Hitachi has justannouncednew 2.5″ hard drives topower the next-generation ultra-thin laptops: the Z-series. Thanksits 7mm thickness,it can accommodate slimmer computer designs, and because it is a mechanical hard disk, the $/GB ratio is much higherwhen compared toSSDs. Of course, you won’t get the performanceor power consumption ofdrives like theX18M SSD from Intel, but at least you will be able to afford the Hitachi Z series.
Despite being slimmer than standard 9mm 2.5″ drives, the Z Series can be used as a drop-in replacement, thanks to the compatible attachment design. And because it is a drop-in replacement, the 7mm drive design will not end up being used for a niche market, so expect to see Hitachi drives in new laptops soon.
On the performance size, Hitachi has a complete line that covers rotational speeds up to 7200rpm, and carry up to 10MB of cache. One item that caught my eye is the 400G shock resistance, although it wasn’t clear if that was with or without “auto head parking”, as I’ve been told that there is no motion sensor in the drive itself — OEMS prefer to integrate it in the laptop to use it for other purposes.
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