WD hits 1TB in 2.5″ drives

Twice the capacity, same size

WESTERN DIGITAL IS on a roll, owning the next great ‘mine is bigger than yours’ plateau in hard drives. Today, they introduced 750GB and 1TB 2.5 inch laptop HDs.

The new Scorpio Blue 5400RPM, drives come in two new sizes, and are going to be stuffed into all the usual Western Digital external cases. Both of them are 12.5mm high, have the expected SATA-II interface, and come with a three year warranty.

They are available now, and the bare 750GB drive costs $189, the 1TB goes for $249. These are MSRP prices, expect etail prices to be a fair bit lower. If you want a case with your HD, WD will gladly sell you one of those as well.

The interesting part is that the new My Passport(TM)(R)(C)(P)(LOL) Essential SE(TM)(R)(C)(P)(LOL) portable drives cost $199 and $299 for the 750GB and 1TB respectively. That means if you buy the big drive, you pay $50 for the case, but the ‘smaller’ drive only tags you for $10.

If these price differentials hold to the etail level, you might just want to pick up an external My Passport(TM)(R)(C)(P)(LOL) 750GB and sell the case at a profit. Then again, they are fairly nice cases, the ones I have used seemed pretty solid and well built.

In any case, just when SSDs are starting to hog the spotlight, WD plants another stake in the sand, and blows the price/performance, or price/storage ratio wide open once again. The cheapest 128GB SSD costs about the same as the 1TB Scorpio, meaning an 8:1 price advantage for the magnetic HD.

SSDs may be faster, but if you want to carry massive storage, magnetic is still the way to go. As a bonus, a TB now fits in your pocket. Anyone remember when a MB HD wouldn’t fit in a backpack?S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate