60GB hard drive for laptops now available

[AlphaTech]

I just thought that some of you might be interested to hear that IBM has FINALLY released a 60GB Travelstar hard drive (2.5" form factor). It is a 5400 rpm drive, ATA100, using Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor technology (makes for a quiet drive).

I have been waiting to see this in channels since before xmas, when I found it on IBM's web site, and now it is at (so far) one online retailer (OWC). I will be getting it sometime in the next month or so, after I check with a hardware vendor that I have connections with. I always go for the best price possible (doesn't everyone?). Once I do have it, and install it into my TiBook (Rev. A 500MHz), I will let everyone know if it is worth considering or not. My TiBook will soon be replacing my G4 desktop, at least until the G5 towers hit the streets, so I will need the extra internal space. I also want to see how the faster rotational speeds will help out with performance. :D

Here is a link for where OWC lists the spec.'s, be warned, it is not a cheap drive.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=4113&Item=IBM07N8328

[me hate windows]

that is one expensive hard drive. I can pick up 3.5 inch drives at CompUsa that are 100gigs for only 200. That thing is 579:eek:

[AlphaTech]

I warned you that it wasn't cheap... but 60GB to fit INSIDE a LAPTOP... NOT a desktop computer... that is the sweet part. In order to get that kind of capacity any other way with a laptop, would require external hard drives. Those can be large, loud, and will put multiple drives onto the desktop. Also, the thin drives are usually only 4200 rpm, not the 5400 that the 60GB provides.

I am checking around to see if anyone can get it to me for less then the $579. I will be converting the 20GB drive that I have inside my TiBook into an external FireWire drive as soon as I get the 60GB drive. With that as an external, I will have a 20GB, 30GB and 40GB external drives for my TiBook. The 30GB is a VST/SmartDisk Titanium drive (small), the 40GB is a Maxtor drive put into a FireWire enclosure (from OWC) and then I will get another enclosure for the 20GB drive (currently inside my TiBook). I have a large scanning project coming up that will use a good amount of all of that space, at least until I can burn cd's of it all. That will give me a good test of my new QPS QueFire cd-rw drive (24x10x40x) to see how fast it can burn a 700MB cd. My previous burner (12x10x32) could do a full cd in about 6-1/2 minutes.

[AmbitiousLemon]

beautiful, got to love that pixiedust. i bought the 32gb ibm travel star when it first came out (the first 5400rpm laptop drive created). i love the little thing. it did more to speed up my computer than throwing ram at it. its quiet (expecially compared to that toshiba crap), but there have been a few new innovations since the 32gb drive that should make your 60gb drive even quieter. i would say its definitely worth it if you can find a price that makes you comfortable.

[AlphaTech]

AmbitiousLemon, that is exactly what I was hoping to hear... I know that increasing the drive speed will give me a performance boost, since I experienced that before when I went from a 5400 rpm drive to a pair of 10,000 rpm Seagate Cheetah's in my old Mac clone.

The fluid bearings promise to be quiet, hopefully at least as quiet as the current drive inside my TiBook, if not more so.

I hope to get it for a cost closer to $550 or less, but don't think that I will be able to wait for it to have a major price drop. I have noticed that those drives pretty much stay the same cost for a looooong time.

I hope to be able to get my hands on the drive before the end of the month. I have to wait until I pay some of my latest purchases off first. I am also doing a bit of work on my landlord's computer (an aged 7100/66) that will pay down one bill and allow me to get the drive.

Peace

[mac15]

why

[AlphaTech]

Originally posted by mac15
why


Why what????

[mac15]

do people really need 60Gb in laptop

[britboy]

because 20 GB can be filled up in no time... I'm constantly having to move stuff onto cd to free up space on my hard drive, and it can be a bit of a pain sometime.

[AlphaTech]

That's like asking if people need more then 40GB in a desktop... If you are someone that either works on large files, or keeps a lot of them, then you will use the larger drive. My TiBook will shortly be replacing my G4 tower, so I will need the room that 60GB provides. I also want the faster drive, to give me a performance boost.

