Western Digital have extended the capacity of their slim-line models in the Scorpio Blue range with the addition of a 750 GB 9.5mm hard drive. It also uses Western Digital’s ‘Advanced Format’ technology which increases

media format efficiencies, thus enabling larger drive capacities

It also sports WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive tech which

combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market. These algorithms also optimize the way a drive seeks for data, which significantly improves power consumption. So now silence (and longer battery life) is golden.

So more space, less noise, longer battery life and all in a slim-line HDD drive - just what the laptop fans are looking for. Here are the numbers to round out the details on the 750 GB Scorpio Blue

* Model: WD7500BPVT
* Rotational Speed 5,400 RPM
* Buffer Size 8 MB
* Read Seek Time 12.0 ms
* Transfer Rates Buffer To Host (Serial ATA) 3 Gb/s (Max)
* Capacity 750 GB
* Interface SATA 3 Gb/s
* 9.5 mm x 100.2 mm x 69.85 mm
* 0.15 kg
* Idle Mode 22 dBA (average)
* Seek Mode 25 dBA (average)

So the latest addition to Western Digital’s Scorpio Blue slimline internal HDD range sure looks like a winner especially as it’s available at Amazon for only $120. If you’re looking for a hard drive upgrade to your laptop you could do worse than check out this Scorpio Blue offering from Western Digital.

Featured Tags hdd, internal-hdd, laptop_hard_drives, western-digital


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Seagate have just added a new internal HDD to their Barracuda range, the Barracuda XT with a capacity of 2TB and a 6 Gb/s SATA interface - take that SSDs! The unit is backward compatible with legacy SATA systems and a 64 MB cache optimises burst transfer rates.

* Capacity 2 TB
* Model ST32000641AS
* SATA 6Gb/s NCQ Interface
* Transfer Rate Max 600 MB/s
* Sustained Data Rate 138 MB/s
* 64 MB Cache
* 7200 RPM
* 8 Heads 4 Disks
* 512 Bytes per Sector
* 26.1 x 101.6 x 146.99 mm
* 700 g

Seagate also try to do their bit for the planet with the Barracuda XT

Up to 50 percent of the materials used in the manufacture of Barracuda XT drives come from recycled sources.

The burst speeds are impressive at 600 MBps but of course you’ll probably actually get something closer to the 138 MBps sustained rate. Whilst this is slower than the OCZ SSDs we looked at in July, obviously the 2 TB capacity outweighs any of the OCZ offerings. The price on the Barracuda is set to be US$300 which isn’t cheap but then you do get that 2 TBs worth of zeroes and ones for your hard-earned cash.

Source: Seagate

Featured Tags hdd, internal-hdd, seagate


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Disk space just seems to be getting cheaper these days, and whilst the Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB HDD has been out a while, we couldn’t believe the price of US$85 on it at Amazon. If you’re looking to upgrade your HDD then the Caviar seems like a good option with it receiving 4.5 stars out of 5 in customer reviews which tended to promote it’s power efficiency and quietness but highlighted a possible (if negligible) performance loss. For your US$85 you get no cables or power adaptor but if this is to be a replacement unit you may well not require them. Here are some details and specs on the Caviar Green 1TB HDD

* WD has reduced power consumption by up to 40 percent compared to standard desktop drives
* GreenPower technology yields lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and low acoustics for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives
* 1 TB capacity
* 3.5 inch form factor
* 7200 rpm spin speed
* 32 MB Buffer size
* 5.8 x 4 x 1 inches
* 1.6 lbs

Whilst the 1 TB Caviar Green may not be the latest HDD unit on the street, this US$85 deal at Amazon has to be one of the sweetest HDD deals around. That is, of course, unless you know different ….

Featured Tags amazon, hdd, internal-hdd, western-digital


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