Western Digital slides in world’s thinnest 1TB hard drive

Behold the “world’s thinnest 1TB hard drive.” At Computex this week, Western Digital (WD) has announced the shipping of the WD Blue HDD. This hard drive is a smashing 7mm slim is available in options anywhere between 320GB and 1TB.

Using WD’s WhisperDrive technology, this 2.5-inch hard drive is said to be “the quietest on the market.” It features ShockGuard Technology which protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks. StableTrack and is a design feature that will reduce vibration and improve the hard drive’s tracking.

Other major hardware companies (as well as fans) also welcome this slim feature with open arms. Corporate Vice President S.Y. Shian of ASUS says that “WD has eliminated the capacity limits heretofore endured by thin and light personal computers while keeping the reliability and data-protection of a traditional hard drive.”

“WD Blue 7 mm hard drives offers a new level of storage capacity that further enriches the computing experience for users of Ultrabooks, All-in-Ones and other thin and light PCs,” assures Roger Bradford from Intel.

The WD Blue 7mm slips in at a fitting time as Intel’s fourth generation processor (codenamed “Haswell”) has also just been officially announced. These two working together would be a match made in gadget heaven. The HDD is also said to be compatible-friendly as WD “performs tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms.”

Although the WD Blue 7mm will be a perfect match for Ultrabooks, All-in-Ones and other thin and light PCs. Many people could become reluctant to go HDD. You know the “once you go SDD, you never go back” kind of thing. It will be a matter of having a trade-off between having affordability and space (1TB as well as the 7mm) on the one hand, and SDD performance on the other.

According to Engadget the WD Blue 1 TB model will be available for US$139 and is covered by a two-year warranty. It will be available next quarter.