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Largest 2.5" HDD currently available on the market is?

kdum8

kdum8

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 8, 2006
919
12
Tokyo, Japan
Have we breached the 1TB level yet for 2.5 inch, 9.5 mm hard disk drives?

I am looking to replace my MBPs HDD, and size is a priority for me. Searching around, I can find nothing bigger than a 1TB in this form factor.
Does anyone know if we have/when we will breach this barrier? 1TB has been out for a while now. ;)
 
It's all about reliability and that takes time to establish...If you have to have 2.5 then I think you may have to wait a few month yet.

I stopped chasing HDD capacity and opted for the Promise Pegasus for bulk storage using thunderbolt which means I can work in real time too. It's far from a cheap solution, but is flexible and very reliable indeed.
 
Macman45 said:
It's all about reliability and that takes time to establish...If you have to have 2.5 then I think you may have to wait a few month yet.
Click to expand...

Are you saying 1TB 9.5 mm is the largest currently? You know this for sure?

I stopped chasing HDD capacity and opted for the Promise Pegasus for bulk storage using thunderbolt which means I can work in real time too. It's far from a cheap solution, but is flexible and very reliable indeed.
Click to expand...

I know, but I can't help it. :p External drives are fine, but I work from my notebook often literally on my lap. External Drives are just not practical in this arrangement as the slightest knock can disconnect the drive and lose data. Hence I am looking at internal solutions.

Few more months huh....
 
kdum8 said:
Are you saying 1TB 9.5 mm is the largest currently? You know this for sure?



I know, but I can't help it. :p External drives are fine, but I work from my notebook often literally on my lap. External Drives are just not practical in this arrangement as the slightest knock can disconnect the drive and lose data. Hence I am looking at internal solutions.

Few more months huh....
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that none are for sale...Bit just a handful of aftermarket non-branded stuff that I wouldn't touch with the proverbial barge pole...They will come, but adding in storage fro me is just a case of daisy chaining in another Pegasus unit...Like I said not cheep, and other brands with T/Bolt are available a little more cheaply priced, but I'm not going back...I have 5 <3TB physical drives in a drawer that I used to swap in and out of pathetically slow USB caddies....Glad those days are gone.:)
 
Putting a 1TB 5400RPM hard drive as the boot drive into a machine is crazy. Either put a 750GB 7200RPM drive into the machine, or install a smaller SSD along with beefy external storage - it's 2012, after all.

Hitachi developed a hard drive filled with something that allows for larger storage, so at least we haven't met dead end on HDDs yet.
 
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Giuly said:
Putting a 1TB 5400RPM hard drive as the boot drive into a machine is crazy. Either put a 750GB 7200RPM drive into the machine, or install a smaller SSD along with beefy external storage - it's 2012, after all.

Hitachi developed a hard drive filled with something that allows for larger storage, so at least we haven't met dead end on HDDs yet.
Click to expand...

Why is it crazy? What's wrong with a 1TB boot drive?
 
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kdum8 said:
Why is it crazy? What's wrong with a 1TB boot drive?
Click to expand...

Theoretically the 1tb 5400 2.5" should be faster than a 750gb 5400 2.5", but I have found the 750gb stock 5400 Mbp drive much faster than a Samsung 1tb. The 1tb Samsung took about 2-3 minutes to boot versus about a minute for the 750 and 20 seconds for an ssd.

Maybe the Western Digital 1tb is faster than the now defunct Samsung ( bought by Seagate)
 
lannisters4life said:
It will slow the bejesus out of your Mac in comparison to an SSD.
Click to expand...

Well compared to an SSD you are no doubt completely correct, but at present I have a 5400 RPM 750GB drive installed so it probably wouldn't be any slower than at present.

The best option would probably be to remove the DVD drive and have both an SSD and a HDD in there, were that a possibility..
 
Giuly said:
Putting a 1TB 5400RPM hard drive as the boot drive into a machine is crazy. Either put a 750GB 7200RPM drive into the machine, or install a smaller SSD along with beefy external storage - it's 2012, after all.
Click to expand...
Do not publish nonsense!

Read this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15083892#post15083892
This:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13118351#post13118351
and this:
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/1TB-WD-Scorpio-Blue-25-HD-QuickTake/

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quasinormal said:
Theoretically the 1tb 5400 2.5" should be faster than a 750gb 5400 2.5", but I have found the 750gb stock 5400 Mbp drive much faster than a Samsung 1tb. The 1tb Samsung took about 2-3 minutes to boot versus about a minute for the 750 and 20 seconds for an ssd.

Maybe the Western Digital 1tb is faster than the now defunct Samsung ( bought by Seagate)
Click to expand...
My WD 1 TB Scorpio Blue (12.5 mm i.e. the older model) is pretty fast. Boot time is 20-30 seconds (Snow Leopard). Mac OS X is on the first partition (first 100 GB).
 
