Hasta La Gadget!

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Jason, who needs a laptop drive upgrade that doesn’t involve the words “solid state.” Or “really expensive.” If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I am in the market for a 2.5-inch notebook drive for my new Core i7 MacBook Pro. The biggest concern for me is performance, with storage after that, and impact on battery life last. Every SSD I have seen is over my budget. I am wondering which hard drive will be the best non-solid state drive to fit in a MBP. Some people mentioned Seagate’s Momentus XT, which is a hybrid drive — are they any good? Thanks!”

One thing Jason left out was his capacity requirements and actual budget, but we’ll go ahead and assume he wants something larger than 40GB and cheaper than the average SSD. Any blazing HDDs out there for the taking? Go on, it’s not like giving up your secret will make everyone reading this go buy up the remaining inventory. No promises on that, though.

Ask Engadget: best non-SSD laptop hard drive? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well look at that: it’s the world’s first 320GB hard disk drive to spin at 7,200 RPM in a 7-mm high package — take that Seagate. The 2.5-inch Serial ATA 3Gbps Travelstar Z7K320 features a 1,334Mbps max transfer rate assisted by a 16MB cache. The HDD draws 1.8 watts during read/write operations and 0.8 watts on lower-power idle while humming along at 23dB when idle or 24dB when seeking. And that skinny 7-mm form factor means it’ll go places no standard 9.5-mm thick drive could even dream of when it hits the mass production lines in August — like say next generation ultra-thin netbooks.

Continue reading Hitachi stuffs 320GB into world’s fastest 7mm hard drive

Hitachi stuffs 320GB into world’s fastest 7mm hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just as we surmised, Seagate is taking the wraps off its new hybrid drive, with OEM shipments of the Momentus XT starting today. Hailed as the fastest 2.5-inch laptop drive on the planet, this here device marries a 7200RPM hard drive (250/320/500GB) with 4GB of SLC NAND flash memory and 32MB of cache, and the company’s Adaptive Memory technology allows it to store frequently used information on the latter for ultra-speedy access. It can boot up to 100 percent faster than a conventional 5400RPM hard drive, and thankfully for us all, it utilizes a standard 9.5mm-high form factor that the vast majority of laptops use. Seagate also affirms that the drive “operates independently of the operating system and the motherboard chipset,” but we’re going to hold tight until we see the first real benchmarks (it’ll soon be an option in ASUS’ ROG G73Jh gaming laptop) before getting all hyped up. In related news, the outfit also announced the world’s highest capacity 7200RPM drive at 750GB, with the Momentus 750GB boasting SATA 3Gbps support, an NCQ interface, 16MB of cache and “silent acoustics.” No price is mentioned, but you can bet a hefty premium will placed on something this capacious. The full presser, another image and a specs sheet awaits you beyond the break.

Update: The reviews are already pouring in, and at just $155 for the 500 gigger, it’s receiving a fair amount of praise.

Continue reading Seagate pairs 7200RPM HDD with 4GB of NAND in 2.5-inch Momentus XT hybrid drive

Seagate pairs 7200RPM HDD with 4GB of NAND in 2.5-inch Momentus XT hybrid drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 08:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate has been pushing the areal density envelope for years now, but by and large, these “developments” we hear about typically fade into the cold, harsh winter night without ever amounting to anything tangible. Not so this go ’round, with the company confirming to Thinq (and reaffirmed on our end) that it will be “announcing a 3TB drive later this year.” If you’ll recall, 2TB drives have held the crown for the world’s largest since early 2009, and if all goes to plan, we’ll be able to buy drives 50 percent larger than even those before the dawn of 2011. The company didn’t talk details — we’re still left to envision a price, release date and spindle speed — but it didn’t hesitate to mention a few issues that users with older operating systems may encounter. Essentially, you’ll need to have a rig that’s fully capable of handling the Long LBA (logical block addressing) standard, which means that you’ll need updated drivers, an updated BIOS and either a 64-bit copy of Vista, Windows 7 or “modified version of Linux.” As you’d expect, Windows XP users needn’t pay this platter any mind, and while Seagate is hopeful that industry players will all rally in short order to support the new HDD, there’s still a chance that these growing pains will lead to delays. What we’re most jazzed about here, crazily enough, isn’t the predictable jump in capacity — it’s the fantasies of über-cheap 2TB drives once they fall from the top.

[Thanks, JC]

Seagate confirms 3TB hard drive for 2010, possible 32-bit OS issues originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The system does have advantages. You can pick up a GoFlex drive assured that it will work with most computers via the bundled USB 2.0 connector cable, upgrade to eSATA or FireWire 800 for faster speed today, and then to USB 3.0 as you acquire a computer that uses that connector. Adapters start at about $20, which is what one might spend on a decent new enclosure for upgrading the old-fashioned way, and Seagate claims that separating the drive from the physical interface will enable it to sell less expensive external drives that come without any connector. Still, by the time most people spend between upgrading their PCs, they might want to simply start over with a higher-capacity drive that will be compatible with the latest and greatest connector anyway.

Continue reading Switched On: A new spin on external hard drives, part two

Switched On: A new spin on external hard drives, part two originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 May 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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