Storage provider Western Digital is set to begin shipping 640GB 3.5-inch hard drives, called WD Caviar SE16. The new high-capacity drives are based on the 320GB-per-platter technology the company introduced in January.
The new platform was designed for cool and quieter computing. Western Digital is rolling out the new technology across its product lines, including desktop, enterprise, and external hard drives.
The drives are targeted toward users of data-intensive applications, thanks to "performance with their extreme areal density, 3GB-per-second transfer rate, and Native Command Queuing (NCQ)," according to the company.
"The 640GB capacity point will be an important one for our desktop customers, and WD is leading high-volume shipments to the channel and OEM customers," said, the general manager and vice president of the company's desktop business unit, Don Bennett. "Two-platter hard drives have always been the perfect balance of value, capacity and performance for many of our customers. Today's common two-platter drives are limited to 500 GB, but we are expanding capacity by 28 percent on the same design with WD's leading technology heads and disks."
The new 640GB drive is available now for a suggested price of $139.99. Western Digital has more information on its site.
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March 19, 2008 12:04 PM
Hey, 640GB is enough for anybody.
-JRL
March 19, 2008 12:07 PM
Hey, 640GB should be enough for anybody.
-JRL
March 19, 2008 12:25 PM
What world do you live in, JRL? Bigger, better, faster, more -- that's what everyone wants.
March 19, 2008 12:27 PM
It was a reference to an old Bill Gates comment.
-JRL
March 19, 2008 2:26 PM
haha. 640GB. I have a 1 TB drive full.
March 19, 2008 3:33 PM
640GB!! Oh my! When are the 2TB coming out? I filled up 3 of these with my adult content collection.
March 19, 2008 4:00 PM
I must be missing the big picture here but what's so fab about 640 GB?!? 750 GB and 1 TB are and have been out. Unless the 640 GB is set to be sold around the same price as the 500 GB goes for now I don't see the big deal in this drive.
March 19, 2008 4:35 PM
It is because it is 320 GB per platter. A 500GB Drive will have 250 GB per platter. Put 4 platters in a Drive and you get 1.28TB instead of 1TB
March 19, 2008 4:47 PM
It is because it is 320 GB per platter. A 500GB Drive will have 250 GB per platter. Put 4 platters in a Drive and you get 1.28TB instead of 1TB
March 19, 2008 4:58 PM
then why not just do a four platter and forget the 640? why would someone wish to purchase something that is just above 500 but less than 750? unless the price is close to that of the 500 then i can see the logic.
i acknowledge the higher density of the single platter and i think that's cool but the average non-tech-geek isn't going to really care that the 640 has two 320 platters - they only care about the cost of the drive and the amount of storage they are getting for their $$$
March 19, 2008 5:57 PM
bc it is cheaper and it has a higher transfer rate than the average hd
March 19, 2008 9:35 PM
I agree with the post by "no-one" Toshiba just came out with the 1TB for laptops. When are they going to expand and come out with min 2TB or more?
March 19, 2008 10:51 PM
MSRP is $139 - NewEgg.com has a Western Digital 750 GB drive for 149. Hm. $10 more and I opt for the 750 GB.
I agree with TK, the technology is cool but the average person isn't going to care. I think they need to price them close to $100 (where the 500 GB drives are selling at).
March 19, 2008 10:55 PM
BTW - the comment about higher transfer rate. 3 GB/s is basically standard for all SATA-II drives. :)
March 19, 2008 11:18 PM
I own an hp pavillion..2001...will this drive be compatible with my PC and my Windows XP?..Help please I'm no geek obviously...
March 21, 2008 12:27 PM
You will need to get a SATA controller (PCI bus). They're not that expensive.
If you plan to use this as a boot drive (i.e. your main hard drive) then you will need to see if you can select another boot source in the BIOS. Most of your newer BIOS gives this options when it detects another bootable device (i.e. a PCI SATA Controller). This may also require the BIOS to be upgraded in order to support this option in which case it should be a free download from the HP support site.
If you plan to have this drive just be a second drive then all you need is just the SATA controller. I personally like the controllers made by SIIG; they're reasonably priced, virtually compatible with everything, good tech support and it just works (at least it has for me over the years). Instructions are easy to follow to. :-)
Another alternative to explore is to get a SATA-to-PATA (or EIDE/IDE) converter. I personally have not used one of these converters but it can't be all that complicated.
Here's one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812206001
BTW, if you go the SATA controller route you will most likely need to get a SATA power cable. Some SATA drives provide the older 4-pin molex power port along with the SATA power (and some even include the adapter with the drive). If you need one they're just a couple of bucks.
All that being said, if you go with a converter, you may lose some performance on the drive as you will be using the IDE/EIDE instead of SATA.
I personally don't like to use converters in general but I understand that sometimes they are needed.
HTH.