In the next few months, some family members want to pull their old records onto cd. With having the retail version of Toast, I am ready to do that for them. The extra space the 60GB drive provides, I will be able to do more then just a few albums at a time. I can then burn the cd's when I get home.

Bigger is better, especially when it comes to hard drive size.

[DavidCL23]

Get the 48gb ibm 48gh HDD, it is 1/2 the price @ cdw.com

[AmbitiousLemon]

Originally posted by DavidCL23
Get the 48gb ibm 48gh HDD, it is 1/2 the price @ cdw.com

well if you want to talk price ive always found www.transintl.com to have the best prices, but alphatech said he has a connection so i doubt he wants to go to either of these, besides if he wanted the 48gb model he would have bought it already. i like how people here are always telling eachother "oh you dont need that, let me tell you what you actually need" if the guy says he wants/needs 60gb then dont patronize him and tell him you know whats best for him.

[AlphaTech]

Thank you AmbitiousLemon...

I have been holding out for the 60GB drive, since I could have bought the 48GB drive months ago. I expect to hear from my hardware vendor this coming week, we shall see what kind of price he can offer me. If it isn't any better then what I have seen online, then I will get it from there.

If I was going to settle for something less, then I wouldn't have bought my TiBook over a year ago (when they first came out) and would have gone for either an iBook or even worse, a peecee slaptop.

[krossfyter]

whos your connection alphatech?

[AlphaTech]

krossfyter, I could tell you, but then I'd have to... well, you know the rest... :D

I will post the contact, if he can do any better then OWC for the drive. No point in sending tons of people there, if he can't deliver. It is a shop close to me in MA, that deals in hardware both Mac and peecee (they have to pay the bills somehow). One of the things that I do like about them, if they don't have it, chances are they can get it. They also have good prices on memory, of all flavors.

[dru]

The drive has actually been out for a little while... but only through dell as a upgrade for their dell inspiron 8100 notebooks. You can buy it from them for $499 I think, although they had an earlier promotion for 20% off and the total was under $400. Anyways, when it was first released, IBM's quoted price was $429, $579 is an outrageous price to pay for the drive, I would rather have the 48GB travelstar for $299 with almost all the same features

peace

[AlphaTech]

Where did you see IBM's quoted price??? I have a preliminary report from my contact, but he is waiting to hear from his vendor about the true cost. The person he is calling is in CA, so there is a time delay in getting information (they don't get up as early as we do on the east coast). :D

My contact believes that he got a quote of under $400 on Friday, but needs to confirm this before giving a true cost.

If this turns out to be true, I am ordering up one today.

[eyelikeart]

I can't even imagine having 80 gigs.....much less to have it in a laptop!! :eek:

[grrr223]

Can't imagine 80GB? Well, imagine it, I have 52 that is getting VERY full. With MP3s, a scanner (these can really eat up space, I don't know why the hell you'd want to do this, but an 8.5x11 scanned at 48 bit depth is a 5 GIG @#$#@$ file), and movies, you can easily fill up just about any hard drive imaginable. I've been backing stuff up to CDs lately to free up hard drive space, the only thing is that CDs have a tendency to dissappear (esp. in my frat house), so I actually feel safer having them on my hard drive (also).


I don't know how big it is, but if you don't mind the external hard drive, you can find drives up to 120 GB that are external firewire drives for only about $400 which is a lot less than $579.

[dru]

alphatech, here is a link to an article from November, that has the $429 retail price for the Travelstar 60gh... If you can get it for sub $400, hook me up! :)
I was too late on the Dell deal.

http://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/news/2001/1107pixiedust.html

peace

[Digidesign]

:( My ONE concern with these 60GB drives is the noise. I know it's got new bearing technology, but I can't imagine it being quieter than my 20GB (came with my Ti 550).

How's the noise on the 48GB drives? Are they rickety or whirlwind-ish?

[AlphaTech]

Thanks for the link dru and I will let you know what they can do for the price of the 60GB model.

grrr223... While it is true that you can get a 120GB external drive for about the same money, or less, the things are rather large (physically). The are about the size of a cd burner, and with the fans, louder. I would much rather have the 60GB inside my laptop then outside. Granted, I have the 30GB VST slim drive (Titanium model), will be making my 20GB drive an external firewire drive, and have a 40GB drive that I popped into an OWC Firewire enclosure (3.5" hard drive). All added up, I can have 90GB outside the laptop, with another 60GB inside of it (approx. 150GB of space total). I don't anticipate running out of space any time soon with all of that available to me. Also, if I need even more space for some reason, then I will go out, grab the largest 3.5" hard drive that I can find, and get a firewire enclosure for it. Considering that the Maxtor 160GB drives run around $300, and the enclosure is about $100 +/- a few. I will be able to add 160GB at a shot for about $400 or so. That will stay at home though, and not go on the road with me. The most that I will take with the laptop, are the two converted 2.5" drives. Mainly because they can be bus powered and will not require additional AC adapters.

It's all about the Gigabytes baby.... :D

[AlphaTech]

Digidesign,

The growing consensus is that the IBM drives are quieter then the Toshiba's that come in the TiBooks. If anything, they will be as quiet, not louder. This is because of the bearing technology they are using.

[Digidesign]

Originally posted by AlphaTech
If anything, they will be as quiet, not louder.

It's talk like that which will make me $459 poorer! :D (and 60GB happier)

Please keep us posted if you or anyone else gets one!


**warning, tangential nostalgia ahead**
150gb?! :eek: Remember the days of 40mb drives? Back in the days of Win3.1/Dos 6.2, I'd have to shuffle around my drives and constantly maintain the space (uninstall progs & games to install a new one). It's amazing how far we've come! (and how far we haven't -> windows... hehe)

[grrr223]

Is it hard to install or is it difficult to find the enclosures to put a 160 gig hard drive in a firewire enclosure? And would that drive be as mobile as say the 120 gig drive that already comes in the firewire enclosure? I don't really konw anythinga bout this stuff.

[eyelikeart]

Originally posted by grrr223
Can't imagine 80GB? Well, imagine it, I have 52 that is getting VERY full. With MP3s, a scanner (these can really eat up space, I don't know why the hell you'd want to do this, but an 8.5x11 scanned at 48 bit depth is a 5 GIG @#$#@$ file), and movies, you can easily fill up just about any hard drive imaginable. I've been backing stuff up to CDs lately to free up hard drive space, the only thing is that CDs have a tendency to dissappear (esp. in my frat house), so I actually feel safer having them on my hard drive (also).


I don't know how big it is, but if you don't mind the external hard drive, you can find drives up to 120 GB that are external firewire drives for only about $400 which is a lot less than $579.

why in the world are u scanning images that end up being 5 gig in size?! :confused:

[AlphaTech]

If you have any mechanical ability (can you use a screwdriver??) it is not hard to do. The enclosure dimensions are listed on OWC's site for the FireWire enclosure (http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=3479&Item=OWCMEFW). They are 1.5"x9"x5.5" (not a bad size). The drive fits snuggly into the case too.

The 160GB drives are the same size as the 40GB drives (physically) and will fit into the enclouser. At least the Maxtor drives are, I am sure that you could find a thicker drive, but I know I wouldn't want it.

[networkman]

a 60 gig hard drive is a great idea but what i am waiting for is a hard drive that big which is external and very affordable so if you buy a computer every year or two, you can keep the same external hard drive which makes a lot of sense

i would then have no need to upgrade the internal hard drive, which is all i can afford now

i am a techie and i wouldn't recommend changing out your own laptop's hard drive yourself, but once you do it a few times, you can probably do it a hundred times in your sleep

[AmbitiousLemon]

my 32gb ibm drive is a dream. this drive was the first in the series of these new ibm drives. i would NEVER buy a toshiba drive or any computer or component with a toshiba drive in it (yes i know the ipod is toshiba). the things are loud and break down. you cant get better than ibm for quality.

swapping in a hard drive is very simple. and there are plnety of photo tutorials on the web for you to take you step by step through the process. i would totally reccommend doing it yourself if you ever consider upgrading your hardware. Dont take your computer into a tech to have them do this, this is just about the worst advice ive ever heard. If you really dont feel comfortable doing it have a knowledgable friend help you. Techs are expensive and not any more qualified than a monkey with a blind fold. If there is ever something wrong with your computer take it to apple, never take it to some idiot with a storefront. These people are like car mechanics they will lie cheat and steal from you, and you will probably be worse off when you leave.

advising people to take your computer to a tech for a hard dirve upgrade?!?! crazyness. next he will tell us that installing ram in a powermac is far to technical and you must take it to a tech for that as well.

o and if you are going to insert a cd into your cd drive you better pay a tech to help you with that too.

nonsense! complete and utter nonsense!

