The new 300GB drives spin at 10,000 rpms and are targeted at data center applications. Currently, HP's highest capacity 3.5-in. enterprise-class drive holds 450GB of data.

Mark Ross, associate director of computer operations with technology services for 's Kelly School of Businesses, said he's excited about using the new 300GB drives in his eight HP Proliant DL380 G5 servers and his single MSA 2000 modular storage array. "I'm thrilled to death to see smaller form factor drives as fast as the previous enterprise-class SCSI drives we were using," he said. "They use less power and put out less heat. And you can fit more in the same space. That's cool."

Ross, who currently uses 146GB SAS drives, said he's particularly looking forward to installing the smaller drives in his storage array. The array was using 12 3.5-in. serial ATA drives, but can now handle up to 24, 2.5-inch SAS drives in a 2U (3.5-inch) rack.

"Suddenly, we can get 6TB in a single shelf. And the drives are fast," he said.

Jimmy Daley, HP's product marketing manager in the Industry Standard Servers group, said as SAS interface speeds increase next year to 6Gbit/sec and bring more volume pricing, he expects a transition from Fibre Channel drives at the high-end. "Mid-range and high-end storage vendors are all putting together plans to adopt small-form factor drives. But, we certainly have to get to 6Gbit/sec SAS first," he said.