500GB drive is just 7mm high

Hitachi launches ultra-thin laptop drive

Hitachi GTS has launched the ‘thin and rugged’ Travelstar Z5K500 2.5-inch hard drive which the firm says will enable new designs for ultra-portable laptops and netbooks.

The Z5K500 is the industry’s thinnest 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive, packed onto a single platter and spinning and 5,400 RPM. The 7mm so-called ‘z-height’ drives are a direct replacement for standard portable 9.5mm 2.5-inch drives.

“Ultra thin and light devices are, without argument, a growing trend,” said Hitachi GST marketing veep Brendan Collins. “In order for these innovative designs to live up to their true potential, they need rugged, reliable high-capacity hard drives that can withstand the rigors of a portable environment and satisfy the storage demands of their end users, and Hitachi continues to deliver.”

The drives feature 1.8W read/write power and 0.55W low power idle and nearly silent operation at 1.9 idle / 2.1 seek bels which the firm claimed is quieter than the level of ambient noise in the average household. The Travelstar Z5K500 also features 8MB cache and a Serial ATA 3Gb per second interface.

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