[Digidesign]

Yeah, personally I would never bring my PB G4 to a tech to have them upgrade my HDD. It cracks me up that some places charge $30+ to throw in a new drive in a desktop. For G4 Powerbooks, it's somewhat understandable (maybe $10 worth), since you have to pop off the whole bottom casing very gently to prevent warping. But, then again, I used to work as a PC tech so for me it's no big deal and it's *gasp* actually enjoyable.

With that said, I think there are a group of people that need to rely on techs to upgrade their hardware (i.e., my parents). Mostly, people who have never seen a motherboard, or wouldn't know where to start in popping out/popping in their drives. If you want to do it yourself, and have a fairly good sense of computer logic (what goes where and why), then I say go for it! Only, remember to respect the components and don't use excessive force. (so when the motherboard starts cracking in half because you've screwed it on too tight, you might have a problem) :D

http://www.pricewatch.com shows 60GB 7200rpm firewire external drives going for ~$190. Not bad.

[AlphaTech]

Actually, I am a tech (supporting both Mac and peecee desktops and laptops), so to change the drive is a snap for me. I have all the tools I need to do the job right. What I intend to do at this point, is back up my entire 20GB drive to one of my external drives (while booting off of a cd). Remove the 20GB drive, install the 60GB, boot off the cd again, initialize the drive and then copy everything back onto it. That should allow me to be back up and running faster, and with little to no issues. I will probably run my full set of utilities before booting off the new drive for the first time, just to make sure everything is kosher.

I am still waiting for an exact price on the 60GB drive, but was told that it will be under $400. I really do hope to be able to post an exact price tomorrow, since I am itching to get the drive.

On a side note, they are selling iPods for $369 (plus shipping if you are not in MA, and close enough to pick it up). I would get one, but at the moment, I don't think I would use it enough. I am getting ready to have a cd player installed into the dash of my vehicle, to do away with the portable cd player plugged into the tape deck. I have been putting up with that for almost 3 years now, and have had just about enough. I don't use any tapes, only cd's, so changing that makes more sense at the moment. Eventually I will get an iPod, but not yet.

[networkman]

ambitiouslemon,

if you are a tech or a high end user, go for the upgrade yourself which goes without saying

but most people, and those not likely to be on this board, only know how to do word processing and surf the net and still half of america do not have a computer and this is called the digital divide

of the people who do have computers, they usually often have two

i do agree that some techies charge too much and some are ripoff artists, but if you can do a lot of technical stuff, you should consider making a little extra money on the side and you will be astonished how many people don't know the simplest things and would rather hire a tech than do it themselves

i am still a tech with a moderate amount of knowledge but some of my super tech friends (in silicon valley) wonder why i don't write my own software drivers and can't imagine why i buy compatible gear and not just buy what i want and write the drivers from scratch...but not all of us have those skill sets and that is the reason there are so many storefronts

btw, i really like your personal site and the designs you have

[AlphaTech]

Here is an update on the 60GB IBM TravelStar drive...

The drive should be available next week (before the end of the week, we hope). The exact price has not been determined as of yet, but it will be sub $400. The store that I will be getting it from is called 'The Geek Boutique' with a phone # of 888-FYI-GEEK. If you do call, ask for Travis. They are located in MA and can ship anywhere.

I am just waiting for the exact price and time when it can be ordered to get mine.

[networkman]

now sub 400 sounds pretty good, but sub 300 would blow anybody away!

[AlphaTech]

Sub $300 would be less then the 48GB drive... so I don't think that is going to happen until at least after they come out with an even larger drive. 60GB in a laptop for under $400 is a hellofa price.

