As a fan of the bus-powered FW800 drives that have the option of USB 2.0, I was pretty happy to learn about this one. We haven't checked it out yet, though it's probably worth a Lightning Review.

The only fishy part is that it comes with "required cables and dock," which makes me wonder if it can't pull all the necessary current from the FireWire (or USB 2.0) bus to spin that baby at 7200rpm. Does it need an extra power cord? I can't imagine it would, but I'll get a firm answer. Update/Firm Answer: It's fully bus-powered, and the dock is just for convenience. In the meantime, anyone who's regularly running around with external disks full of ProTools or Final Cut projects should be on this: $190 for 500GB of smooth spinning, portable goodness.

And no, there's no such thing as a true portable 10,000rpm 2.5" drive. Not yet at least. Check back in a few months.

(I should point out that, in the course of writing this up, I found that OWC also just introduced a 7200rpm 500GB drive with FW800, the Mercury On-The-Go Pro, though they cost about $50 more.)

From Seagate's press materials:

FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac Drive

Higher performance means faster workflow, and that equals greater productivity for creative professionals who work with digital video, music, photography and graphic arts. The FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac clocks in at 7200RPMs to deliver lightening fast performance and throughput with FireWire 800/400 interface for those that need higher-data transfer, making production and editing of large multi-media files a breeze.

The Seagate FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac storage solution is slim, compact and offers fast throughput with FireWire 800 or FireWire 400 connections and includes the required cables and dock. The Seagate FreeAgent Go Pro for Mac is available this month for a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $129.99 USD for 250GB, $149.99 USD for 320GB and $189.99 for 500GB.

Samsung Announces Mass Production of the World's Highest Capacity Hard Drive for Mainstream Laptops
San Jose, CA on Jun 18, 2008

San Jose, CA - June 18, 2008 - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, announced today the mass production of the world's highest capacity hard drive for laptops - the new Spinpoint M6, and mass production of one of the world's fastest laptop hard drives - the new Spinpoint MP2. The Spinpoint M6 features a stunning 500GB capacity and the MP2 has a 250GB capacity operating at a 7,200rpm rotation. Both hard drives are currently shipping. The Spinpoint M6 has a $299 MSRP and the MP2 has a $199 MSRP.

"The Spinpoint M6 is ideal for notebook power users who require vast amounts of storage space for their data, video and music files," said Hubbert Smith, Director of Storage, Samsung Semiconductor. "The MP2 has speed, features and capacity similar to a 3.5" hard drive and is perfect for users who require a smaller form factor with advanced data storage needs."

Size Matters: The 500GB Spinpoint M6 Hard Drive

The Spinpoint M6 fits the industry's standard 9.5mm height dimension and is armed with a massive 500GB capacity consisting of three 167GB platters, notebook PC manufacturers can integrate the Spinpoint M6 into the tens of millions of notebook PCs that ship every quarter as well as slim form factor PCs and high density mobile applications.

Mainstream notebook PCs can now support capacity of up to one terabyte by employing two Samsung Spinpoint M6 drives. For premium notebook PCs, the Spinpoint M6 meets the Microsoft fast-boot design requirements and supports ramp load and unload of up to 600,000 times.

The Spinpoint M6 500GB hard drive features a 5400rpm spindle speed, a 8MB cache, and 3.0Gbps SATA interface with a Free-Fall-Sensor available as an optional feature. Perpendicular Magnetic Recording technology enables the 500GB drive to store 160,000 digital images, 125 hours of DVD movies, or 60 hours of high definition video images. The drive also features Samsung's Flying-on-Demand head technology that improves recording stability over changing temperature ranges.

The Need for Speed: Spinpoint M2P Hard Drive

The Spinpoint MP2 is a 250GB 2.5" hard drive consisting of two 125GB disks. Operating at a 7200rpm rotation speed, the MP2 is ideal for high performance, desktop replacement notebook PCs, and entry-level enterprise applications such as workstations and RAID or blade servers.

In step with the surging growth of multimedia content and the demand for smaller form factor devices, 2.5" drives meet the stringent environmental demands of notebook PCs and slim form factor desktop PCs. The high performance characteristic of Samsung's MP2 expands the scope of applications for 2.5" drives to entry-level enterprise applications.

The Spinpoint MP2 features 7200rpm speed rotation, SATA II 3.0Gbps interface and Native Command Queuing functions for advanced performance. Samsung's proprietary SilentSeek™ and NoiseGuard™ technologies are incorporated in the drive to offer ultra quiet operation. An optional Free Fall Sensor is also available for data protection in case of any unexpected external impact. The Spinpoint MP2 drive has a 16MB buffer memory and is available in 80GB to 250GB capacities.

[Samsung]

I don't think that there is quite enough cool looking circuitry in a portable HDD to warrant a clear case, but the design works. At 3.5" (W) x 5.5" (D) x 1" (H) and at 2.5 lbs it is as light as can be expected. The kicker for the Mercury is the price; it is $359.99, which means that you are going to want to go on the road with your equipment a lot in order to justify the expense. If you work from home a 3.5" will give you a lot more bang for your buck. [OWC via Slippery Brick]

The WriteMaster SH-S223 will offer high-speed DVD burning on low speed media; 16X and 8X media will be written to at 22X and 12X write speeds, respectively. The SH-S223 will be able to write at the following maximum speeds; 22X DVD±R recording, 12X DVD-RAM recording, 16X DVD+R Dual Layer recording, 12X DVD-R Dual Layer recording, 8X DVD+RW recording and 6X DVD-RW recording. Time wise, 4.7GB of data can be burned to a DVD±R disc in approximately 4 minutes and 26 seconds. That kind of performance puts even Speedy Gonzalez to shame. All around, it looks like it has been a fantastic record-breaking weekend for our chums at Samsung. Well done, chaps. [Gizmag]

It's always good to have more storage. Plus with Vista coming out, you'll need all that space when you convert your PC to a DVR. Battlestar Galactica doesn't record itself. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Dell via CheapstingyBargains]