3.

5" Form Factor

The 3.5" form factor is the standard in the PC world today, and has been for about the last decade. Drives of this size are found almost exclusively now in modern des to! PCs, and even in servers and lar"er machines. The only ma#or mar et where other form factors hold sway over 3.5" is that for la!to!s and other !ortable devices, where the reduced size of $.5" and smaller form factors is im!ortant. %i e the 5.$5" form factor before it, the 3.5" form factor is named not for any dimension of the drives themselves, but rather for the fact that they were desi"ned to fit into the same drive bay as 3.5" flo!!y dis drives. 3.5" form factor drives traditionally have used 3.&'" !latters with an overall drive width of '.(" and de!th of about 5.&5". )n recent years, 3.5" form factor drives with !latters smaller than 3.&'"**in some cases much smaller**have a!!eared on the mar et. +ost ,(,((( -P+ s!indle s!eed drives reduce the size of the !latters to 3", and the new ,5,((( -P+ .ea"ate drive has !latters #ust $.5" in diameter. The shrin in" media size is done for !erformance reasons, but the 3.5" form factor is maintained for com!atibility /these hi"h*end drives are desi"ned to "o into ex!ensive servers, not la!to!s01 2or this reason, it is no lon"er the case that you can tell the size of a drive3s !latters by its form factor. .ee the discussion of !latter size for more details. 3.5" form factor drives come in two "eneral !rofiles4 the lar"er is the so*called halfheight drive, which is ,.53" in hei"ht. This name is ind of funny, since it is "half" of a hei"ht that never existed for 3.5" form factor drives. The name was derived from the fact that these drives are the same hei"ht as half*hei"ht 5.$5" form factor drives, which are half the hei"ht of full*hei"ht 3.$5" hi"h drives in that form factor. 6alf*hei"ht 3.5" form factor drives are still used today, but only in servers and other hi"h*end !latforms. The standard for 3.5" is ," hei"ht, which is commonly called slimline or low-profile, but #ust as commonly "iven no name at all and assumed as the default. The reason for the smaller size bein" the standard is that ," is the hei"ht of a standard 3.5" flo!!y dis drive and 3.5" drive bay. )n addition, there are some drives that are reduced in size from the ," standard, usin" for exam!le (.&5" hei"ht. 6ere are the standard !rofiles for 3.5" form factor drives4

Form Factor

Width (in)

Depth (in)

Height (in)

Application

3.5" HalfHeight 3.5" LowProfile

'.(

5.&5

,.53

6i"h*end, hi"h*ca!acity drives

'.(

5.&5

,.(

)ndustry standard, most common form factor for PC hard dis s

)t is li ely that the 3.5" form factor will continue to be the industry standard in PCs for years to come, due to the enormous installed base of systems that use this size, and no real com!ellin" reason to chan"e the form factor for the ty!ical des to! machine.