HP has begun shipping 300GB 2.5″ 10,000 RPM SAS (Serial-Attached SCSI) hard drives.

Produced in association with Seagate, these new SAS drives use 75% less energy and are 70% smaller than 3.5″ SAS drives. This means that storage arrays can be more efficient, cooler and have higher capacities. Previously the largest 2.5″ SAS drive was 146GB, while 3.5″ SAS drives peak at 450GB.

The only drawback of these drives is that the RPM is limited to 10K, while the sweet-spot forenterprise storage is currently 15,000 RPM. Still, the space and energy saving should appeal to data centers looking to save money or increase capacity without increasing server volume.