Toshiba Introduces 750GB and 1TB Laptop HDDs

[tayb]

I need to meet these people who are so cramped for space that they need a 1TB hard drive or larger. I don't know any of them. I download my fair share of movies, have at least a dozen games installed, and have 16GB of music and I'm not even close to filling up my 500GB HDD.

Serious question. What are you people doing that takes up so much space? The only reasonable explanation I can think of is torrenting movies because I know you aren't buying that many digital copies from iTunes.

 

[tayb]

I do think that the desktop is not forever but its death is certainly not anytime soon and I seriously doubt laptops of today will be what replace it. I have a desktop and a laptop and would probably call my laptop my "primary machine." The desktop is really just for gaming.

 

[idisarmu]

People who say large laptops are going to disappear are wrong... well, I certainly hope they are wrong. I really want a desktop because they are upgradable, but I want something portable. I could get a micro-atx desktop case (like a shuttle in form factor) but that would limit my choice of motherboards in the future as well as cooling. Furthermore, the monitor is pretty flimsy and not portable. What I really want is a desktop replacement. A laptop that is 4-5" thick, with a large screen (16-18 inches) and a battery life of 15-30 minutes would be perfect for me, especially if I can upgrade the CPU and graphics card. (If you could slide the graphics card out like a wireless adapter in some laptops, that would be great. I wouldn't care if a CPU change required a lot of disassembly either) I wouldn't mind having a mid-range GPU (due to cooling requirements), since top-end GPUs simply cost too much for what I do. Storage-wise, current laptops suck. Anything under 1TB is too small for me, since I have a lot of music, games, and movies that I rip from my collection for convenience's sake.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's nice to have a laptop that is nice an portable like a slim 13.3" or 11.6" lappy with a weak CPU and integrated GPU, but I REALLY REALLY just want a PC that I can easily take out of a room, carry to another room without shutting it off, and set it up right away so that I can plug it back into a power source.

 

[shreeharsha]

I use my MBP 15" as my primary computer (i.e. for email, Office apps, browsing...) but it can never, ever replace my Desktop Gaming PC.

 

[jenesuispasbavard]

5400 rpm, no thanks.

Also, I have never owned a desktop. My laptop is my primary computer (including for gaming), and will remain that way for my foreseeable future.

 

[we_are_theBorg]

Where does all the storage go? Who needs 1TB 2.5" HDDs?

- I have a netbook for taking on service calls, troubleshooting, music/video on the subway, mobile office, etc.

120GB is fine here.

- I have a Dell XPS - 17" @ 1920x1080 4GB RAM, etc for taking to clients and doing Photoshop / 3D stuff (mobile Quadro video)

It weighs 13 lbs. and has a 320GB drive, which is also fine. Sometimes it fills up with PSD and TIFFs

At home I have:

- A media system hooked up to my projector, my surround system, my 44" photo printer and my 60" architectural plotter.

it's a Core2 Quad @ 2.83GHz and 8GB RAM
it's got a 500GB system drive, and 2 1TB drives in RAID, for swap file performance and local storage of massive graphics files. I think I've got about 800GBs of client work there

- My primary system also has this 2.5TB configuration, and holds a backup of my portfolio, reel, and current projects. It's a Core i7 920 with 12GB RAM

- I have a render farm with 8x Core2 Quad @2.4GHz with 4GB RAM

They have 80GB system drives

- Then there's the file server...

It's got 12 2TB low power drives in RAID6, for 20TB of available, redundant storage.

Long ago I digitized my crusty DVD and CD collections. This takes up about 3TB (hey, I had to keep the Dolby Digital and DTS surround mixes...)

My client backups take up another 5TB or so

My personal backups (portfolio, reel, projects, business documents, photos from the last 10 years, film scans of all my old 35mm stuff, etc. etc.) are another 6TB

So, that's 14 TB, with 6TB free.

I've had a very heavy, digital life for a decade, and run a data intensive business, and I'm nothing compared to clients that I've built 48, or 96 TB arrays for. If you have an office full of people pushing around 4K video it fills up obscenely fast.

There is always a need for more storage. When I upgraded from my Mac SE with a 20MB HDD to my 486DX 33 with a 250MB HDD I thought it would take years to fill it. 2 years later a 1.2GB drive seemed only modest.

I only put the media I need for a couple of days of autonomy on my portable systems, so to me that density isn't so important, but for folks without a file server at home a 1TB 2.5 inch drive could certainly be appealing. Bigger laptop drives mean bigger desktop drives right around the corner. I can't wait!