News Bits: Hitachi 500GB Notebook Hard Drive, Intel Snubs OLPC, XPS M1530 Now in Blue

Hitachi introduces 500GB notebook hard drive

Hitachi has introduced the world's first 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive, the Travelstar 5K500. It is the highest-capacity 2.5-inch hard drive to date. The 5K500 features a 3.0Gbps SATA connection and 5,400RPM rotation speed. The drive will also be available in 400GB capacity and there will be an enhanced-capability version of the 500GB drive, the E5K500, which will be designed for 24/7 operation in blade servers and network routers.

Read More (Laptoping.com)

Intel leaves OLPC

Intel on Thursday left the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization. An Intel spokesman said that while both Intel and OLPC share the same interest of putting computers in the hands of children, the companies were not able to settle "philosophical" differences. Intel did not attend a board meeting in Florida, which led to a private dispute and caused the announcement. The Intel spokesman said "We’ve reached a philosophical impasse. [OLPC founder] Negroponte had asked us to exclusively support O.L.P.C.-based platforms.”

Read More (NYTimes.com)

Dell XPS M1530 and M1330now available in 'Midnight Blue'

Dell is now offering its new XPS M1530 and M1330in Midnight Blue. Forum discussion can be found here.

NotebookReview.com review of the XPS M1530

Special thanks to forum member POH for posting this news.

Compal notebook shipments down in December

Compal Electronics' notebook shipments dropped between 19.1 and 23.4% on-month (1.8 - 1.9 million units) for the month of December, although Average Selling Prices (ASPs) for units were higher. The lower shipments are attributed to sub-prime mortgage issues causing downstream channel vendors to be more conservative in their inventories. Battery shortages also affected the shipments.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

 

AMD now has a huge chance of tackling the OLPC.

 

Intel and OLPC was never a good match to begin with. Intel had other things in the same (or similar) market, like the Classmate PC and Asus EEE (which spec-wise look very similar...)

As for the Blue M1530, it looks like a pretty good colour - more interesting than the black, less shouty than the red. Is the M1330 going to get it? I remember it looking very nice when somebody photochopped it to have a similar blue lid.

 

I really love that new color on the XPS series there, I agree with Redline, not too loud and not to boring. Just perfect.

 

How come it said Andrew posted these newsbits????? Now chaz does?

 

I'd say you should check BetaNews. They say that this new Hitachi isn't exactly in the 2.5" form. I believe they said it is a bit higher.

"Rather than being 9.5mm thick, Hitachi's drive is 12.5mm, which limits its use in current laptop form factors. That means it won't be sold to consumers, and likely will only appear in notebooks designed specifically to accommodate the larger drive."
I'm not sure about the second part of this statement.

 

I wonder if the new 500 GB HDD will be as fast or even faster than the current 7K200.

I don't understand why Hitachi increase the height of the hard drive when the whole point of having a 2.5" is to keep it small and light.

 

yah if we wanted bigger, we would use 3.5inch hdd's they have a lot bigger capacities.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but wouldn't shoving such high numbers of GBs make the drive more prone to losing data because a scratch will take out even more data than before?

 

Yep, its a bit taller than the standard 2.5" hard drive. The second part of the statement is true as well - there are two new Asus notebooks designed to accomodate 2 of these things, for a total of 1 terabytes of storage.

 

kylera stick with flash memory then. I mean, a 128GB SSD is only 3000 - 3500$ US (joke by the way). It is likely to happen, like it is likely to have aliens around us, but any HDD can break.

Well, I believe they said that it wouldn't be available for consumers, which I beg to differ.

 

I have my Dell 1330 on the way with a 320GB 5400RPM drive. According to my invoice its a Samsung Drive.

 

It feels like only yesterday that I announced the advent of 300GB hard drives.

 

bah, those of you who say that the 1530 is a good looking machine i don't really understand why...
i mean component wise it's great and well priced..and i think the blue is an improvement colour-wise, but at the end of the day its aesthetics are dull and boring.
at least it's not chunky and grey like those old inspirons...but i mean they could've at least got a smooth top and tried to appeal to a sleeker design which has been quite successful for hp and sony...and is one of the main reasons why the apple line is so successful

 

HP? They don't have any gaming laptop, except maybe the huge & future HDX. Apple = XPS in performance. I don't see a better gaming laptop, except maybe the future Alienware M15x.

 

i meant the exterior look of the notebook.

 

I tend to disagree, but you're right in a way. What annoys me now is that Dell is pushing the XPS series to mainstream, which most likely will make it crappier with every new laptop they release.

 

As I commented elsewhere, 500GB on three platters is no great step forward from the 320GB on 2 platters now being offered by several HDD manufacturers. I would expect the performance to be similar. The extra thickness of the HDD limits the upgrade potential for many notebook owners but I would expect to see at least 400GB in a standard thickness 2.5" HDD sometime this year.

Going in the opposite direction, now there is 160GB on one platter I wonder if any HDD manufacturers have considered offering a thinner HDD which would be well suited to the thinner notebooks. It would have a bit more speed and capacity than the 1.8" HDDs.

John

 

Agreed. Now if it was in the standard 2.5" form-factor, then it would probably be worth looking into for some people but Hitachi looks to have shut out some of their potential market here (upgraders).

What I'd really like to see is a 500GB 7200RPM standard 2.5" HDD, that would be worth it to me and something that warrants saving up for.

 

Well excuse me for being ignorant AND paranoid then.

In other words, regardless of density, the chance for HDD breakdown won't really change much?

 

I was thinking the same thing

 

kylera: No. If it will be it will break, regardless of capacity.

 

Sorta sad that the HP is still using an AMD proc. I'd be much more interested if it had teh C2D.

 

Interestingly, Samsung announced their own 500GB 2.5" hard disk yesterday, except its the standard 9.5mm height and can thus fit into all SATA notebooks.

 

it should be available in early March and carry a price tag of about $320

but that wont stop me from getting 2 of them and having the first 1TB ultraportable on NTR ... MUAHAHAHA