Now, laptop owners can expand the available storage space to 500GB with the new Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB notebook hard drive. The 2.5-inch drive uses 250GB-per-platter technology and designed for both notebooks and portable storage devices. The Scorpio Blue series is known for its performance - with up to 3Gb/s transfer rate - without a lot of noise at cool operating temperatures.

The 5400rpm drive comes with WhisperDRive technology to make it one of the quietest drives out in the market. ShockGuard, with its hardward advancements, protects drive mechanics as well as platter surface offering a high shock tolerance that is essential to anyone. The drive also boasts of IntelliSeek technology that calculates optimum seek speeds for lower power consumption.

The WD Scorpio Blue 500GB (model WD5000BEVT) hard drive is now shipping through retailers for US $219.99, while a 400GB version is available for $189.99.