Dell has the first 320GB 7,200rpm laptop drive

Desktop types are always kicking their laptop counterparts around, stealing their lunch money, and making fun of their slow and undersized hard drives.

Most laptops have slower 5,400rpm or even 4,200rpm hard drives, usually between 120GB and 250GB in size. For high-end types, there are 320GB laptop hard drives, and also 7,200rpm laptop hard drives, but you couldn't get both of those specs in the same laptop drive [dramatic pause...] until now.

Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Seagate have all recently announced 320GB 7,200rpm laptop hard drives, but Dell is the first to stick them in a consumer laptop, using the Seagate drive in the massive 17-inch XPS M1730.

"Laptop users want every bit of capacity, performance, and durability that desktop PCs deliver," says Michael Wingert, Seagate's executive vice president and general manager, Personal Compute Business,
We checked out the Dell Web site and the 320GB drives are available right now, for $50 more than a standard 5,400rpm 320GB drive. Look for these to show up in Alienware laptops next, followed by desktop replacement systems from other manufacturers.