Considering that I have been waiting for this for a few months now, I can hardly wait to order mine up. I hope to have it before the end of them month (installed and hummin). I will be letting everyone know how it works at that point.

[eyelikeart]

I was going to do it myself when I replaced my 10 with a 30....but once I cracked open that case, I got scared and called upon a friend of mine who works for the Apple reseller here. The procedure took him nearly 5 minutes...

I know it's not worth the $30 to have someone "professionally" install it for u, but if u are unsure about what u are doing then don't chance it....those PowerBooks are too damned expensive to play around with....

[networkman]

i should clarify that a new or relatively new user should not try and open up their own laptop, because, it is an expensive and sometimes delicate item

...as any tech in the field knows, there are power users capable of doing things far beyond paid techs because they are naturals, and steve wozniak was destined to be a pro bono tech until the other steve twisted his arm into making apple a "business"

talking about what some high end users can do, check out www.woz.org and read some of the stories

and of course, there are those who are fearless and those who are truly knowledgeable and think that i am a newbie talking nonsense about approaching going into a laptop with caution

don't think that something is "easy" because someone on this forum says so...a lot of claims are like the hot air of a puffing male turkey during spring

[arn]

Originally posted by AlphaTech
If you have any mechanical ability (can you use a screwdriver??) it is not hard to do. The enclosure dimensions are listed on OWC's site for the FireWire enclosure (http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=3479&Item=OWCMEFW). They are 1.5"x9"x5.5" (not a bad size). The drive fits snuggly into the case too.

The 160GB drives are the same size as the 40GB drives (physically) and will fit into the enclouser. At least the Maxtor drives are, I am sure that you could find a thicker drive, but I know I wouldn't want it.

warning: Maxtor 160gig drives will not work completely in just any firewire enclosure.

The firewire enclosures currently available only support ATA/100... so you can only format 120gb of that 160gb drive. The ONLY option is Maxtor's 160gb firewire all-put-together drive. It has a special version of the Oxford 911 which supports ATA/133

arn

[ewinemiller]

I have one of those 60gb drives in my Dell Inspiron. It was about $425 delivered from Dell upgrades section of their site. It's fast, not noticably louder than the 20gb travelstar that was in it before, and I have space enough on top of OS, games, and 3D toys to work with about 3 and half hours of DV video.

[AlphaTech]

How does the performance compare between the 20GB that you had, to the new 60GB drive? I know that it should be better, but it would be good to hear from the real world perspective. Also, which os are you running??

[ewinemiller]

I didn't benchmark so I don't have anything objective, though boot up did seem snappier. General use I have not noticed a difference.

[krossfyter]

hey ummm off the topic post...


i did not want to start a whole post about this possible stupid question.

so Ill ask here....someone can answer... and this question can fade away...


okay i meet a couple of people who told me that these so called CDRW powerbooks might not be CDRW. Whats the deal with this?

[ewinemiller]

Oh, the OS is XP Pro.

[AlphaTech]

The new TiBooks have a combo drive that is a dvd-rom/cd-rw unit. Look here for the spec.'s http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html. The drive reads dvd's at 8x, reads cd's at 24x and writes to cd-r and cd-rw disks at 8x. Not too shabby for a laptop.

[AlphaTech]

I finally just placed the order for the IBM 60GB hard drive to go into my TiBook. Price before tax comes to $425. That is the best price that I have been able to locate.

I really need the new drive since I am about to use the laptop for everything. My G4 tower is about to get a new home (between March 15 and 22) so I need to be able to install all my software onto the TiBook.

Now for the real decision... Do I not even bother with loading OS 9.2.2, or do I install it?????

[AlphaTech]

I have just installed the new drive into my TiBook and decided to just go with OS X (10.1 then updating to 10.1.3). I copied EVERYTHING off to my 30GB VST/SmartDisk drive (thin/titanium) so that I have all my files and software intact. I have enough software that runs native under OSX to give this a good shot. Worst case, I can always install OS 9.x back onto it later... although I am hoping that I don't need to.

I will probably be purchasing Photoshop 7 once it is available (can get the slightly reduced price since I have lesser versions that qualify).

I will post again when the drive is completely set up and running.