Hitachi revs up monster mobile hard disk

WHILE ALL the hype on mobile storage is around the usage of solid state flash drives, that hasn't stopped the stalwarts of the hard drive industry from ramping up traditional magnetic disks too.

For media-savvy road warriors everywhere, Hitachi announced the availability of its 200GB Travelstar drive, today. It revs along at 7200RPM, has 4ms latency and sports a SATA connection for hook-up to most modern notebooks. 200GB is the chunkiest capacity yet seen on a mobile drive.

The drive will initially be available in Dell and Alienware notebooks, and expect it to tip up to retail in the next few weeks, with an estimated price of about $250 US, £150, or about €200 in real money.

Since the drives are hot and large, they'll have an impact on battery life, so be aware of that if you're planning on slotting one in to you existing mobile workstation. Macbook Pro owners, and other portable media users and gamers, may find the temptation too much to resist, however. µ