Tuesday Hitachi announced that it launched a "trio" of hard drive solutions featuring 3 TB of storage each: the 3 GB Hitachi Deskstar Internal Hard Drive Kit featuring a 7200 RPM Deskstar 7K3000 hard drive, the 3 TB Hitachi XL USB 2.0 external drive, and the 3 TB model for Hitachi's Deskstar 7K3000 and 5K3000 OEM-based series.
Shipping this week to online and retail outlets for $249.99, the 3 TB Hitachi Deskstar Internal Hard Drive Kit features the said 3 TB 7K3000 HDD with mounting screws, step-by-step instructions, and downloadable software that allows 32- and 64-bit Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems to use the 3 TB HDD as one big massive data drive-- no additional hardware is needed.
"Consumers who have 32- or 64-bit Apple Mac OS X or Linux systems can enjoy the drive as a data drive or a boot drive right out of the box--no software download is required," the company said. "Due to the 2.2 TB limit on certain systems, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users should consult Hitachi’s 2.2 TB web site for system compatibility guidelines to use the drive as a boot drive."
Hitachi's external storage solution, the XL Desktop External Drive, is USB 2.0-based and compatible with Mac and PC. The drive is actually available now in three capacities: 1 TB for $99.99, 2 TB for $169.99 and 3 TB for $249.99.
As for the OEM drives, Hitachi's Deskstar 7K3000 began shipping in November and now arrives in three flavors: 3 TB, 2 TB and 1.5 TB. This particular line is best suited for heavy users, primed and ready for video RAID arrays, home or business PCs, high-performance workstations and gaming systems.
"All Deskstar 7K3000 drives deliver excellent power efficiency and reduced thermal emissions," the company said. "The Deskstar 7K3000 drive is also one of the fastest and most energy-efficient 7,200 RPM drives on the market. When compared to previous generation Deskstar drives, the 7K3000 PCMark Vantage test scores show up to a 27 percent performance improvement, and an idle power savings of up at least nine percent."
Hitachi's Deskstar 5K3000 family isn't quite as performance-driven, focusing instead on delivering low power and quieter operation for environmentally-friendly computers-- 29-percent lower power and 14-percent quieter acoustics than the 7K3000 line. Hitachi said that the 1.5 TB and 2 TB versions are shipping this month, followed by the 3 TB version slated to arrive sometime in Q1 2011.
