Hitachi unveils two CinemaStar HDDs

Hitachi on Wednesday unveiled a pair of new hard drives to add to its CinemaStar line, with the C5K320 and the 5K500. The former is a 2.5-inch hard drive with up to 320 GB capacity, while the latter is built around a 500GB, 3.5-inch hard drive. All of Hitachi’s CinemaStar hard disk drives are designed to extend the recording capacity of DVRs in home theater setups, but can also work with media center PCs.

The 5K500 features the company's new motor design, dubbed CoolSpin, that limits peak current during the disk's initial spin-up and allows it to decrease its continuous power draw. It communicates via a 3.0 GBps Serial SATA interface, and is capable of a 929 MBps media transfer rate.

The 5,400RPM CinemaStar C5K320 will be available with 120, 160, 250 or 320GB capacities, all of which sport a 1.5 GBps Serial SATA interface and maximum of 729 MBps media transfer rates. The third-generation drive is made to work in hot environments where airflow is at a premium, with enhancements made for reliability purposes. Either drive features an 8MB data buffer, and the higher-capacity C5K320s share the 5K500's 4 recording head, 2-platter design.

Both CinemaStar drives will be available starting in June, although pricing has not been released.

Filed under: industry, upgrades/storage, accessories
Other story tags: Hitachi, DVR, home theater, extender