Western Digital releases 7200RPM 320GB notebook drive

Western Digital has raised the bar on the notebook hard drives with their new "Black" line of Scorpio drives. The new 2.5-inch SATA WD3200BEKT hard drives spin at 7200RPM which is faster than their 5400RPM (WD3200BEVT) Scorpio drives that I reviewed on 16 November 2007.

The new 7200RPM WD Scorpio Black 2.5-inch mobile drives are 9.5mm high – so they'll fit into the MacBook and MacBook Pro – and they come in several capacities, including: 320, 250, 160, 120 and 80GB. The WD3200BEKT 320GB bare drive sells for US$229.95 and is expected to ship on 20 June 2008.

In addition to the BEKT drives, WD also offers a BJKT model that includes a new free-fall sensor.

Free-fall sensor - As an added layer of protection, if the drive (or the system it’s in) is dropped while in use, WD’s free-fall sensor detects that the drive is falling and, in less than 200 milliseconds, parks the head to help prevent damage and data loss.

Traditionally mobile hard drive buyers had to choose between speed and capacity because the larger drives weren't available in 7200RPM speeds. The WD Black drives have filled that gap with a new super-fast, high-capacity drive that notebook users are going to jump all over. I'm cloning my data over to the new 320GB/7200RPM screamer the minute that I finish this post.