Laptop hard drives are finally getting to a stage where they re almost comparable with their desktop counterparts, thanks to enhancements in hard drive technology -- such as perpendicular recording -- and a storage-hungry market.
Although they re not comparable in price, with 120GB 2.5-inch hard drives hitting around double the price of a 3.
5-inch 120GB alternative, they are in terms of capacity, with 250GB hard drives on the immediate horizon.
In fact, computer manufacturers such as Dell and Alienware are already offering laptops that can optionally hold up to two 250GB 2.5-inch hard drives at once.
These are Dell s and Alienware s .
On its US website, Dell says it offers Up to 1/2 Terabyte (500GB) of storage across two hard drives, which is striped in RAID 0. It adds that this lets you store and access abundant data.
Alienware also offers high capacity laptop storage on its US website, listing Up to 500GB (2 x 250GB) as an option under its Dual Hard Drives in RAID 0 category.
Interestingly, upon inspection of their Australian websites, it appears neither company offers such high capacities to their Australian consumers.
Dell s of abundant data storage is watered down somewhat, as 240GB is the highest to which Aussies are permitted to increase the storage of Dell s XPS M2010 -- and this is split across two striped 120GB hard drives.
Alienware the same deal, with two striped 120GB hard drives being the maximum possible.
This is obviously much less than 500GB, but such a setup is also inherently more power consumptive than a single 250GB hard drive.
We have no idea as to who is manufacturing the hard drives Dell and Alienware are offering, as getting comment from the drive manufacturers proved nigh on impossible.
Fujitsu was unreachable for comment and Samsung s representative was unable to respond to our questions in well over a week.
Luckily Hitachi was able to say something on the state of large 2.5-inch hard drives.
Its drives aren t yet on the market, so details such as global availability and pricing were dead on arrival.
According to Hitachi, our notebook customers are asking for 250GB products for the most data-intensive mobile applications, such as digital video editing.
Also, applications such as slim digital video recorders are requiring high-capacity 2.
5-inch hard drives for the storage capability and its small size.
Many believe laptops are growing into serious contenders as desktop replacements, and Hitachi tends to side with this.
We don t think desktops are on their way out any time soon, it says, but there is certainly a growing number of people in developed countries who are purchasing notebooks as their sole computing system.
Hitachi s spokesperson adds We believe there is still a lot of room for desktop growth in the regions, suggesting that laptops are the way of the future in the developed world.
The large lappy hard drives are seeping their way out into the market, but good luck finding one in Australia.
Perhaps we re just not interested.
Were they available here, would you vouch for the 250GB or even 500GB option for your new laptop?
It's like the Toshiba PSPxGx laptops.
Toshiba Australia gives 7600 video cards (Part Number PSPBGA-01X015, PSPBGA-01W015) while removing the PSPAGA which had a 7900GS video card.
Obviously games-oriented Toshiba buyers are screwed in Australia.
Personally I'm waiting to see what's in store from Santa Rosa based notebooks from everyone else..
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