Western Digital have just added a couple of 500 GB portable HDDs to their Passport range. The My Passport Elite and My Passport Essential lines have had the new drives added and come with the following bells and whistles

My Passport Elite

* WD Sync™ synchronization and encryption software
* Connect to any PC and run MioNet® Key software to remotely access files
* Plug and Play

Both Models

* USB Powered
* Includes Google™ software to search your drive and manage your photos
* Speaks nicely to Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.10+, 10.5.2+ (not Essential)
* USB 2.0 connectivity at 480 Mbits/sec
* 15.0 x 125.15 x 79.5 mm
* 180 g

With the Elite rocking in at US$220 and the Essential US$200, these are nicely priced external drives and they both come in a good range of colours. The 500 GB capacity is a step up from the 400 GB maximum previously offered.

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The boys over at Western Digital have taken a 2.5 inch 300 GB spinning at 10,000 rpm and enclosed it in a 3.5 inch form factor case, which, would you believe, cools this little sucker down? Yep, that’s right, you can get your mits on a 300 GB VelociRaptor unit (WD3000HLFS) or a 150 GB version (WD1500HLFS) both of which incorporate a backplane structure which acts as a heatsink for those platters spinning around at 10,000 rpm. Still not impressed? May be you will be after a few more facts and figures

* 300 or 150 GB capacity
* 10,000 rpm
* talks nicely with Macs and PCs
* 3 GBps SATA interface
* 16 MB cache

And, finally, the price tags are US$320 for the 300 GB version with its smaller 150 GB brother weighing in at US$230. Whilst the uses of these puppies are pretty specific, anyone looking for some more performance out of their HDDs may not need to look any further as these VelociRaptors offer twice the capacity and are a third faster than their Raptor predecessors and are also cooler.

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Using a couple of 320 GB platters, Western Digital have unleashed the Caviar SE16 640 GB HDD. Yeah sure, there are 1 TB versions out there, but using only two platters the SE16 is a lot quieter, cooler and sucks a lot less power than 3 or 4 platter drives. Here are a few more specs on the SE16

* SATA transfer of 3 Gb/s
* 16 MB cache
* spins at 7,200 rpm
* 25.4 x 147 x 101.6 mm

The price tag on this puppy is officially US$140 over at WD but we’re sure you can your mits on one of these at an even lower price!

Source: Western Digital

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With Buffalo just recently unleashing their MiniStation Turbo on the world, Western Digital have entered the 320 GB portable HDD game with their very own version, an addition to the Passport range. Probably the most obvious difference between the two units is the price tag with the WD version setting you back only US$230 - an awesome price for an external drive of this capacity. Anyway here are the rest of the details for you to drool over

* USB 2.0 connectivity
* 480 Mbps transfer rate
* 15 x 130 x 80 mm
* 105 g

WD have used their Scorpio drive for this puppy which spins around at 5,400 rpm, has a transfer rate of 3 GB/s, 8 MB buffer and a 12 ms access time. Other goodies included with the drive are WD Sync which not only syncs up your files but encrypts them as well, and Google software to help you track down your files. It also talks nicely to Macs as well.

This certainly looks like yet another winner from the boys over at WD.

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Western Digital have unleashed their latest 2.5 inch slimline hard drive with a capacity of 320 GB. Anyone looking to increase the disk space on their notebook should prepare their wallets for daylight now. This latest addition to the Scorpio range beats yesterday’s Toshiba announcement by 70 GB whilst only adding ten bucks to the bill with a price tag of US$200.

The HDD is 9.5mm thick so will fit into the slimmest of notebooks and sports WD’s trademark WhisperDrive, ShockGuard and Intelliseek technologies to reduce noise, resist knocks and save power respectively. It spins around at 5,400 rpm, has a transfer rate of 3 GB/s, 8 MB buffer and a 12 ms access time.

If you’re keen check it out at WD.

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With the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD war remaining quiet for the moment, which is surprising as the season of goodwill to all manufacturers is not that far away, the hard drive boys have picked up their swords and are preparing to do battle. Not long after Hitachi announced their intention to be producing 4 TB 3.5 inch hard drives by 2011, Western Digital have picked up the challenge and announced they’ll be producing 3 TB models by 2010. Here’s the techie blurb from WD

Following WD’s growing investments in technology the past five years, the company achieved 520 Gb/in2 using its own perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR)/tunneling magneto-resistive (TuMR) head technology. This level of density produces a 3.5-inch hard drive storing 640 GB-per-platter and single hard drive capacities as large as 3 TB. Based on the industry’s current density growth rate of more than 40 percent per year, those capacities are expected to be available in the 2010 timeframe.

The WD announcement was made at the Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Conference in Tokyo after it was demoed earlier in California and whilst it does smack of a ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ mentality or more accurately ‘mine’s earlier than yours’ it has to be good news for the consumer, doesn’t it?

At least it’s good to see a couple of hardware manufacturers squaring off in the storage arena, whilst all is quiet on the hi-def front.

Source: Western Digital PR

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Western Digital have revamped their My Book range and added three new editions, the Essential, Home and Office. Each edition sports units ranging in capacity from 320 GB up to 1 TB and is aimed at specific users. The Essential Edition is a no nonsense plain jane storage range providing USB 2.0 connectivity. The Home Edition is aimed at the home user who is looking at something a bit more fancy with triple connectivity options of USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and eSATA plus automatic backup functionality. Whilst the Office Edition despite only sporting USB 2.0 connectivity not only provides the auto backup functionality but allows secure shared file access to the unit across a network. The Home and Office Editions also sport a capacity gauge for those of you who like that sort of thing ;)

All the drives are housed in similar sized boxes at 166 x 137 x 54mm and weigh 1.15 kg regardless of unit capacity with USB 2.0 connectivity providing the usual 480 Mbps. The Home Edition FireWire 400 gives users 400 Mbps with the eSATA connection pumping out 3Gbps.

The units are priced as follows - Essential Edition from US$130 (320 GB) to US$350 (1 TB), Home Edition from US$170 (320 GB) to US$380 (1 TB) and Office Edition from US$170 (320 GB) to US$380 (1 TB).

So there’s nothing new in terms of numbers but ther are a few extra bells and whistles that may just tempt you to take the plunge.

Source: PRNewsWire

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