Irvine (CA) – Toshiba announced a new generation of 2.5" mainstream, hard drives with a maximum capacity of 320 GB. The company also announced its entry into the performance 2.5" market with 7200 rpm drives that provide up to 200 GB of storage space.

By the end of this year, you will be able to buy mainstream notebooks that will boast the storage capacity of mainstream desktop computers that were in the market at the end of 2006: As part of a general refresh of its 2.5" hard drive family, Toshiba announced a 5400 rpm series drives MK-46GSX and MK-52GSX, which will be available in versions ranging from 80 to 320 GB.

Especially impressive is the fact that the 320 GB model runs on only 2 disks, storing 160 GB on each 2.5" platter. The storage density on these 160 GB disks is 254 Gbits/in2 – which is the highest announced so far for mass-production hard drives. First 160 GB 2.5" hard drives became available in early 2006, indicating that the hard drive industry is on track to double the storage capacity of 2.5" hard drives every 18 months.

Other 52GSX drives will be available in versions with 250 GB, 160 GB, 120 GB and 80 GB, utilizing only one disk. This family is rated at a media transfer rate of 801 Mb/s and an average seek time of 12 ms.

The 46GSX series will be available in capacities of 250 GB, 160 GB, 120 GB and 80 GB and integrate 1- and 2-disk (120 GB) designs with a storage density of 200 Gbits/in2. According to Toshiba, the 46GSX achieve a media transfer rate of 759 Mb/s and a seek time of 12 ms.

For performance notebooks, Toshiba will begin offering 7200 rpm drives, which the company expects will make up to 25% of the 2.5" hard drive market. The MK-GSY drives will be available as 80 GB, 120 GB, 160 GB and 200 GB models, offering a media transfer rate of 895.9 Mb/s and an average seek time of 12 ms, the manufacturer said. Toshiba representatives also told us that the drives integrate power saving technologies that decrease the power consumption of the drives to between 0.9 and 2.3 watts.

All three drive series integrate a 3.0 Gb/s Serial ATA interface. Free-fall sensor options are available on select models.

All hard drives announced by Toshiba today are expected to be shipping in the fourth quarter. Pricing has not been announced.

SATA II?

Aug 21, 2007 08:45     

I haven't heard any notebook can support SATA II yet?anybody throw me a link here?
loopandjump report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Congrats, Tonshiba!

Aug 21, 2007 08:55     

How we're talking. Unbelievable. The last notebook I bought was a Sony in 2002, with 30 GB.
none report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Meh..

Aug 21, 2007 10:19     

I already have a Toshiba 80Gb hard drive for a laptop and it's a 7200RPM. Been out for a year solid now. The speed difference is noticable during gameplay.
Jordan report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Ok, I'm confused.

Aug 21, 2007 10:35     

Ok so 2 platters at 160 to get 320. But one platter for a 250 drive. So, what is really interesting, is why not put 2 250GB platters in a drive and make the first 500GB laptop drive? Marketing. Bastards.
confused report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

SATA-II

Aug 21, 2007 10:59     

SATA-II is compatible to standard 1.5Gb/s SATA. So far the notebook drive manufacturers have actually refrained from the numbers race and emplyed the more sensible SATA. Hopefully the SATA-II @ 1.5Gb/s will not consume more power than a native 1.5Gbps solution. In any case (and unfortunately) we are still far from seeing the interface as the bottle-neck...
Nize report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Even @ 759 Mb/s (which translates to approx 95 mega...

Aug 21, 2007 11:37     

Even @ 759 Mb/s (which translates to approx 95 mega bytes / sec) ay discussion of SATA I vs. SATA II is moot. Don't get hung up on SATA specs ~ because until drive manufacturers can get data rates to exceed the 150 Mbytes/sec (disc to interface speed) it's all just marketing with no substance. Got it?
BeenThereDoneThat report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Woooooooohoooooooo!!!!!

Aug 21, 2007 11:47     

Just the thing to go with my Eurocom quad-core laptop - three 320GB drives; 960GB!!!!
Luscious report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

RE: Ok, I'm confused...

Aug 31, 2007 08:22     

There aren't any 250GB/Pltr 2.5" drives (yet)...so a 500GB, 2 platter notebook drive isn't yet possible - but stay tuned!! There are several companies, (none of whom are mentioned here) who make 250GB/Pltr 3.5" DT class drives
Mr. W report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0