Hitachi Z5K500- 7mm 500gb

I spec'd my X220 with 250gb and 2gb since it's a lot cheaper to upgrade hdd and memory myself. Now I'm looking at the few hdd choices we have (only Hitachi I think). Anyone know about the Z5K500? It was released in Dec but still not for sale anywhere. Largest option besides that is the 320gb 7200rpm version available from Amazon for $50.

 

^^^ The Hitachi 7mm 320GB 7200rpm is the biggest of its kind right now, AFAIK.

 

does the x220 demand only 7mm hard drives?

 

In the x220, giving up a full-sized laptop drive for such a small volume of space was a poor design decision. A reduction of 3mm makes decimates the hard drive and SDD choices.

One would think that someone who needs a computer that runs for a long time might also need all their data with them too.

 

It really is terrible!!

Is there any risk of taking the cover off a 9.5mm SSD aside from warranty void and using that in the x220? Maybe electrical interference of some kind that could corrupt the SSD?

 

Well Hitachi announced the Z5K500...but then WD bought out Hitachi so who knows if it will ever be released.

 

whoa there seems to be a lot of people whom have jumped on the x220 bandwagon...

 

Sorry, I just don't see it. There is still a way to access your standard hard drives.

Option 1: Get the Ultrabase Series 3 or other compatible dock and 2nd hard drive adapter.
Lenovo Support - Dock's, Port Replicator's, Ultrabase's - Reference Guide
Lenovo Support - ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III - Overview

Option 2: Get an external USB 2.5" SATA drive enclosure.
Newegg.com - acomdata HDEXXUP-240 2.5" Black USB 2.0 Enclosure Kit

If you are just complaining that the 7mm drives cost a few dollars more, that's making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

The Hitachi rep told me the Z5K500 is already being sold overseas and will come here in a month or so.

Some of you are pretty melodramatic. This is an ultraportable. I think some just won't ever be happy. It's 12.5"/3lbs and will take an 80gb SSD and 500gb HDD simultaneously. Plus IPS. Plus all the Thinkpad qualities. This tiny little machine is everything I need it to be and aside from maybe an external monitor down the road I won't be getting anything else outside of it. Rarely does any product come so perfect.

 

Good info on the bigger Hitachi.

I'm going to carry as little bits on the ultraportable as possible. So, maybe just a small SSD.

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

That's why I jumped on it!

 

don't discount this so cavalierly. being limited to 320gb can be significant, depends on how you use the laptop.

i need a full 512gb - my x200(1), x200s(2) and x201(2) all have 500gb drives and lugging an ultrabase is not an attractive option and attaching an external drive is both an inconvenience and a compromise.

i find it ironic and a pity that lenovo gave the x220 more processing and battery power only to limit its capabilities in something so basic and fundamental as storage. if someone doesn't bring 7mm 500gb drive to market, i can't say that buying an x220 is an automatic for me.

i certainly wouldn't be able to use it as fully as its predecessors.

 

let's hope. price is not an issue, but availability [of choice] is.

i would have prefered a 2-3mm thicker x220 rather than slimming it down at the expense of less HD options. too many people fixated on slimness at the expense of practicality/functionality.

 

Me too, but considering the rest of the package I'm not going to start complaining about this. Isn't it a little early to be complaining, we don't even have our machines yet. I'm just grateful for what they've given us because I was really having hard time making a decision among the previous gen models which were all lacking in some significant way or another. Something like this 7mm hdd bay is a pretty minor issue for most people. 500gb (in addition to 80gb ssd) is still a lot of space.

Looks like Seagate's had 7mm drives since Dec 09. I only see the 7200rpm ones for sale and they're double the price of Hitachi's, probably because they're self-encrypting. That's just as well since Hitachi wins any day against Seagate.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/slim-laptop-hard-drives/

 

If price is truly not an issue, you can just buy this 600GB drive and be done with it.

 

The 9.5mm HDDs with more than 320GB capacity use two platters. The 7mm thick HDDs use only one platter in order to reduce their thickness. Hence the capacity limit.

John

 

don't be a wiseguy. i meant that price is not an issue in regards to Gom's earlier post in the thread "If you are just complaining that the 7mm drives cost a few dollars more". i'm willing to pay a bit more on a 7mm 500gb drive if need be.

i'm already stated in earlier threads that current SSD's are way too high in price for the densities that i need. theyll come down in price eventually...until then i'm fine with platter drives.

ps. besides, is that intel even form-factor compatible with the x220?

 

it certainly is.   newegg has photos of it showing it as a 7mm drive with a 2.5mm spacer, just like the rest of the X25/X25M/320 lineup.

Newegg.com - Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CW600G310 2.5" 600GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

 

well that is good to know. i wonder how soon it will be before specialized sellers (ebay, etc) will source and offer the smaller screws to mod-ers.

 

i believe the retail version includes the shorter screws.   i've had three lenovo-FRU 160GB intel G2 SSDs so far but not yet owned a retail/boxed version.   fedex should be dropping a 160GB 320-series on my doorstep anytime now so i'll find out the answer today.

 

M2 x 3 screws work fine - I've tried. Little bags of these can be found on ebay.

John

 

good to know, thanks!   i have a ton of that size screw on hand already.

 

CostCentral is now quoting $66 for the Z5K500, though it's not available yet.
Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380 (0J11285) - Internal Hard Drives
It's a little steep compared to just getting the 320gb 5400rpm upgrade, I guess, but I was expecting much worse.