Mobile hard drives--partly because of their smaller, 2.5-inch size and their need to conserve notebook PC power--have always lagged behind 3.5-inch desktop models in performance and capacity. But a new generation of higher-performance, power-thrifty models has done much to narrow the performance gap. Western Digital--a major manufacturer of internal and external desktop hard drives--has announced its first foray into mobile hard drives. If the new drives live up to their promise, they should be among the best options available.
The Scorpio line of drives debuts in 40GB, 60GB, and 80GB capacities. The drive has a rated average seek time of 12 ms and comes with a 2MB buffer (an upgrade to 8MB is optional). Like competing high-performance models from manufacturers such as Hitachi and Seagate, Scorpio drives will spin their platters at 5400 rpm. Such high-speed spinning presents special problems with heat buildup, power use, and sound volume. The company says that it has solved all of these problems
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News source: PCWorld
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