Half a year late with high-capacity notebook drive but still climbing the charts

Seagate's new line of notebook drives has been listed at a number of online retailers for some time but today the number one hard drive manufacturer announced the official launch of its Momentus 5400.4 line of 2.5-inch hard drives.

The Momentus 5400.4 line builds on the Momentus 5400.3 series by not only utilizing platters and heads that support the perpendicular magnetic recording but also by incorporating the SATA 3 GB/sec interface. The 5400.4 series comes in capacities of 120GB, 160GB, 200GB, and the highest capacity in Seagate's notebook drive line of 250GB.

The higher-bandwidth interface makes way for an increase in performance as the 5400.4 line boasts a 58MB/sec sustained transfer rate, a 14MB/sec increase over the Momentus 5400.3's 44MB/sec rate. The Momentus 5400.4 series also improves on the average seek time from 12.5 to under 12 ms but skimps out on the handling of operating shock as it can withstand only 325 Gs, down from the 350 Gs the 5400.3 was able to handle.

Seagate took a back seat on the drive capacity front, however, it continues to top sales charts and it shows as it has climbed to the number two spot in notebook hard drive sales just last year while it maintains the number one spot in hard drive industry overall.

Official pricing on the 250GB model has not been announced, however, many online retailers have listed the ST9250827AS between $170-250.

Source from DailyTech

Toshiba Portégé R500 gets another wireless option

There is a steady stream of new, Windows-based, ultra-portable notebooks making the rounds these days. Fujitsu launched its 2.2 pound LifeBook P1620 on Friday and Lenovo's 13.3", 2.5 pound X300 was also leaked to the web.

Toshiba is now throwing its weight behind the idea of lightweight notebooks with a 3G update to its Portégé R500 notebook. Toshiba also claims that its R500 is the thinnest and lightest notebook on the market: it is just 25.5mm thick and weighs only 1.7 pounds.

The addition of HSDPA support makes the R500 a worthwhile companion to any mobile warrior. The notebook is available in two versions: The R500-11J and the R500-11I.

Both notebooks feature a 1.2Ghz Intel ULV Core 2 Duo U7600 processor, Intel 945GMS Express chipset, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, 12.1" (1280x800) LED-backlit display, 2GB of DDR2 memory, GbE, 802.11a/g/n, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.

The two differ in storage options and weight. The 1.7 pound R500-11J comes equipped with a 64GB solid-state disk (SSD) and no optical drive. The 2.2 pound R500-11I uses a traditional 120GB, 5400 RPM HDD and an ultra-slim Super-Multi DVD burner.

Those willing to take a look at the Portégé R500 Series will have to fork over some big bucks if they decide to take the plunge. The R500-11I will retail for an estimated $3,000 USD. Stepping up to the R500-11J with the 64GB SSD will boost the price to $3,658 USD.

Source from DailyTech