Samsung has begun the execution of its roadmap towards 1TB hard drives embedded in laptops at this year’s CES in Las Vegas.
The South Korean company has announced the development of its new Spinpoint M6 500GB hard drive, the world’s first 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive that fits in the industry’s standard 9.5mm height dimension of laptops.
To be fair, Hitachi was the first to create a 500gb 2.5” hard drive. However, they did so by adding extra platters, which raised the height beyond the 9.5mm standard and therefore made them unusable in most laptops in production.
The news means that mainstream laptops, including those from Samsung can now support capacity of up to one terabyte of storage by installing two Spinpoint M6 500GB drives.
The Spinpoint M6 500GB hard drive features a 5400rpm spindle speed, a 8MB cache, and 3.0Gbps SATA interface.
With an immediate roadmap to 1TB in the future, desktop computers are starting to look more and more obsolete for the general consumer. It seems like a lot of our commenters here are of the mindset that their desktop computers are somehow superior to a laptop with the same specifications, but I digress.
When high end video solutions and quad core processors become more available for laptops, there will be very little room left for their stocky, screen less counterparts. No, I’m not saying that a laptop can ever replace the expandability and functionality of a workstation powerhouse. Making things small is always more expensive. The point I’m trying to make is that when John Doe is trying to pick a computer for college, there is almost no incentive to go with a desktop over a laptop with similar specifications.
Update 6/1 - These drives are now shipping from a number of locations.
Somehow I doubt desktops will ever be phased out. As the capacity, video capabilites, etc. for laptops increase, they will increase for desktops as well. So saying that desktops will become obsolete doesn’t really make much sense.
Perhaps I misspoke, but what I intended to say was that to a general consumer, they will become less and less appealing because a laptop (which are becoming cheaper at an incredible rate) that costs almost the same as a desktop can perform at the same level.
There will always be a demand for high-performance computing that a laptop couldn’t or wouldn’t be suited to do - but the fact of the matter is, the market share for new computer sales has moved towards laptops this year and I’m sure it will continue to do so.
Wow, it figures that Samsung would finally speak to the geeks with this tidbit of tech. All our music collections will rejoice in pirate glory!
@the guy from texas: the need for larger than a terabyte on a home PC is really non existent, however once the high-def markets start to become more popular that need will arise, seeing as how just a regular blu-ray disc will take up a nice chunk of hard-drive space unless drastically compressed (which would defeat the purpose of HD quality).
I also dig the design Taylor, I wouldn’t have that banner placed so prominently though.
Desktops will still be cheaper than laptops due to not being constrained by size. Yes as parts increase in performance and drop in price they have already done so for the desktop version.
In addition. If I am buying a machine for my home, I can use my monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers etc… that I already have, whereas a Laptop you get that stuff all new with a new system, further increasing costs to you.
Nice, where can I pick up my 2TB model?
5400rpm, I’ll take my 7200rpm any day.
Maybe normal everyday people that think a computer comes in a box and should never be opened. This is good news, but i would never want 500gb on something that I could drop and crash.
My 1.5tb of data will sit nicely in my choice built computer. Cooled to perfection, running 24/7/365. Something i would never do with a laptop.
need one where can i buy it
i thought hitachi was the first to introduce 500gb 2.5″ drive?
asus m70 uses two of the disk to create world 1st 1tb laptop.
until they change that silly mouse for laptop desktops will be safe
p.s. image trying to play games on a laptop keyboard
Well, my desktop runs an e6600 @ 3.6GHz with 4GB PC8400 OC’d to 1200MHz and 2x WD raptor sata raid 0 drives. I also have an 8800GTX that’s overclocked. Explain to me why I would ever consider using an inferior piece of equipment that you call a laptop?
Laptops are for people who don’t have time for computers or are too busy to actually use their capabilities.
Congratulations. Does that come with friends or do you have to buy those after the fact?
Not everyone uses their computers for gaming, dipshit. Most real computer users (business executives, software engineers, the programmers who make your games work) would say the complete opposite.
I’ve just seen a Sager laptop in person that had a quad core, two 8800GTX 512 in SLI and 4gb RAM. I bet its faster then your piece of shit!
Samsung’s new drive is great for those who need it. However, until I see evidence to the contrary, I’ll have to assume it will be like drives in its class have always been and die faster than 3.5″ drives. Yes, they do die sooner and we know that from longevity studies done by companies who buy lots of laptops.
Oh Josh, are you one of those guys who wears a toque in the middle of summer? Just wondering because your brain seems to be overheated.
