[Leaplist] [Hardware] LCDs at Costco, new 2.5" drives hit ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

Homer --

I hit some Costco's in Orlando as well as the DC-Baltimore area over the long
weekend.  They currently stock various brands of 21.5 - 25.5" from $159 - $299,
virtually all are 16:9 aspect, 1080p (1920x1080 @ 60Hz) resolution these days,
and no longer the 16:10 aspect, 1920x1200, unifying with LCD TVs (although
don't buy a crappy 1366x768 LCD TV, which has horrendous pitch in comparison).
They size down to 720p (1280x720 @ 60Hz) using 3:2 and every video card should
support such (and still look much better than old, native 1366x768 models).  Many
have all three (3) inputs now, DVI, HDMI and VGA.

A 21.5" LCD widescreen will be the same height as 18" viewable in a standard
"TV" aspect (then much wider), which matches the 18" viewable of a typical 19" CRT.

All --

This week several of the new, 320-333GB/platter 2.5" drives are hitting resellres.
I have noted the 640GB (2 platter x 320GB/platter) 2.5" x 9.5mm (standard slim
height) external Seagate FreeAgent Go and Western Digital My Passport drives
are hitting for $129 or so.  I've also noted several are starting to offer the internal
640GB versions of the Western Digital Scorpio (internal version that is in the
My Passport series) as well, while the new Seagate Momentus 5400.7 (internal
version that is in the FreeAgent series) has yet to be seen.  Western Digital is
claiming the new 2x320GB/platter drives use 30% less power than their prior
2x250GB/platter drives.

I've also seen the Western Digital My Passport SE external drives that are the
3-platter, 2.5" x 12mm that don't fit into most notebook bays (designed for
9.5mm).  I noted Provantage wants $141.77 for the 750GB (cheapest I've seen,
$169 at NewEgg, $179-219 list) although expect that price to drop in the next
month or two.  The full 3 platter x 333GB/platter, 1TB version of the My Passport
SE is one I still haven't seen though.


 -- 
Bryan J  Smith           Professional, Technical Annoyance 
Linked Profile:         http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith 
---------------------------------------------------------- 
Red Hat:  That 'other' American software company built on
open customer selection of options and value, instead of
controlled distribution channels of forced bundle and lock


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