Samsung’s 7,200rpm 250GB 2.5-inch Spinpoint MP2 notebook hard drive

As desktop-replacement laptops increase in popularity, 2.5-inch hard-drives are being asked to step up to the expectations set by their bigger 3.5-inch cousins.  Samsung’s latest Spinpoint MP2 disk does just that, scoring on both capacity - 250GB - and speed - 7,200rpm - to satisfy a demand for 2.5-inch drives that research firm IDC predicts will grow by 20-percent to 203m units this year.

“As the capacity, performance and stability features are comparable with those of 3.5-inch hard drives, Samsung’s 2.5-inch drive offers our customers a smaller form factor with a broad range of speed and density choices for advanced data storage” Andy Higginbotham, Director of hard drive sales and marketing, Samsung

The Spinpoint MP2 has a 3.0Gbps SATA II interface, 16MB buffer memory, and uses Native Command Queueing to increase performance in compatible systems.  Samsung have also added their two silencing technologies, SilentSeek and NoiseGuard, to reduce sound from the drive.

Forming the top end of a range that begins at 80GB, the 250GB Spinpoint MP2 will be available to OEM manufacturers in March 2008.