1TB Into Toshiba 2.5-Inch 7mm HDD

Toshiba Electronics Europe has launched a new family of small form factor 2.5-inch HDDs that pack up to 1TB in a drive that measures 7mm in height.

For use in ultrathin laptops and thin PCs, the MQ02ABF series is designed for silent operation and low power consumption.

A thinner mechanical structure containing a new 5,400rpm spindle motor is housed within a newly designed rigid chassis that keeps noise levels to 22dB during idle and 23dB during seek operations.

Average drive ready time is just 3.0s (typical) and average seek times are 12ms.

The MQ02ABF100 has a capacity of 1TB and the MQ02ABF075 a capacity of 750GB. Both drives are equipped with two platters and four heads furnished with dual-stage actuators.

The MQ02ABF series drives are supplied with 16MB of buffer memory and SATA 3.0 (SATA 3.0) intelligent interface controllers with maximum operating speed of 6Gb/s.

The drives have an operational temperature range of 0-60°C (ambient) and can withstand shocks of up to 3,430 m/s2 (350G) while in use.

Sample shipment is scheduled to start in November.

MQ02ABF100/MQ02ABF075

Formatted Capacity: 1TB/750GB
Interface: SATA 3.0 (ATA-8)
Interface Speed: 6/3/1.5 Gb/s
Number of Heads: 4
Number of Disks: 2
Data Buffer Size: 16MB
Rotation Speed: 5,400rpm
Average Seek Time: 12ms
Track To Track Seek Time: 2ms
Max. Seek Time: 22ms
External Dimensions: 69.85mmx100.0mmx7.0mm
Weight: 99g (max.)
Shock Resistance: operating 3,430m/s2 (350G) (2ms half sine); non-operating: 8,820m/s2 (900G) (1ms half sine)
Acoustics: idle 22dB average; seek 23dB average

Comments

Up to now, the first and only 1TB 2.5-inch HDD 7mm high was revealed by WD last June, with exactly the same main specs but more choices in term of capacitiy (320GB, 500GB, 750GB and 1TB). At this time, the manufacturer stated the MSRP was $139 for 1TB, and that this WD10SPCX model (WD Blue line) was already adopted by OEMs Acer and Asus. It's a technological exploit to pack two platters rotating at 5,400rpm and four heads in such a thin unit. This kind of capacity, 1TB, can be an excellent argument to convince users of thin laptops needing a great amount of storage. Seagate and HGST didn't enter into this class of HDDs. Their 6Gb SATA 2.5-inch 1TB devices are 9.5mm high.