Samsung adds 640GB hard drive to Spinpoint M7 range
updated 12:55 pm EDT, Wed September 9, 2009
Samsung 640GB Spinpoint M7 drive has more density
Earlier this week, Samsung announced it will soon start shipping a new addition to its Spinpoint M7 hard drive lineup, with the 2.5-inch internal HDD. At 640GB, it's the largest offered, topping the current 500GB unit. Also compared to the 500GB unit, the new hard drive has a 28 percent increase in areal density, now at 516 gigabits (64.5 gigabytes) per square inch for each 320GB platter. The new hard drive is meant for high-performance notebooks that require greater shock resistance.
Increasing density rather than adding platters results in lower power consumption and higher operational stability than drives with a greater number of platters. The shock resistance level of 400G (2ms) when operating and 900G (1ms) when off is the same as the 500GB unit's. Improvements have been made to the controller to reduce power consumption, and there is no halogen used in the construction.
Otherwise, the new drive shares the M7 range's other features, such as the 5,400RPM rotation speed, 3.0Gbps SATA II interface, Native Command Queuing and 8MB of cache.
When it arrives in stores in mid-September, the 640GB Spinpoint M7 will cost $150.
