Western Digital Scorpio Blue 750GB Notebook Drive Outed

Hot on the heels of Toshiba's double-platter 750GB 2.5-inch hard-drive comes Western Digital's retort, the WD Scorpio Blue 750GB.  Intended for notebooks, the 3Gb/s SATA drive spins at 5,400rpm and has 8MB of cache; Western Digital are also pushing their WhisperDrive technology that, they claim, reduces both noise and power consumption.

There's also shock-protection and "SecurePark", which is used to park the heads more frequently thus reducing the likelihood of impact damage against the platters.  It's actually a little quieter than the Toshiba drive, when idle at least: 22dBA versus 25dBA.

Shipments of the new Western Digital 2.5-inch 750GB drive have begun now, priced at $149.  We still don't know how much its Toshiba counterpart will be.

Press Release:

WD® LEADS IN 2.5-INCH AREAL DENSITY WITH NEW 750 GB NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVES

WD Mobile Hard Drives with Advanced Format Technology Offer Highest Capacity For Mainstream Notebook Computers

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Mar. 30, 2010 – WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it is now shipping 750 GB of storage capacity in a standard-height 2.5-inch notebook hard drive — the industry's highest capacity to date in this form factor. Designed for mainstream notebook computers, the WD Scorpio® Blue™ 750 GB hard drives utilize WD's leading 375 GB-per-platter areal density and Advanced Format technology.

An ideal solution for notebook computers and other portable devices whose users require extreme capacities in a small package, extended battery life and cool, reliable operation, the WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB hard drive is also one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market.

"WD continues to lead the market with capacity points that enable consumers and business professionals to store large quantities of data and rich media content," said Jim Morris, WD's senior vice president and general manager of Storage Products. "Our leading power efficiency, achieved without compromise to performance, is another example of the added features and value that our customers have come to expect from WD."

Features of the WD Scorpio Blue include:

Advanced Format technology – Technology being pioneered by WD and adopted by other drive manufacturers to increase media format efficiencies, thus enabling larger drive capacities.

WhisperDrive™ – WD's exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market. These algorithms also optimize the way a drive seeks for data, which significantly improves power consumption.

ShockGuard™ – Leading-edge ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.

SecurePark™ – WD's SecurePark technology parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.

Fast and efficient – Ultra-fast 3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) SATA interface speed yields performance fit for demanding mobile applications.

Tested for compatibility – WD performs extensive tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab™ and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give our customers confidence that our drives will work in their systems.

Price and Availability

WD Scorpio Blue 750 GB (model WD7500BPVT) hard drives are shipping now through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Scorpio Blue 750 is $149.00 USD. WD Scorpio Blue hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty. More information about WD Scorpio Blue mobile hard drives may be found on the company's Web site at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=815.

About WD

WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.