First 1TB 2.5-Inch HDD 7mm High by WD

WD announced at Computex Taipei 2013 it is shipping the thinnest 1TB HDD with its new 2.5-inch WD Blue 7mm HDD.

Offering OEMs, channel integrators and consumers a storage solution for thin and light systems, slimmer notebooks, as well as compatibility with the industry-standard 9.5mm drive slots of mainstream notebooks, the Blue HDD family, in capacities from 320GB to 1TB in the 7mm height, now provides an option of thin design and capacity storage.

"Users with large portfolios of content no longer need an Ultrabook or upgrading to a thin and light notebook," said Matt Rutledge, VP and GM for client storage products at WD. "This most compact 1TB HDD to-date offers manufacturers of systems an upsell path for their customers who will now be able to choose systems offering both sleek design and high capacity."

"Intel is introducing its fourth-generation Intel Core processor family (codenamed Haswell) to deliver faster and more efficient performance to both desktop and notebook platforms, with significant gains benefiting portable systems," said Roger Bradford, capabilities marketing manager at Intel Corp. "The release of the WD Blue 7mm HDDs offers a new level of storage capacity that further enriches the computing experience for users of Ultrabooks, All-in-Ones and other thin and light PCs."

"With the release of WD’s 1TB capacity in a 7mm drive height, Acer customers now have the best of both options and no longer have to choose between the lightness of thin, sleekly designed systems or those with high capacity storage," said Tiffany Huang, BG president, PC global operations at Acer Incorporated.

"As ASUS develops new super-slim solutions, reliable storage options such as the WD Blue 7mm 1 TB HDD provide us with an ideal capacity to offer our customers," said S.Y. Shian, corporate VP and GM of NB business unit at ASUSTeK Computer Inc. "WD has eliminated the capacity limits heretofore endured by thin and light personal computers while keeping the reliability and data-protection of a traditional HDD."

Features of the WD Blue 7mm HDDs include:

• Shock Tolerance – ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
• Quiet – exclusive WhisperDrive technology enables quiet performance.
• StableTrac – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to compensate for system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations which enables consistently higher performance.
• Dual Stage Actuators – Leveraged from enterprise drives, dual stage actuators utilize two actuators to improve positional accuracy over the data track(s). The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy.
• Reliable – SecurePark parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
• Compatibility Tested – WD performs tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give customers confidence that drives will work in specific systems.

Price and Availability
Shipping through select distributors and resellers, the 1TB WD Blue 7mm 2.5-inch mobile HDD is covered by a two-year limited warranty. MSRP for the 1TB (model WD10SPCXX) is $139.