[Wyatt]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...4488883&EDATE=

Fujitsu has announced a 300 GB 2.5" hard drive. Apparently, it's shipping next year. They didn't announce a price, though. Anybody want to take a shot?

Of course, the inevitable side effect of this is the best news of all -- a slight price drop on other notebook drive capacities should be in the wings. Maybe I will add a 200 GB drive to my MacBook next year, after all.

[chucker]

4200 RPM… Though, at 300 GBs (and therefore fairly high density), that's not slow at all. Theoretically, that's still 75% faster, but there's more factors to it than just RPM. So I'd wait for benchmarks Their "150 MB/s max" is certainly nonsense and just the SATA 1 theoretical speed, though they claim it's actually SATA 2.5; interesting.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by chucker 4200 RPM… Though, at 300 GBs (and therefore fairly high density), that's not slow at all. Theoretically, that's still 75% faster, but there's more factors to it than just RPM. So I'd wait for benchmarks Their "150 MB/s max" is certainly nonsense and just the SATA 1 theoretical speed, though they claim it's actually SATA 2.5; interesting.

I've got to hold out hope that we'll see a 5400 RPM 200 GB drive next year. I don't really need a 7200 RPM drive, but I won't settle for less than 5400. Of course, a 5400 RPM 300 GB drive won't be far behind that one.

Now, is 4200 RPM a limitation of perpindicular recording, or are they still just working on speeding up the read/write heads at that density?

[chucker]

I can't think of any reason perpendicular recording would pose such a limitation. I'm fairly sure it's just a matter of time. Plus, I believe that 160 GB 5400 RPM drive Apple offers is perpendicular…

(edit) Yep. That's the PATA variant, not SATA, but should be virtually the same drive, and they clearly claim it's perpendicular.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by chucker I can't think of any reason perpendicular recording would pose such a limitation. I'm fairly sure it's just a matter of time. Plus, I believe that 160 GB 5400 RPM drive Apple offers is perpendicular…

Ah, very good. Thanks for the quick answer. I guess I'll sit on my hard drive money until we hit 5400 on a 200 GB drive, then.