Seagate to Release World's Thinnest 2.5-inch HDD

Seagate shaves 2.5 mm from laptop drives.

As our devices get slimmer in form factor, the demand rises for the miniaturization of components. Storage hardware, however, is standardized to several sizes, with 9.5 mm being the typical height for the 2.5-inch drives used in laptops and notebooks.

System designers wanting something slimmer than 9.5 mm can turn to 1.8-inch drives or SSD, but that in turn drives up costs. Seagate believes that it has the perfect answer to this with its upcoming line of Momentus Thin hard drives it plans to launch next week.

The storage company has created what it touts as the world's thinnest 2.5-inch laptop drive, measuring in with a 7 mm height. Seagate says that its solution provides the lowest-cost storage for netbooks and thin laptops, enabling computer makers to offer systems that reach a broader market.

The Momentus Thin will feature two capacity points – 250GB and 160GB – both packing an 8MB cache, a Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface and a 5400RPM spin speed. The drive will be available to Seagate’s OEM and integrator partners in January 2010.

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