Quantum Bigfoot.

Gigantopithecus

Diamond Member
Dec 14, 2004
7,664
0
71
Why are there no 5.25" full height form factor hard drives on the market today? Most cases - both from big box and DIY manufacturers - have unused 5.25" internal bays in them. With today's densities, lower rpms like on current green drives would be viable mass storage devices, mitigating the need for too much power (if that's even a limitation).
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
Why are there no 5.25" full height form factor hard drives on the market today? Most cases - both from big box and DIY manufacturers - have unused 5.25" internal bays in them. With today's densities, lower rpms like on current green drives would be viable mass storage devices, mitigating the need for too much power (if that's even a limitation).

Such extra space comes at a cost. It wastes more material on the chasis and requires the construction of larger platters (which must be fairly flawless). And it also negatively impacts seek times.
To add to all of that the home user has no need for so much space and its less efficient (which is why datacenters are moving away from 3.5 to 2.5" drives)

Towers could be easily made with more 3.5" trays and fewer 5.25" ones if there was actually a need and demand for it.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
10,225
126
I really don't see a reason to resurrect "bigfoot". Green drives are bad enough. Do we need huge platters? I see those drives as less viable than even IDE drives these days.
 

tommo123

Platinum Member
Sep 25, 2005
2,617
48
91
i'd like these again (had a bigfoot - 12gb i think). for plain storage it would be great. if you're storing 100s of HD movies then seek times aren't that important but having bigger platters and more of them would be nice
 

Gunbuster

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,852
23
81
It would be unwise to resurrect the form factor of quite possible the worst line of IDE hard drives ever.