Hitachi went all in today on their commitment to 3TB hard drives after posting the Deskstar 7K3000 to their website last month. In addition to the 7K3000, Hitachi also announced the Deskstar 5K3000 and the Hitachi XL, a 3TB external hard drive.
Hitachi went all in today on their commitment to 3TB hard drives after posting the Deskstar 7K3000 to their website last month. In addition to the 7K3000, Hitachi also announced the Deskstar 5K3000 and the Hitachi XL, a 3TB external hard drive.
Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000
The 7K3000 is a 3.5" 7,200 RPM drive that features a SATA 6Gb/s interface and 64MB cache. The drive is Advanced Format, leveraging 4K sectors. To get around compatibility problems with some operating systems, Hitachi includes a software download to let the drive be recognizable to most systems as a data drive. Apple, some Linux and some Windows users will be able to use the drive as a boot drive or data drive without additional hardware or software. More information on compatibility can be found here.
The Hitachi Deskstar 7k3000 (HDS723030ALA640) is shipping now with a MSRP of $249.99. A 2TB (HDS723020BLA642) and 1.5TB (HDS723015BLA642) model will also be available.
Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000
The 5K3000 family offers users and OEMs 3TB of storage in a more power-friendly package. The drives are probably 5,400 RPM, though Hitachi just lists Coolspin for their rotational speed. The point is however, the 5K3000 uses about 30% less power than the 7K3000. The 5K3000 uses a SATA 6Gb/s interface and offers a 32MB cache.
The 3TB (HDS5C3030ALA630) 5K3000 will ship in Q1 2011, the 2TB (HDS5C3020ALA632) and 1.5TB (HDS5C3015ALA632) will ship in December. MSRPs for the family were not announced.
Hitachi XL Desktop External Hard Drives
The Hitachi XL Desktop External Drive gives users access to up to 3TB of storage externally via USB 2.0 interface. The drives come in 3TB, 2TB and 1TB capacities with MSRPs of $249.99, $169.99 and $99.99 respectively.
Update 4/18/2011 – Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 Review Posted
