Western Digital on Wednesday announced that it was shipping a 640-Gbyte hard drive for notebook computers.

The WD Scorpio Blue is priced at $149, and is available from resellers and distributors, WD said. The company claims that it is the highest-capacity 2.5-inch hard drive available, with 320-Gbytes per platter.

Power has been cut by 30 percent compared with the previous generation, WD said to 2.5 watts while seeking, and 0.10 watts while in deep sleep.. Inside the drive, WD has built in WhisperDrive, a noise-reducing algorithm to cut noise down to 26 dBa while seeking; ShockGuard, to help the drive withstand shock; and IntelliSeek, to improve performance. The 5,400-RPM drive has an 8-Mbyte buffer.

Full story: Computerworld