Josh Davis, a laptop is a portable computer. It is for people to use when they are on the run or need their computer elsewhere. God, never thought I would have to define laptop in my life.
a, please shut up and leave. Personal attacks are just stupid and you need to grow up, and as apparently you are so smart you should realize this.
It is a nice development for laptops, but i agree with Bob that untill we know more about its longevity its not really worth it for the average joe.
in all honesty to gain any tangable benfits laptops need to have a longer battery lifespan rather than higher end parts (which can only exasserbate the problem)
I been waiting for a higher capacity HD for laptop. Although all my backup and library are fine on desktop but i don’t like to attached to a desk, so i like my MacBook Pro, which stays even closer than my GF to me lolz. I don’t care about the data loss because leopard has time machine which keeps all my data backed up. and I have restored a carbon copy of my laptop HD on a usb drive so just in case… With Higher capacity i can put a decent collection of music and all my ebooks, plus all the pictures.
Just want to make the point that this is just a beginning of computer evolution think about when its gonna be all mobile… cars with inbuilt computers, we wont have to carry any wallets all is gonna be on a small chip, you would be able to authorize any transaction from your cell phones, or there might not gonna be any cellphones … a decent laptop would be able to take care of most of our needs with safety and security.
I would really rather have a solid state drive in my laptop rather than a spinning disk that creates heat. I burned up a laptop with a hard drive upgrade once. The heat created by the drive was too much for the fan. There will always be a need for both types of computers. And for doing transactions from your cellphones its already possible in Japan.
Just wanted to add my thought that all though I have a laptop and a desktop, no matter how powerful laptops become, they’ll never catch desktops and so a laptop is never replacing my desktop.
My prediction is that people will eventually plug their cell phone into a docking station with full sized KVM attached. Obviously this being a solution for all niche markets like gaming, video editing, etc is a long way off, but cell phones will soon replace the “ultra portable” category, then move into more resource intensive categories as the technology improves.
If all you use your laptop for is checking email and looking at flash porno…then yes, why buy a desktop when you can transport around your porno.
Fact is before they make anything for laptops, its usually widely available for desktops for much longer… if they made laptop parts that rivaled desktop parts at the same time, the laptop parts would be 5-10x more expensive because they require more expensive components to get them to size….
Then you’d be posting a blog about how laptop prices are ridiculously expensive and they’ll be dead because no one wants to pay $700 for a $125 item…
I have both a desktop and a laptop but tbh i really only use my laptop when i leave the house or when i want to make people think im a big wig because own a laptop.
I think the author misworded the point.
I beleive that BUDGET PC’s will eventually be phased out in favor of laptops. It makes sense to move over to laptops on the budget size because of manufaturing and packaging issues. Plus, since the “average” user would never think about modding their PC; a laptop is a perfect blend of size and portability. Also concider the ever increasing ability of wifi acces to put even more impetous on moving from desktop to laptops to the average user.
That is not to say that Desktops will ever be phased out. There will always be a need to for high end and enthusiast systems. but the average user portability is worth more than customizability or power.
“bob from accounting” - frankly, 99% of computer users are doing exactly that. What do you use your desktop computer for that you find your laptop can’t? I use a single computer (Macbook Pro) and with 4gb RAM, a 200gb 7200rpm (high density desktop speed) hard drive and a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo processor, I haven’t ever found myself thinking “boy, this would be faster if it took up floor space and sucked electricity.” I connect it to a 24″ LCD, and a bluetooth mouse and keyboard and it fits my needs very well, because I can pick it up and take it anywhere. With eSATA and external hard drives, you can have as much storage as you please, Sager laptops have quad core processors and you can put SLI 9800 graphics in a mobile now a days. Yeah, its going to cost two or three times as much as a comparable desktop would, but its not a giant, immobile box.
LOL, fit a nVidia Quad SLI into a laptop then we’ll talk.
LOL… it’s not so much “fitting” it, but more so cooling that would present a problem. You could easily mount four 9800 GPU’s to a laptop mobo, given that the thing would have to be massive in the first place to allow airflow, and you’d never want to put it on your lap since it would be so hot that the pr0n you were browsing right before you stumbled here would seem unappealing for the rest of your life.
Now that’s humour. =P
There’s no way desktops will be obsolete anytime soon for one reason: expandability. Need more drives? Throw in another RAID card! More network interfaces? No problem, there’s even multiport NICs!
