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15 Dec 2009
Seagate has released a new ultra-slim notebook hard drive.
The company said that the new Momentus Thin line of drives would be just 7mm thick, significantly thinner than the previous 9.5mm thick 2.5in hard drive models.
"The Momentus Thin drive promises to help computer makers differentiate on mobile-computing form factor and better compete in the fast-growing markets for thin laptop PCs and netbooks," said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president of sales, marketing and product line management.
Seagate said that it plans to offer the new drives primarily for use in ultra-slim notebooks. The company is offering the drive in either a 160GB or 250GB model at 5400 RPM.
With the thinner drives, Seagate is looking to appeal to manufacturers that would have to otherwise use more expensive solid state drives (SSD) or 1.8in hard disk models. While vendors have increasingly looked to use SSDs in both notebook and desktop models, the cost of those drives has kept SSDs out of much of the market.
The rollout of the Momentus Thin comes just days after Seagate made its first foray into the SSD market with a line of drives for high-performance servers and blade systems.
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Users need Mobile HDs shorter, narrower, NOT thinner yet; and thougher, with sturdy body and shock absorbers
The current 2.5in Mobile HDs are already successful *because good enough*, and in order to maintain this good place, they need to PROGRESS, not regress. I lost a whole Mobile HD in ~1997 because I carried it daily from home to office and back, and inserted it in my PCs in both places (With W98SE, it got immediately recognized). Problem, mobile HDs are too thin compared to their length and width, and have no protection against shock or pressure. Despite my precautions (HD being inside a bull sleeve, itself inside a cardboard folder, itself in my briefcase), some pressure came from the surrounding folders onto the disc, which got inoperative and irrecoverable. IOW, in current mobile HDs, the length/width ratio is OK, but the thickness/length ratio is too low, which makes the disc very breakable in real life - something unacceptable for a device that holds all your data. Moreover, the fast progress in HD capacity has now made possible, without yielding any of all the data anyone may want to carry, to build HDs much smaller (in physical size) than previously; 3.5in HDs are getting old, so will 2.5in HDs as well. Finally, what Seagate (and other HD makers) should come with right now, is IMO discs SHORTER, NARROWER, and TOUGHER, with a sturdy body and a smooth suspension inside (between the sturdy body and the inevitably flimsy disc). Only later should the discs get thinner. Versailles, Tue 15 Dec 2009 22:03:00 +0100
Posted by: Michel Merlin 15 Dec 2009