Toshiba Reveals 2.5" HDD with 1 TB Capacity
Toshiba will begin manufacturing its MQ01ABD 2.5-inch HDD later this month which will offer capacities up to 1 TB in a 9.5-mm high form factor.
Tuesday Toshiba said that it will begin mass production of its new MQ01ABD 2.5-inch HDD starting the middle of August. This new line will feature the company's 500 GB/platter technology using an "industry-leading" areal density of 744 Gb/in2, thus increasing the quantity of data stored per square inch by over 37-percent compared to prior 2.5-inch models. For consumers, this means drive capacities up to 1 TB.
"The creation of rich content by consumers and businesses continues to push the demand for storage capacity," said Joel Hagberg, vice president of product marketing, Storage Device Division of TAIS. "The Toshiba MQ01ABD series provides not only the capacity and performance required by notebook and PC manufacturers, multimedia professionals, multi-room set-top-box and other power users, but also the benefits of a low-power, environmentally friendly drive."
The MQ01ABD line will arrive in five capacities: 250 GB, 320 GB and 500 GB using one platter, and 750 GB and 1 TB using two platters. All five will have a rotational speed of 5400 RPM and connect via a Serial ATA 3 Gb/s interface. The maximum media transfer rate will be 1288.6 Mbps and the average seek time will be 12 ms. Each drive will sport an 8 MB buffer memory.
"Toshiba’s MQ01ABD series HDDs have been engineered for superior energy efficiency — the series HDDs consume only 0.55watts during idle mode," the company said. "The MQ01ABD drives also offer improved acoustic performance, emitting a maximum of 19dB at idle and 24dB during seek operations. This combination of areal density, power utilization, and acoustic performance enables PC and consumer electronics makers to build differentiated systems based on capacity, performance, heat dissipation, and power efficiency."
So far info on pricing and actual availability is available, so stay tuned.
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Toshiba HDD are awesome. I had a 80GB for 6 years from my laptop. Still going strong as a backup drive for my desktop.
These will no doubt be reliable too.
Assume 1288.6 Mbps is refering to megabits per second. Haven't seen the "M" capitalized for megabits before and I haven't seen that metric used for hard drive transfer rates either although it does sound faster. In another words 161 MBps or if we are really trying to make it seem super fast 1,288,600,000 bps. Sorry that struck me odd.
Umm 5400RPM isn't gonna cut it in enterprise or home environments. It'll be ok for some ultra low power scenario, but otherwise we want 7200, 10K and 15K speeds.
Assume 1288.6 Mbps is refering to megabits per second. Haven't seen the "M" capitalized for megabits before and I haven't seen that metric used for hard drive transfer rates either although it does sound faster. In another words 161 MBps or if we are really trying to make it seem super fast 1,288,600,000 bps. Sorry that struck me odd.
What matters is if the 'b' is'B' or 'b'. The 'm' doesn't matter I don't think.
PS: Now that Toshiba is up to 500GB/platter in the 2.5" segment, this means that it is ready for 250GB/platter in the 1.8" segment right? 500GB 1.8" drives here we go.
WhySoBluePandaBear reveals he does not care.
And don't forget the improved read/write speeds that come with the increased data density. That's always a nice plus.
Assume 1288.6 Mbps is refering to megabits per second. Haven't seen the "M" capitalized for megabits before and I haven't seen that metric used for hard drive transfer rates either although it does sound faster. In another words 161 MBps or if we are really trying to make it seem super fast 1,288,600,000 bps. Sorry that struck me odd.
What matters is if the 'b' is'B' or 'b'. The 'm' doesn't matter I don't think.PS: Now that Toshiba is up to 500GB/platter in the 2.5" segment, this means that it is ready for 250GB/platter in the 1.8" segment right? 500GB 1.8" drives here we go.
The "M" does matter because it refers to the prefix mega whereas "m" refers to the prefix milli. Of course it would be silly to measure storage in millibytes/millibits and most people will know what you mean even if you make that mistake but it is an important distinction.
