Seagate Technology LLC will start shipping a new
range of 2.5-in. hard disk drives for the notebook PC market next month.
The range promise a combination of better performance and storage
capacity in comparison with the company's existing models, Seagate announced today.
The Momentus-branded hard-drive series includes a 120GB drive that spins at 5,400 rpm and
a 100GB drive that spins at 7,200 rpm. This is the first time notebook drives with these
combinations of rotational speeds and capacities have been announced by Seagate,
according to Mark Walker, manager of product marketing at the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based
company.
The new range of drives offers three series that cover the high-performance, midrange and
value notebook PC markets, respectively:
The 7200.1 series offers drives with 40GB, 60GB and 80GB capacities, as well as the 100GB
version. All the drives in this series run at 7,200 rpm.
The 5400.2 series offers drives at 30GB, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB and 100GB capacities, as well
as the 120GB version, and all the drives run at 5,400 rpm.
The 4200.2 series has the same six capacities as the 5400.2 series, but the drives run at
4,200 rpm, the company said.
Both the 7200.1 and the 5400.2 series will be available with Parallel Advanced Technology
Attachment or Serial ATA interfaces, while the 4200.2 series will be available only with the
Parallel ATA interface, the company said.
A number of PC vendors, including Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc., Acer Inc. and Lenovo
Group Ltd., are testing the new drives, Walker said.
Seagate hopes the drives will help triple its share of the growing global market for notebook
PC drives to about 30% within three years, Walker said.
As price and performance differences between notebook PCs and older desktop PCs are
narrowing, more people are replacing their desktop PCs with notebook PCs instead of buying
desktop PCs, a trend that's boosting demand for 2.5-in. drives. The number of 2.5-in. drives
shipped in 2004 grew nearly 20% over 2003 and is expected to grow about 20% again this
year to reach nearly 67 million units, Walker said.
"We are No. 4 right now, but we want to be in the top three," Walker said.