News Bits: New Hitachi 7K200 HD, BenQ JoyBook S41 Released, Dell Reducing Packaging

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Hitachi ships 200GB 7200RPM notebook hard drive

Hitachi on May 10 began to ship its 200GB, 7200RPM Travelstar 7K200 high-performance hard drive for notebooks. Hitachi claims the 7K200 has a 22% increase in performance over its previous high-performing hard drive. The 7K200 is Hitachi's new 'platnium' drive, and will retail for $249.

Even with a higher rotational speed, the 7K200 has comparable power consumption, heat and acoustic properties next to its 5400RPM stablemate. The drive offers between an 18% and a 33% performance improvement in application performance compared to a 5400RPM drive.

Data encryption technology is available as an option on the drive. The 7K200 is currently available in the Dell XPS M2010 and in all of Alienware's notebooks.

Read More (InformationWeek.com)

BenQ introduces Santa Rosa Joybook S41

BenQ May 10 launched their Joybook S41 notebook based on the latest Intel Santa Rosa platform. The 14-inch widescreen notebook is slated to launch in Taiwan by the end of the month. Specifications are as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processors
• Intel 965PM Express Chipset
• Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GS graphics (up to 1GB TurboCache memory)
• Up to 2GB DDR2 RAM
• 14.1&quot; WXGA widescreen display

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

Quanta shipped 2.2 million notebooks in April

Quanta Computer shipped 2.2 million notebooks in April, the second highest monthly record for the company next to the 2.4 million it shipped in March. Quanta's president Michael Wang expects the company's shipments to reach 7 million notebooks in Q2.

Quanta's reported revenues of US$5.6 billion are a 32.7% increase on-year according to the company.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

Dell introduces 'Multipack' initiative for added convenience and environmental friendliness

Dell introduced on May 8 its new Multipack initiative, which is a packing option for servers that eliminates up to half of the packaging materials used in a typical customer installation of IT equipment. Multipack also helps customers save time during installation.

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Dell estimates that the company will save around 50,000 trees per year once the program is available worldwide. Multipack is currently available as a no-cost option for U.S. customers ordering more than one of select Dell servers. Up to four 1U rack height servers can be delivered in a single box.

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Dell estimates that it will save 2000 tons of cardboard, 1000 tons of wood, 300 tons of paper, 80 tons of polyethylene foam, and 40 tons of plastic thanks to Multipack.

Eventually Dell will extend Multipack across multiple product lines so customers ordering multiple products can take advantage of the added convenience all while protecting the environment.

Find our more about Dell's environmental programs and policies at www.dell.com/earth.

 

Sorry to be the nitpicker here, but its Taiwan not Taiway.

 

$249 for that drive? Still though...the performance ought to be quite good. I'm probably going to hold out for a 250GB 7200RPM drive for about $150-$200 myself though before I upgrade again.

 

I remember paying almost $200 for my 100GB 7200RPM SATA drive (I think it was $185 - $195), so $249 for drive that's faster and has twice the capacity doesn't sound so bad.

I'm far more interested in a hybrid drive though, so I will probably get one of those when they are released.

 

I suppose I could have one or two DVD images loaded onto the disc with 200gb to play with...

Nice that big companies are starting to think about our planet as well

 

Will definitely try to pick up one of those drives. You could actually probably fit a few blu-ray images on it.

 

Good catch. There were a few more spelling mistakes as well which I took care of.

 

Is is over the 7K100 ? I have both it and the 7K60 and while there is some improvement ( but a higher seek time according to HD tune ) my 7K100 is way too noisy .

Also I don't understand the 18% gain over the 5400RPMs , it doesn't add up .

Regarding the S41 , you can trust Benq to put in a 14"er a decent GPU for it size , well done . I just think they messed the original design of the 7000 which looked great , wonder how this will look .

Not that we'll ever have a chance to buy it ... where are their 17"er models btw ?

 

That was the only conclusion I could come to, the 7K100 was their previous high-end drive.

I believe they're comparing to a 200GB 5400RPM drive.

 

Hmm, I assume 250GB 5400RPM which 250GB 5400RPM hard drives are available for purchase today? I assume 250GB 5400RPM is the largest capacity now?

I'm looking to buy one for a USB portable drive. In fact, what's the largest 1.8" hard drive available today, is it 100GB?

In regards to hybrids -- in looking at all the Santa Rosa notebook announcements, is it fair to say that Intel Robson (flash on mobo) is the technology gaining traction at the expense of hybrid hard drives? Lenovo said they chose Robson because they were underwhelmed with hybrids, curious...

Assuming hybrids do provide significant low-latency performance benefits, would I still see those benefits when using a hybrid as a USB drive?

 

-That's right, the 250GB 5400RPM drive is the largest available today. Hitachi makes them; I'm not sure if any other manufacturers do.

-The largest 1.8" drive is 120GB, made by Samsung.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3660

-That's an argument I haven't heard before but I would assume that yes, it's going to be one or the other. It seems like most Santa Rosa notebooks, at least right now, are coming with neither.

-Using a USB flash drive with Vista via ReadyBoost doesn't provide that much of a performance improvement, and basically none if you have a lot of RAM (2GB). So no, you're not going to see the same benefits.

 

Since Hitachi took over the Death Stars from IBM, have their drives become more reliable? That is my only concern with this large new drive.