's so far have not proven more reliable, their capacities are dwarfed by conventional harddrives, cost effectiveness greatly falls in mechanical drives favor. SSD's capacity issues (or lack of) rely mostly on the manufacturing process and until that drops to sub 8 nm I doubt you will see an capacity equality.
whitneymr
December 24, 2010 at 11:51am
I agree with you 100%. Everybodies gotten this SSD fixation when they can not hold a candle to disk drives on dollars/gigabyte. On the example here of 2 T laptop drives a disk would probably cost about $200 where an SSD of that size (if it existed) would be in the $5000 range if your lucky.
Bullwinkle J Moose
December 23, 2010 at 1:44pm
2TB notebook drives only make sense if they make a version with the OLD format technology
The majority of notebooks still run XP and XP users could really use a 2TB drive without being required to purchase Windows 7 which probably won't work with their hardware, requiring a new notebook as well
Of course they will make a version with the New Format Technology, but the MAJORITY of people will be screwed if that is the ONLY version they make!
I'd Love to see a 2TB notebook drive with a HUGE Cache on the Old Format Tech!
Caboose
December 28, 2010 at 9:38pm
And you know, I'd also love to see AGP video cards again too! </sarcasm>
Those laptops that are still running Windows XP, if they need 2TB of storage ON THE COMPUTER then they have some issues and should maybe look at cloud storage (oh wait, I forgot your the wacko nutjob who is paranoid at everything and anything so cloud storage isn't an option). Then again, most of them will be upgrading to a new laptop in the next few years. Still well before these drives will become standard.
skirge01
December 23, 2010 at 12:58pm
2.5" drives are going to fade out AND move forward, huh? ;)
Anyway, all I can say to this news is: It's about damn time! I have 10 1TB hard drives just BEGGING to be upgraded in my WHS box.
timlider
December 23, 2010 at 10:11am
This is good news. 2.5" drive will fade out and 2.5" HD's will move forward. Less space and less power used in desktops is a good thing.
roninnder
December 23, 2010 at 1:06pm
I don't see how you can jump to the conclusion that 3.5" drives will fade out. It's not like they're prohibitively large or power hungry (especially compared to a 2 or 3 card SLI/Crossfire setup) and typically offer more than twice the capacity of a 2.5" drive for a similar price. You also need some sort of adapter to get a 2.5" drive into 95% of tower cases as 3.5" is the standard. Also, space is hardly your number one consideration in a desktop.
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