[MW Forums]

Western Digital is shipping a new 250GB drive designed for use in notebook computers. more

[seanmcg]

Holy C%#$, that's a big honkin' drive for that price, relatively speaking! I'll be interested to see performance specs. Does 5400 RPM PMR drive have any inherent performance advantages over a standard 5400 RPM drive?

[AndrewRodney]

That is an amazing price point! I've got a 160 gig in my new Macbook Pro. This one sounds like a winner as a swap out, if it really does preform as they say.

[moose_n_squirrel]

Was just looking at the linked specs...it's a 9.5mm height drive!
Unlike some drives, it will fit in all Mac notebooks. That's really cool.

[KernelG]

Now we're talking! 250 GB has been the magic number for my desktop Mac. It never really fills up, and stays very comfy.
Put one of these, LED backlighting, and a slot-loading BD or HD-DVD burner into a MacBook Pro and I will $&!% my pants, as Mr. Jobs likes to say.

[Nobody]

1 TB 3D flash-based chips on track from Samsung:
Samsung's Plan for Terabit Flash Memory
New fabrication technology improves memory capacity without increasing chip size.
By combining today's chip-making processes with the new 3-D design, they could build a one-terabit flash chip composed of eight layers of silicon.
http://www.technolog...Infotech/17907/

[Felix001]

And a relatively low power draw in laptop terms. Won't impact battery life significantly.

[TheBum]

Quote:

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1 TB 3D flash-based chips on track from Samsung:

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Actually, that would be 1 Tb (note the lowercase 'b' for "bits"). It would be equivalent to just over 100 GB after taking error correction into account, still not too shabby.

[billin]

And, of course, they had to release this a week after I installed a new 200GB drive into my MacBook Pro. Never fails...
I could have used that extra 50GB for the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion I'm going to install on Boot Camp... *:)

[WhitIV]

Is the pricing stated in the article ($199) correct? I did not find price nor availability at NewEgg.com, nor at ZipZoomFly.com, but I did find it at Other World Computing for $299. I want to buy two of these drives, but not at a $100 premium for each one!
Is the article wrong, or is Other World Computing, ahem, wrong?

[Peter Cohen]

$199 is the price that Western Digital listed in the press release. I don't see that the item is available in WD's online store, either. But its next closest companion, a 160GB SATA 2.5-inch disk, is listed at $135, so a $60 price difference seems reasonable to infer.

[WhitIV]

I just completed an online chat with Pre-sales customer service at OWC. They confirm their pricing at $299, because "the drives are hard to come by." I politely stated that I would wait to make my purchase.
Thanks to Peter for checking. Very kind.