Sorry, Toshiba (and Toms)...
But where was/is the news that Western Digital already beat Toshiba to the punch with a 1 TB 2.5" drive?
They have a Scorpio Blue 1 TB drive, and it's already out for purchase, while this one is still gearing up to get out there.
(But, I hear these drives have better speed than 500 GB 7200 RPM drives- so newsworthy anyways I suppose.)
Assume 1288.6 Mbps is refering to megabits per second. Haven't seen the "M" capitalized for megabits before and I haven't seen that metric used for hard drive transfer rates either although it does sound faster. In another words 161 MBps or if we are really trying to make it seem super fast 1,288,600,000 bps. Sorry that struck me odd.
It's a typo... which doesn't surprise me.
There's no way a 5400 RPM 2.5" drive has sequential transfer speeds similar to a 10000 RPM Veloci Raptor, even if the density has gone up significantly. I'm assuming he meant 128 MBps, and even then that's pretty damn impressive for a 5400 RPM 2.5" drive.
Actually it looks like the 1288.6Mbps figure is accurate. I confirmed this in the official press release. If it's true, then this drive is able to achieve sequential transfer speeds of 161 MBps, which is simply insane for this class of storage device. I'm speechless. I can't wait for this density to be applied to 7200 RPM 3.5" drives. Anyone else want a 4TB HD?
Western Digital and Samsung already have 1TB 2 platter 2.5" drives out, both spin at 5400RPM.
Western Digital and Samsung already have 1TB 2 platter 2.5" drives out, both spin at 5400RPM.
But aren't those 12.5mm thick instead of the standard 9.5mm thick drives?
What matters is if the 'b' is'B' or 'b'. The 'm' doesn't matter I don't think.PS: Now that Toshiba is up to 500GB/platter in the 2.5" segment, this means that it is ready for 250GB/platter in the 1.8" segment right? 500GB 1.8" drives here we go.
Yes yes please!
Devices such as the Sony NGP/PSP2 will need a 1.8" drive, if they intend for people to take digital distribution seriously.
Umm 5400RPM isn't gonna cut it in enterprise or home environments. It'll be ok for some ultra low power scenario, but otherwise we want 7200, 10K and 15K speeds.
5400RPM may be not for enterprise application but perfectly fine for home.
As Travis said, previous 1 TB drives in the 2.5" form factor were 12.5 mm thick. That meant they couldn't fit in many (if not most) laptops.
At 9.5 mm thick, Toshiba's 1 TB drives will fit in any laptop supporting 2.5" hard drives.
As for the 5400 RPM, you wouldn't want that for your system drive if you could help it, but it's fine for a storage drive.
5400RPM is absolutely horrible for home use. Talk about taking ~forever~ to do anything. When my HDD at work started going south, it was replaced with a 320GB 5400RPM disk (was two 73GB 7200 disks in RAID). I needed more space and they figured it was a good time to swap it out since one of the previous disks was failing. Now when I come in for they day I put in my CAC click on outlook and go get coffee (remove CAC before I leave workstation). When I get back the HDD light is still going nuts and the system is sluggish as hell. 5~10 min later it's workable again. Opening applications and browsing the web can be slow. I'm currently trying to arrange for a new workstation since this one is getting out of lifecycle.
So no, a 5400RPM is not acceptable for home use, using it as a D: drive might work provided your not loading any applications off it. But then again what are you using it for? It's only saving grace is that their cool and use less power, good for laptops that don't have a SSD in them.
Finally but I don't want to see a Toshiba drive again. I've two laptops. In the past 2 Toshiba drives failed during the warranty period and got replaced. I have now idea how is the third drive holding because I don't use it anymore. And in my shiny new laptop after just 4 months my toshiba has bad sectors again?
"So far info on pricing and actual availability is available, so stay tuned."
Wait... What?
