Hitachi 1TB CinemaStar 24x7 drive released

The folks at Hitachi launched a pair of CinemaStar drives for users of DVRs and any other computer or device that needs to run for long periods of time. The 1TB 7K1000.B relies on the same basic design as its normal DeskStar counterpart but is tuned to run all day and in harsher conditions. The new version is both more resilient against high temperatures as well as modified to run more quietly while it seeks data on the drive. The disk further borrows power optimization tricks from Hitachi's notebook drives to cut down on its energy draw.

The capacity is twice as much as for the previous best CinemaStar and is enough to hold 247 hours of HD video in MPEG-4, Hitachi says, also noting that it can handle as many as ten data streams at once. The 7K1000.B should be ready in August at an unlisted price.

For smaller devices, the company is also launching the 5K320. The slower, 5,400RPM disk holds 320GB and shares much of the same heat and power behavior as its larger-capacity sibling. It appears slightly later and ships in September.