Sure you can say USB or Firewire is all the expandability you need, but you can’t beat the speed and reliability of the PCI bus. Ever clone a 500GB over USB2? It takes half a day! I converted all but one of my externals in to internals purely for speed considerations.
Upgradeability is also high on my list since desktop-class processors are dirt cheap compared to their mobile equivalents (likewise with all other components). It’s also very painless to swap out damaged parts in a desktop machine, especially keyboards or heaven forbid, a motherboard.
Mind you, I use a laptop for a workstation and the only desktop machine in my house is actually my server that just so happens to run a useful UI. I even control it with synergy from the laptop (shares the keyboard & mouse for graphical interfaces, I use ssh when I’m not home).
Some have said that all the speed & horsepower exists in desktops exist in laptops, which is quite true. However for a laptop to be worth anything to me it has to have more than a few hours of battery life. I have an Asus G1, and have no problems getting 3+ hours out of it. I can even game on it for at least an hour and a half before I have to start looking for a power outlet, and I can be quite leisurely about finding one. Suspend time is well over 24 hours too. You just can’t get those times with a quad core, SLI, RAID’d laptop, yaknow? Sure it’s a portable supercomputer but you’d be lucky to log in without having to plug in!
Mind you I plan on grabbing one of these 500GB drives when they come down in price and slapping it in my lappy. The external I lug around with all my porn is just too heavy!
I am not a fan of laptops and have no interest in owning one. It is all very well sticking a 500gb HD in one but after two or so hours you have a useless piece of plastic and metal to carry around so unless you want to plug it into the mains, and thus losing the mobility benefit of laptops. It is pointless sticking loads of stuff on one that you won’t have time to access.
As for laptops seeing out budget desktops, I cannot ever see that happening as most PC sales are for budget desktops. I have seen desktops in PC World, including a flatscreen monitor, for well under £300 that would cost at least £600 if it were a laptop.
Laptops have their uses but they will never replace a desktop until they get many many more hours of life out of them and have a bit more flexibility in their design to enable the average user to upgrade at will.
Laptops replacing desktops, I do not think so. Laptops at the moment suffer in a single crucial regard when compared to desktops.
The ability to upgrade.
Laptops at the moment are hideous to upgrade with new parts, plus laptop parts are expensive and are normally impossible to swap between different laptop makes. Most laptops also require a specialist if you even plan on upgrading them.
compare that to desktops, which even my 55 year old father can upgrade with only a quick reference to a book he got from the local library.
Yes laptops have their uses, they are designed to be used while on the move. But when the laptop starts to become slow and obsolete you have to buy an entire new system. You cannot just swap out the parts that need replacing (RAM, CPU, Graphics, Mainboard) as you can in a desktop (My 55 years old father recently did this with a little help from a book and from me). With a desktop when it comes time to upgrade you do not need to replace HDD’s, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, case.
This makes Desktop PC’s “Future proof” while laptops will perennially become obsolete.
i just dont get why there are still 2 manufacture streams still.
lappies and desktops both have their places but surely desktops can be made with laptop components but offering the space for upgrading etc? to my mind this would reduce the cost of going small ending in a win-win for all.
hell, when my parents were wanting a laptop recently - not for a laptop, more for a portable pc i was trying hard to get them to just get a shuttle. i still love my laptop but i do miss not being able to upgrade parts easily. such is life i guess.
jeez you people who think laptops are the worlds greatest invention are REALLY touchy about them.
such as “a” who cussed out the person who said why should he bother switching to an inferior piece of equipment.
btw making up statistics is a bad practice, saying 99% of ALL computer users are doing whatever is just stupid.
and whoever said “real computer users (e.g business men)” so are you saying that only people who do professional work with computers are REAL users? that would be another stupid claim by you who have wet dreams about your laptops.
I HAD a laptop but i burned the cooling system because i thought it could work about as well as my 6 year old pc that i leave on 24/7. laptops CANNOT be superior to desktops, you have to start working on something at a bigger size before you shrink it down.
And for the record, why would you bother using a bluetooth keyboard when oh lets see ALL laptops have a built in keyboard? it just takes up more desk space, if your concerned about space.
I have a lot of floor space but am constantly running out of desk space. so i guess whatever floats your boat then.
OH and for you people who are ALWAYS on the go and always outside and pretending you arnt big nerds at heart, yeah a laptops for you. but for someone like me who doesnt like socializing with strangers and who doesnt work for a business (since im still a high school student) then a desktop thats half the cost of your laptop with the same specs is perfectly fine for us.