Western Digital Ships 1TB Standard Size Notebook Drive

Posted 07/20/2011 at 7:52am | by Paul Lilly

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It wasn't that long ago the largest notebook hard drive you could buy was 500GB. Now here comes Western Digital with its newly announced WD Scorpio Blue 1TB hard drive for mainstream notebooks, and it isn't even the first of its kind. It is, however, one of just two 1TB hard drives built around the industry standard 9.5mm, 2.5-inch form factor (Samsung's Spinpoint M8 being the other) instead of the 12.5mm thickness standard, which means it's compatible with nearly all existing laptops.

"With the release of the 1 TB WD Scorpio Blue notebook drive in a 9.5 mm package, WD is able to offer the greatest storage capacity available for use in portable computing environments," said Matt Rutledge, vice president and general manager of Client Storage for WD. "Mobile users no longer need to choose maximum capacity over thin and light, WD is ready with storage options, achieved without compromise to performance and reliability, that prove ideal for mobile digital devices of all kinds including PC and Mac notebook computers; external storage; and digital media players."

WD's 1TB Scorpio Blue sports a two-platter design and spins at 5,400 RPM. Other specs include an 8MB buffer. 5.5ms average latency, SATA 3Gb/s interface, Advanced Format technology, and low power consumption (1.4W during read/write, 0.59W idle, 0.18W Standby and Sleep modes).

The drive is available now for $139 MSRP.

Image Credit: Western Digital