Toshiba intros 1.8-inch HDDs with capacities up to 320GB
updated 10:55 pm EST, Wed November 4, 2009
Drives geared for thin notebooks, ultraportables
Toshiba has expanded its line of small hard drives with several 1.8-inch offerings featuring capacities up to 320GB. The MKxx33GSG series is available in 160GB, 250GB, and 320GB sizes, each based on dual-platter configuration. The drives feature a 16MB cache buffer, 5,400RPM spindle speed and transfer rates of up to 830Mb/s.
The company claims its latest 1.8-inch HDDs surpass the shock and vibration resistance of their 2.5-inch equivalents. The credit-card size storage devices can handle non-operational shock up to 1,500Gs and operational shock up to 500Gs, marking respective improvements of 50 percent and 25 percent.
The MK1235GSL is designed as a less-expensive alternative, with a single-platter disk fitting 120GB of data. The components are housed in a case just 5mm thick, while the 4,200 RPM speed is said to be geared for power efficiency. Toshiba's current MK1214GAH drive offers the same specs, but measures 8mm thick.
While current 2.5-inch HDDs are now available in higher capacities, Toshiba's 1.8-inch drives are likely to be used in many of the latest ultraportables or netbooks. The current MacBook Air is only available with a 120GB drive, while even the SSD option only expands the storage to 128GB.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2008
I'd like to see a tablet from Apple
with something like that, but I know that Apple is only going with flash memory. Still, I sure hate to see drives like that go to waste. It would have been nice to have an optional choice, but that will likely come from some other company and not Apple. An iPod Touch with a drive like that would have been my dream media player. More than what I would need to keep a whole library of TV shows, movies, music videos and music ready at all times. Those are some amazing storage devices that Toshiba is offering.