I read this about a month ago, but didn't give it much though. Now with most 1TB drives sucking (no comments please, there's a different thread for that) I'm considering these.
First off, the Hitachi 500GB 2.5 drive
Due to hit in February it's a 3 platter 2.5" drive, which means it won't fit into any laptops out there due to its 12.5mm hight. Not a problem for me, as I would use it in a desktop / FS anyway.
One benefit of this one is that (apart from the fact it will hit the market first), is that Hitachi offers an EA (enhanced availability) model, designed for 24-7 use in a server environment.
Also, the Samsung 500GB notebook drive
This one is nice, as it has 2 250GB platters, and is stadard 9.5mm thick, so it will fit any laptop.
It's scheduled to drop next month (march), however I am somewhat skeptical since the F1 series were supposed to be out by june, but didn't drop til december. So expect these by September at the latest
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I for myself, since I just had a hdd crash on one of my 500gig desktop drives, am considering getting 5 of one of these to put in RAID5, depending on how the pricing will be. I myself am pretty confident, seeing as you can gete 320 gig drives for only 180$ at the moment.
Anyone else interested? This should finally be the solution for the capacity/noise tradeoff. (though unfortunately not yet the price issue)