7 mm Won't Cut It, Intel Wants 5 mm-Thick Drives for Ultrabooks

Fourstaff · Apr 12, 2012

cheesy999 said:
I'm sure you can at least see why the average laptop user might not want to carry a USB hard drive around everywhere, what the point of making the ultrabook smaller if you have to carry around more items just to allow you to store files?

You have got a point there, but that is how it goes I am afraid. You will not be able to bring your entire music collection with you everywhere, but you will still be able to bring a substantial chunk with you, while keeping your external at home etc. SSD capacity will only increase in the future anyway, and I can see 256GB being the standard in a year or two.

OneCool · Apr 12, 2012

btarunr said:
I smell conflict of interest. Intel wants drives unreasonably slimmer (5 mm isn't much slimmer than 7 mm), so it becomes impossible for HDD vendors (they can't go slimmer without impacting performance), and SSD remains the only viable storage device (Intel is a major NAND flash chip vendor for SSDs).

^ this

eddman · Apr 12, 2012

newtekie1 said:
Yes, I would.

And do you think it will be harder to get 5mm in the 2.5" form factor? It won't. The fact is we already have 5mm drives in even smaller form factors, so making a 5mm drive in the larger 2.5" form factor should be easy. However, performance will likely suffer.

And with current platter densities, I'd guess 160GB would be easy in a 1" Microdrive today.

I never said that. Just corrected him.

They will most probably get to 5 mm 2.5 inch HDDs but, like you said, performance will suffer. SSDs seem like a better choice going forward.

ptzdunba · Apr 12, 2012

question about resource and energy effiency

I wonder whether there is any gain in the above when choosing a smaller, thinner drive vs. a regular (for example 3.5'') one. Obviously there is a direct saving of material and shipping effort for smaller, lighter products. But how about the up-front costs of this down-the-road gain? How much more of resources and energy (X%) have to be expended during development and production of a product that saves Y% resources and energy compared the previous version? Anyone can give a founded opinion? Thanks!

ensabrenoir · Apr 12, 2012

cheesy999 said:
I'm sure you can at least see why the average laptop user might not want to carry a USB hard drive around everywhere, what the point of making the ultrabook smaller if you have to carry around more items just to allow you to store files?

External hds are for back up\storage purposes... haven't meet anyone who carries one around like a thumb drive. Honestly surprised by interest in ultra books..... thought the use of the word ultra alone would've been enough to tank it. Customers ultimately want the portability of a tablet with the power of a desktop. Until we get there ... the ultras actually do have a place.

Vulpesveritas · Apr 12, 2012

ensabrenoir said:
External hds are for back up\storage purposes... haven't meet anyone who carries one around like a thumb drive. Honestly surprised by interest in ultra books..... thought the use of the word ultra alone would've been enough to tank it. Customers ultimately want the portability of a tablet with the power of a desktop. Until we get there ... the ultras actually do have a place.

I think laptops in general will have a place in some form for as long as people prefer physical keyboards, and for gaming and professional typing it is somewhat going to be better.
Even if it is merely tablets with physical keyboards that lock onto it like the Asus transformer.

LAN_deRf_HA · Apr 13, 2012

This is getting pretty stupid. The thinness race is outpacing battery advancement and die shrinks. Battery life is trending backwards because of this, and for what? So I can slice someone in half with my laptop?

eidairaman1 · Apr 13, 2012

LAN_deRf_HA said:
Battery life is trending backwards because of this, and for what? So I can slice someone in half with my laptop?

GEEK-FATALITY! FLAWLESS VICTORY! :toast:

Considering the higher end models still overheat and have to get a separate laptop cooler- Dell had it right with the Dell Inspiron 9100/XPS Gen1 Chassis Running P4 EE (Gallatin or Prescott) on 965PE Chipset 2 GB PC 3200 DDR and Radeon 9800 256 (R420)

Beertintedgoggles · Apr 13, 2012

LAN_deRf_HA said:
This is getting pretty stupid. The thinness race is outpacing battery advancement and die shrinks. Battery life is trending backwards because of this, and for what? So I can slice someone in half with my laptop?

Just remember, nothing else matters as long as you look cool

Vulpesveritas · Apr 13, 2012

Beertintedgoggles said:
Just remember, nothing else matters as long as you look cool

That's the only point I can see in an Ultrabook. A tablet makes sense, a smartphone makes sense, a laptop makes sense, a desktop makes sense, and a server rack makes sense. A tablet / netbook hybrid also makes sense.

But netbooks on their own make sense from a low cost internet browsing only usage viewpoint.

... But an ultrabook?... really? Two pounds difference for something 30-50% faster with longer battery life, which is more durable, and lasts longer.

So aesthetics is the only thing I can think of as to what would drive the sale of one.

WhoDecidedThat · Apr 13, 2012

leave 5 mm hard drives. i want flash controllers on the cpu die for minimum latency.
or atleast give us retail 2.5" ocz kilimanjaro ssds!

Fourstaff · Apr 13, 2012

LAN_deRf_HA said:
This is getting pretty stupid. The thinness race is outpacing battery advancement and die shrinks. Battery life is trending backwards because of this, and for what? So I can slice someone in half with my laptop?

Haven't seen an ultrabook with less than 4 hours of battery life, compared to a normal laptop's 2-3 hours.

If anyone thinks an ultrabook is useless/too expensive, then its not for them. Simple as that.

NHKS · Apr 13, 2012

This is how Intel’s trying to make ultrabooks thinner(click)
(see presentation slides at end of article)

LAN_deRf_HA · Apr 13, 2012

Fourstaff said:
Haven't seen an ultrabook with less than 4 hours of battery life, compared to a normal laptop's 2-3 hours.

If anyone thinks an ultrabook is useless/too expensive, then its not for them. Simple as that.

You must have a missed out on the whole culv thing. 4 hours is terrible. We were at 10 hours+

Fourstaff · Apr 13, 2012

LAN_deRf_HA said:
You must have a missed out on the whole culv thing. 4 hours is terrible. We were at 10 hours+

ULVs are not cheap, they are either every expensive, or severely underpowered. No, I didn't mention them because they were essentially the same as ultrabooks, with major differences being having an optical drive, a mechanical hdd and a plain name. But for your run off the mill laptop you will be lucky if you can reach 3hrs on a standard battery.

xBruce88x · Apr 13, 2012

i don't see what's so ultra about ultrabooks anyway, aside from maybe battery life and price being high

newtekie1 · Apr 13, 2012

eddman said:
I never said that. Just corrected him.

They will most probably get to 5 mm 2.5 inch HDDs but, like you said, performance will suffer. SSDs seem like a better choice going forward.

I have to agree, in the ultrabook sector SSDs are the way to go.

xBruce88x said:
i don't see what's so ultra about ultrabooks anyway, aside from maybe battery life and price being high

They are small and light, that is the point of them. If you don't think that is important then they aren't for you. I carry my laptop around with me every day for work, and being as small and as light as possible while still being functional is important to me, so I have an Ultrabook.

Disparia · Apr 13, 2012

You allowed mechanical drives in your so-called Ultrabook standard in the first place Intel? Dude, weak.

Fourstaff · Apr 13, 2012

Jizzler said:
You allowed mechanical drives in your so-called Ultrabook standard in the first place Intel? Dude, weak.

Hybrid drives can easily beat SSDs with a poor controller, so obviously they allowed them.

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7 mm Won't Cut It, Intel Wants 5 mm-Thick Drives for Ultrabooks

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