5400RPM is absolutely horrible for home use. Talk about taking ~forever~ to do anything. When my HDD at work started going south, it was replaced with a 320GB 5400RPM disk (was two 73GB 7200 disks in RAID). I needed more space and they figured it was a good time to swap it out since one of the previous disks was failing. Now when I come in for they day I put in my CAC click on outlook and go get coffee (remove CAC before I leave workstation). When I get back the HDD light is still going nuts and the system is sluggish as hell. 5~10 min later it's workable again. Opening applications and browsing the web can be slow. I'm currently trying to arrange for a new workstation since this one is getting out of lifecycle.So no, a 5400RPM is not acceptable for home use, using it as a D: drive might work provided your not loading any applications off it. But then again what are you using it for? It's only saving grace is that their cool and use less power, good for laptops that don't have a SSD in them.
either this isn't recent drive or you got a "bad drive" in your work computer as i will say BS that "5400RPM is not acceptable for home use".
3 of 5 of my operational computers atm are 5400 RPM and not a single 1 takes 10+ mins to get to the point of being usable once the OS. longest is only 2-3 mins.
Shortest is about 15 seconds or less with a toshiba satellite a505 to use once you see the OS and that was bought about 18 months ago. (and it hasn't been reformatted once since it been bought)
Specs of this hdd:
4KB test:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/- [...] 20test.png
8MB test:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/- [...] 20test.png
So you want to still tell me that 5400Rpm are not good for home use? If these are not good, then 7200Rpm HDD isn't going to be good either as the specs are not so much higher than what a 5400 rmp drive can make.
Just because 1 5400RPM drive giving/gave you a bad experience doesn't mean all 5400 RPM drives are not good.
oh btw, if you want to talk about drive not suitable for home usage in this moment in time. how about 6 to 7 year old, 30GB, 4200 RPM hdd. those puppies take FOREVER to load.
As Travis said, previous 1 TB drives in the 2.5" form factor were 12.5 mm thick. That meant they couldn't fit in many (if not most) laptops.At 9.5 mm thick, Toshiba's 1 TB drives will fit in any laptop supporting 2.5" hard drives.As for the 5400 RPM, you wouldn't want that for your system drive if you could help it, but it's fine for a storage drive.
Nope. Samsung was the first to the market with a 500GB/platter 2.5" Hard Drive with 9.5mm height. Then came Western Digital, and now Toshiba.
See here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08 [...] -time-for/
It's available on Amazon for $100 now.
5400RPM is absolutely horrible for home use. Talk about taking ~forever~ to do anything. When my HDD at work started going south, it was replaced with a 320GB 5400RPM disk (was two 73GB 7200 disks in RAID). I needed more space and they figured it was a good time to swap it out since one of the previous disks was failing. Now when I come in for they day I put in my CAC click on outlook and go get coffee (remove CAC before I leave workstation). When I get back the HDD light is still going nuts and the system is sluggish as hell. 5~10 min later it's workable again. Opening applications and browsing the web can be slow. I'm currently trying to arrange for a new workstation since this one is getting out of lifecycle.So no, a 5400RPM is not acceptable for home use, using it as a D: drive might work provided your not loading any applications off it. But then again what are you using it for? It's only saving grace is that their cool and use less power, good for laptops that don't have a SSD in them.
There are several other factors that you need to take into consideration when making a claim that the 5400rpm is "much" slower than a 7200rpm. These include:
-Cache size
-Disk size (3.5 versus 2.5)
-Array configuration (RAID, etc.)
-Platter number and density
If all of these factors are equal, then yes a 7200rpm drive will likely be faster than a 5400rpm drive.
There are several other factors that you need to take into consideration when making a claim that the 5400rpm is "much" slower than a 7200rpm. These include:
-Cache size
-Disk size (3.5 versus 2.5)
-Array configuration (RAID, etc.)
-Platter number and density
If all of these factors are equal, then yes a 7200rpm drive will likely be faster than a 5400rpm drive.
Of course I'm assuming all other things being equal. This is purely about platter rotation speed and 5400RPM is just too slow for multitasking. Your running into the very real barrier of physics.