Samsung intro’s the Spinpoint M6, a 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive

Posted March 5, 2008 at 12:03 PM by Arnold Zafra

Section: Computers, Hardware, Peripherals, Storage

Samsung’s latest announcement means they are getting closer to putting 1TB of storage with a single drive into notebooks. The newly announced Spinpoint M6 hard drive is the “world’s first” 2.5-inch 500GB notebook drive.

The 500GB hard drive was produced by combining three 167GB platters into the hard drives small frame which achieves the 500GB total capacity. Despite its storage capacity, the Spinpoint M6 still boasts a 5,400 RPM capability. Fast enough for most everyone’s mobile computing needs. Samsung has announced the drive is currently shipping, however they have not yet announced which PC maker will be carrying the hard drive.

The Spinpoint M6 becomes Samsung’s latest attempt at putting 1TB of storage in a laptop. Earlier this year they announced the M79S laptop and were able to combine two 500GB hard drives in select Hitachi laptops.

Andy Higginbotham, director of hard drive sales and marketing, Samsung semiconductor said that the hard drive was a result of customers demand for more notebook storage to accommodate data, video and music files.

“Our Spinpoint M6 easily fits within notebook PCs with no modification to the notebook PC chassis, giving users more storage power than ever before,” says Higginbotham.

Other technical details of the Samsung Spinpoint M6 include: 5400 RPM Spindle Speed 8MB Cache 3.0Gbps SATA interface with free-fall-sensor Perpendicular magnetic recording technology Flying-on-demand head technology

The Samsung Spinpoint M6 is currently available and retails for $299.

Read [Samsung]