Seagate Momentus Thin 7mm-Thick HDD Coming January 2010

Seagate have officially announced their indecently-skinny Momentus Thin hard-drive, which breaks a few records by virtue of its 7mm thickness.  The 2.5-inch hard-drive is targeted at ultraportables and netbooks, and will offer 160GB and 250GB capacities along with 8MB of cache and a SATA 3.0Gb/sec interface.

The benefit of the 5,400rpm drive, Seagate claim, is that it offers a lower cost per gigabyte than a comparable 1.8-inch HDD.  That means low-cost computers can be made thinner – 90-percent of netbooks use 9.5mm 2.5-inch HDDs, the company claims – without inflating their price-tags.

As for what the price tag is, exactly, Seagate are keeping such details secret until the drive is released.  OEMs will have access to the Momentus Thin from January 2010.

Press Release:

SEAGATE UNVEILS WORLD'S THINNEST 2.5-INCH HARD DRIVE FOR SLIM LAPTOP COMPUTERS

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — December 14, 2009 — Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) today announced the Momentus® Thin drive, the world's thinnest 2.5-inch hard disk drive for ultra-portable and entry-level laptops, high-end netbooks, backup devices and consumer electronics. At a wafer-thin 7mm in height – 25 percent slimmer than traditional 9.5mm 2.5-inch laptop hard drives – the Momentus Thin drive gives original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and system integrators significantly lower cost-per-gigabyte storage than solid state and 1.8-inch drives, enabling a new breed of entry-level thin laptops.

Of all netbook computers available today, 90 percent feature 9.5mm 2.5-inch laptop drives because solid state and 1.8-inch hard drives are largely cost-prohibitive for this market. The Momentus Thin drive provides the lowest-cost storage for netbooks and thin laptops, enabling computer makers to offer systems that reach a broader market.

"The Momentus® Thin drive promises to help computer makers differentiate on mobile-computing form factor and better compete in the fast-growing markets for thin laptop PCs and netbooks," said Dave Mosley, executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management at Seagate. "Seagate is committed to helping its OEM and system integrator partners meet market demand for thinner laptop PCs and plans to expand storage capabilities for thin laptops as demand for these slimmer models continues to grow."

The Momentus Thin drive rivals traditional 2.5-inch laptop drives in performance and power-efficiency, enabling thin-chassis designs in all segments of notebook computing and allowing OEMs both to design in greater value on high-end netbooks for easier upselling and to create a wider value differentiation between consumer and commercial laptop PCs. The Momentus Thin drive features two capacity points – 250GB and 160GB – an 8MB cache, a Serial ATA 3Gb/second interface and a 5400RPM spin speed. The drive is scheduled to ship to Seagate's OEM and integrator partners in January 2010.

The Seagate® Momentus® family now helps laptop makers give home and business users a sweeping upgrade path – from netbooks, often purchased as introductory, low-cost laptop PCs strictly for emailing and Internet surfing, to notebooks offering mainstream business and consumer applications, to feature-rich, high-performance laptops, all in standard-size and the increasingly popular thin models. Seagate Momentus 5400RPM and 7200RPM hard drives in the traditional 9.5mm height combine the industry's broadest feature set – including self-encryption, FIPS 140-2 certification and free-fall sensors – with up to 640GB of capacity, fast 3Gb/second Serial ATA interface speeds, cache sizes as large as 16MB, and among the highest hard drive shock-tolerance, acoustics and reliability specifications for entry-level, mainstream and high-performance laptops.