WD Ships 750 GB 7200RPM HDD for Notebooks

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

The 750 GB WD Scorpio Black for notebooks is now available for $149.00.

Wednesday Western Digital said that it is now shipping the new WD Scorpio Black HDDs for high-performance notebooks and portable storage devices.

Arriving in a 2.5-inch form factor, the new Scorpio Black drives combine 7200 RPM spin speed and 16 MB of cache to deliver maximum notebook performance. They also use the SATA 3 Gb/s interface and feature WD's Advanced Format (AF) technology that optimizes hard drives to take advantage of the capabilities of newer operating systems.

"Our most demanding customers have come to expect 'no compromises' from all of our Black series products," said Matt Rutledge, vice president of product marketing for WD. "The new WD Scorpio Black drive does not disappoint, providing users of portable devices the necessary speed, significant storage and efficient power management needed to enjoy their favorite HD content, high resolution images, powerful office applications or gaming at home, in the office or on the road."

Although WD focuses on the 750 GB model in its latest announcement, the Scorpio Black series comes in five flavors: 160 GB, 250 GB, 320 GB, 500 GB and the recent 750 GB. The 750 GB drive is now available in the U.S. at select resellers and distributors for $149 USD.

"The entire family of WD Scorpio Black hard drives is designed for use in OEM notebook systems and has been tested across multiple platforms to allow anyone a successful upgrade of speed and performance to their current notebook system," WD said in the release.

Kevin Parrish
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cybr
    Main issue that I've noticed is anything over 640gb is a taller drive than most notebooks can accommodate... Is that the case with this drive as well?
    Reply
  • mikem_90
    cybrMain issue that I've noticed is anything over 640gb is a taller drive than most notebooks can accommodate... Is that the case with this drive as well?
    Quick search on WDC.com says no. its 9.5mm high.
    Reply
  • Snipergod87
    cybrMain issue that I've noticed is anything over 640gb is a taller drive than most notebooks can accommodate... Is that the case with this drive as well?This is a 9.5mm Z-Height Drive at least according to this site: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=6278494663

    It is chinese but you can easily see the dimension numbers.

    Edit: mikem_90 found it on Western Digitals Site.
    Reply
  • runswindows95
    The 750GB Blue is also 9.5mm. Just seems the 1TB versions are 12.5mm height.
    Reply
  • Kahless01
    too much. the 500gb models go for 70$.
    Reply
  • mikem_90
    I'm still pondering swapping my current drive in my laptop with either the Seagate 500GB XT, or this one. Its nice to see that high capacity doesn't have to be as slow. Hmm maybe after prices fall a bit.
    Reply
  • rooket
    Kahless01too much. the 500gb models go for 70$.
    It's mainly a matter of whether or not the laptop has two hard drive ports internally at that point imho although many come with eSATA these days. Still, that wouldn't be internal.
    Reply
  • lamorpa
    mikem_90I'm still pondering swapping my current drive in my laptop with either the Seagate 500GB XT, or this one.Get the Seagate if you want to lose your data in 6 to 9 months. If your needs are for longer storage, WD may be a good choice...
    Reply
  • teflon2287
    "Get the Seagate if you want to lose your data in 6 to 9 months. If your needs are for longer storage, WD may be a good choice... "

    There is nothing wrong with Seagate in my experience... On average they seem to last about the same as WD....
    Reply
  • mikem_90
    teflon2287"Get the Seagate if you want to lose your data in 6 to 9 months. If your needs are for longer storage, WD may be a good choice... "There is nothing wrong with Seagate in my experience... On average they seem to last about the same as WD....
    So much this talk is based on anecdotal evidence, a tiny sliver of how many drives are out in the field and operating. By the time we really know concretely what failure rates are across a run of the drives, its been discontinued for years. Its like MTBF, just a guess based on a small sample.

    I've heard the talk from all camps. Some people say WD's suck, some people say Seagates suck. Me, I'll just keep good backups instead.
    Reply