HGST is announcing its new Travelstar 5K1500 which is the first 9.5mm, 1.5TB HDD to reach the market and is designed primarily for OEMs to install in their higher-end notebook computer offerings. The drive also meets applications such as inclusion in external devices and all-in-one PCs. The HGST Travelstar 5K1500 achieves its capacity expansion by using three platters instead of just one or two. This presents some challenges as operating shock becomes an issue with three platters in a 9.5mm form factor, but HGST has innovated a way of raising the cover to avoid shock problems. HGST is getting out ahead in the market with the Travelstar 5K1500 by offering 1.5TB in a 9.5mm form factor now instead of waiting for a possible engineering enhancement later that may enable greater density so that 1.5TB can fit on one or two platters in 9.5mm drives.
HGST is announcing its new Travelstar 5K1500 which is the first 9.5mm, 1.5TB HDD to reach the market and is designed primarily for OEMs to install in their higher-end notebook computer offerings. The drive also meets applications such as inclusion in external devices and all-in-one PCs. The HGST Travelstar 5K1500 achieves its capacity expansion by using three platters instead of just one or two. This presents some challenges as operating shock becomes an issue with three platters in a 9.5mm form factor, but HGST has innovated a way of raising the cover to avoid shock problems. HGST is getting out ahead in the market with the Travelstar 5K1500 by offering 1.5TB in a 9.5mm form factor now instead of waiting for a possible engineering enhancement later that may enable greater density so that 1.5TB can fit on one or two platters in 9.5mm drives.
The HGST Travelstar 5K1500 doesn’t just offer 1.5TB in a 9.5mm form factor, it offers performance and energy efficiency as well. The 5K1500 features 50% greater capacity than current 1TB 9.5mm HDDs and 200% more than single platter 500GB 5mm and 7mm HDDs. Additionally, the drives will spin at 5,400RPM, interface over 6Gb/s SATA and will ship with a 32MB cache buffer. HGST also claims a super low 0.5 watt power consumption during idle, no doubt aided by its 5,400RPM spins and designed as such to fit notebook applications. Beyond this, the drive is quiet too, emitting only emits 2.5 bels idle.
Other design notes come in the form of operating shock figures and in listing a few components. The Travelstar 5K1500 offers operating shock at 400G/2ms and non-operating shock at 1000G/1ms to protect the drive from typical bumps and jolts experienced by mobile drives. The 5K1500 also features a dual stage actuator for track miss registration improvements that aid in data integrity and reliability. All Travelstars also feature halogen-free components.
HGST will also offer the Travelstar 5K1500 in an EA model which offers features such as high capacity, durability and low power for blade servers, network routers, video surveillance and other systems that require constant access to data.
Pricing and Availability
Travelstar 5K1500 drives are expected to ship in June, while the EA model is expected to be available in Q3 2013. Also expected to be available in Q3 2013 are optional SED Travelstar 5K1500 drives which are designed to meet the Trusted Computer Group (TCG) Opal Storage Security specification.
HGST Travelstar 5k1500 Product Page