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Mr. Retrofire said:
Do not publish nonsense!

Read this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=15083892#post15083892
This:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13118351#post13118351
and this:
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/1TB-WD-Scorpio-Blue-25-HD-QuickTake/

----------


My WD 1 TB Scorpio Blue (12.5 mm i.e. the older model) is pretty fast. Boot time is 20-30 seconds (Snow Leopard). Mac OS X is on the first partition (first 100 GB).
Click to expand...

You understand that the 750GB Scorpio Black has a higher density than the 500GB one as well, do you?
 
I've had a 5400RPM in my MBP for a few days and it is horrible.

I will be replacing it with the new Toshiba 5400RPM hybrid ASAP.
 
A hybrid drive is a hard disk which has a large flash cache.

The second generation Seagate Momentus XT is 750GB, 7200RPM and has an 8GB read flash.

The new Toshiba hybrids are 750GB or 1TB, 5400RPM, and have an 8GB read/write flash.

I already had the 750GB Seagate, but I need 1TB. We'll see how the slower platter compares, given that the Toshiba in addition caches writes.
 
cube said:
A hybrid drive is a hard disk which has a large flash cache.

The second generation Seagate Momentus XT is 750GB, 7200RPM and has an 8GB read flash.

The new Toshiba hybrids are 750GB or 1TB, 5400RPM, and have an 8GB read/write flash.

I already had the 750GB Seagate, but I need 1TB. We'll see how the slower platter compares, given that the Toshiba in addition caches writes.
Click to expand...

Giuly said:
A hybrid drive is a hard drive with a build-in SSD, which caches the most used files on the SSD.
Like the Seagate Momentus XT.
Click to expand...

Wow those are so cool, I had no idea they even existed. What a great idea. :)

So basically, most of your everyday tasks are run from the 8GB flash cache? Is that enough to manage the operating system?

This might be my best bet, at the moment my Mac is running pretty slow, anything that could help it execute faster would be very welcome.

Is that Toshiba 1TB flash cache drive actually available yet?
 
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I've seen a few of the Toshibas in some countries.

It should appear in some others in the next couple of weeks.

I saw one review where the Seagate was faster.

It doesn't fit everything in the cache, but the Seagate does make the machine quite zippy. This already happened with the first generation, which has only 4GB flash and is also 7200RPM.
 
kdum8 said:
Right OK. They have been at that level for over a year so I thought we might be up in size again already. Can't be long though I shouldn't imagine, the manufacturer's must be getting there soon.




What's that?
Click to expand...

I think it's going to stay around that area for 2.5" drives (maybe go to 1.5tb and 2tb in a few years). Remember, they can't make these little platters denser and denser.

SSD's are going to become standards soon as prices drop. You can get a 512GB for $350 now, once those go down to $150, it'll be great for the industry.
 
SDAVE said:
I think it's going to stay around that area for 2.5" drives (maybe go to 1.5tb and 2tb in a few years). Remember, they can't make these little platters denser and denser.

SSD's are going to become standards soon as prices drop. You can get a 512GB for $350 now, once those go down to $150, it'll be great for the industry.
Click to expand...

SMR in 2013, 2TB in 2014 with TAMR.

Magnetic will keep increasing capacity longer than flash.

When 512GB SSDs drop to that price, I'll want at least a 2TB drive. Actually, I would get a 2TB hybrid NOW if it fit in the MBP.
 
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cube said:
SMR in 2013, 2TB in 2014 with TAMR.

Magnetic will keep increasing capacity longer than flash.

When 512GB SSDs drop to that price, I'll want at least a 2TB drive. Actually, I would get a 2TB hybrid NOW if it fit in the MBP.
Click to expand...

Hybrid only makes sense if you have it as an OS drive. The buffer won't come in handy if you're using it as a storage device.

Mechanical drives aren't going away anytime soon, but SSD's are competing and will take over the market soon.
 
SDAVE said:
Hybrid only makes sense if you have it as an OS drive. The buffer won't come in handy if you're using it as a storage device.

Mechanical drives aren't going away anytime soon, but SSD's are competing and will take over the market soon.
Click to expand...

We are talking about system drives here.

Flash manufacturing capacity is WAY too small for SSDs to take over.
 
cube said:
We are talking about system drives here.

Flash manufacturing capacity is WAY too small for SSDs to take over.
Click to expand...

As flash gains market share, the industry will increase manufacturing capacity, improve manufacturing capacity and costs will drive down. But the operative word is "soon". Eventually, flash memoy storage will become the standard internal storage media. Just not "soon". :)
 
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