4 Drives Added to Performance Database
Results for a final production model VelociRaptor, WD's performance-oriented terabyte Caviar Black, WD's mobile 7200 RPM Scorpio Black, and Hitachi's 500 GB notebook monster have been added to the performance database.
Some relevant comparisons:
Hard drives hit 1.5 TB
Today Seagate leads the charge to the next capacity level with the 1.5 terabyte Barracuda 7200.11. Utilizing 4 375-gigabyte platters, the 7200.11 represents the first leap in capacity since the Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000's debut over a year ago.
Also announced in the firm's press release are a pair of 500-gig notebook drives, the 5400 RPM Momentus 5400.6 and 7200 RPM Momentus 7200.4.
WD Announces the Caviar Black
Western Digital this week announced its latest drive, another terabyte drive. Unlike the firm's 1 TB Caviar GP, however, the new Caviar Black features just 3 platters a la the Samsung SpinPoint F1 and a 7200 RPM spindle speed. WD has also finally upped its largest buffers to 32 megabytes.
With this announcement, the manufacturer has segmented its products into three separate lines. The standard "SE16" line segues into the "Blue" line whereas the GP units become the "Green" units. "Black" appears to be a banner under which the firm will unite technologies sought by performance enthusiasts. This particular drive, for example, trumpets its areal density and buffer size.
Most exciting to us, however, are the areal-density-specific part numbers that will accompany the Black series. It seems WD has finally acknowledged that enthusiasts want to know exactly what revision or generation of drive they're getting as opposed to a generic "xxxx GB" unit...
WD's Scorpio Reaches 7200 RPM
Western Digital has finally joined other notebook drive manufactures with a unit featuring a 7200 RPM spindle speed. Available in capacities of up to 320 GB, this family includes a 16 MB buffer and specs seeks at 12 milliseconds...
Server Outage
Over the weekend our ISP experienced some technical difficulties that resulted in downtime spanning from the evening of Saturday (US time) until Monday afternoon. Thanks for your patience -- we apologize for any inconvenience that readers experienced during the outage. Everything seems to be up and running now. Please email us if you encounter anything blatantly broken. Thanks!
StorageReview and SSDs
It's admittedly been a long time in coming... StorageReview has commenced with tests of solid state drives. Figures for two units, MTRON's consumer-oriented MSD-SATA3035 and enterprise-targeted MSP-SATA7035, have been placed in the performance database.
Samsung's Spinpoint F1 Hits the Performance Database
Figures for Samsung's impressive Spinpoint HD103UJ have been added to the StorageReview Performance Database. Unlike other terabyte offerings, this unit uses just three platters to achieve its 1000 GB capacity.
WD Unveils the VelociRaptor
Today WD introduces its newest addition to its 10,000 RPM SATA line, the VelociRaptor.