HDDs are getting smaller in size, with some drives hitting a very nice 7mm thick. This is attributed to the runaway-train that is going to be the Ultrabooks, and vendors are wanting to get on that train before it leaves the platform. This is where Hitachi have stepped in, announcing their new series of 7mm 2.5-inch hard drives.

They come in the form of the new Travelstar Z7K500 series, where Hitachi are offering 7,200RPM 500GB drives with a super-slim 7mm profile. The new model sports the SATA 6Gbps interface, 32MB of cache, and Hitachi are claiming up to 33-percent more performance than other 2.5-inch drives.

The new Travelstar Z7K500 drives draws just 1.8W of power during read/write operations, and just 0.8W when in low-power idle mode. Hitachi have also gone one step further offering models with self-encryption and an enhanced-availability SKU for use in data center environments. Hitachi will debut the Travelstar Z7K500 series in 250, 320, and 500GB drives. We should expect volume shipments to start in March.