Hard drives keep getting bigger, with a WD 320GB 2.5-inch drive

Two days ago, on Oct. 31, Western Digital announced a 320GB hard drive in the 2.5-inch form factor that’s popular with laptops and notebook PCs. They claim it’s the first such drive.

The previous winner in the 2.5-inch size, best I can tell, is 250GB, meaning that Western Digital has pushed the envelope by about 28 percent.

This is good news. The 200GB drive in my MacBook Pro is nearly full, and it’s time for an upgrade. (WD says that these drives are currently available on their online store, but there’s no “add to cart” button yet for the 320GB drive. I have asked WD to clarify.)

It’ll be a nice upgrade, and not only because of the increased capacity.

The new WD Scorpio 320GB drive is a 5400RPM SATA drive with a 4.2ms latency and 2.5 watts max power dissipation. By contrast, the Toshiba MK2035GSS 200GB drive in my MacBook Pro is a 4200RPM drive with a 5.5ms latency and 5.5 watts max power dissipation. The upgrade should help performance and battery life as well.

>> Update 11/2: WD told me that the drives should be on sale in a day or two, and that the MSRP is US$199.99.

>> Update 11/4: They were not yet available to purchase as of today.

>> Update 12/1: Still not available.

Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
3 replies
  2. Alan Zeichick
    Alan Zeichick says:

    Swapping out a hard drive might void the warranty for the whole computer. Frankly, I’m not sure. It would be a good idea to check the warranty terms before doing any sort of changes. Alternatively, you could just keep the old hard drive sitting around, and then if you have any problems, revert back to it.

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