Hitachi Ships 1TB Per Platter HDDs
Two new lines of 3.5-inch HDDs from Hitachi feature single platters offering up to 1 TB of storage capacity.
Tuesday Hitachi announced the worldwide release of its new line of Deskstar 7K1000.D 3.5-inch HDDs featuring a single 7200RPM platter offering up to 1 TB of storage and a maximum areal density of 569 gigabits per square inch. The company is also offering an additional Deskstar 5K1000.B model using the same 1 TB platter, but instead relies on Hitachi's CoolSpin technology to deliver "a new level of power efficiency and quiet operation."
Arriving in 250 GB, 320 GB, 500 GB, 750 GB and 1 TB capacities, the Deskstar 7K1000.D line is seemingly built for PC gaming systems and desktop RAID arrays. The drives use Advanced Format which increases the sector size on HDDs from 512 bytes to 4096 (4K) bytes, thereby increasing capacities and improving error correcting capabilities. Other features include a 32 MB data buffer, an SATA 6 Gb/s connection and a maximum media transfer rate of 1822 Mbits/sec.
As for the stand-alone 1 TB Deskstar 5K1000.B, this model is focused on energy-conscious, environmentally friendly computers and is nearly identical to the 7K1000.D line save for the rotational speed. According to Hitachi, CoolSpin is "an optimization of motor speed to provide an ideal balance of performance, power utilization and acoustics."
"The areal density race continues and while having the highest capacity is appealing, reaching 1TB per platter is equally important as it serves a full range of applications and opportunities across the industry’s largest market volume," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at Hitachi GST. "As we ship our first 1TB per platter drives, we know we’re delivering capacity, reliability and value to a broad customer base. Not only are we shipping our 1TB per platter drives to our own Branded Business, but we are shipping to our channel partners as well, enabling them to design affordable HDD-based solutions at attractive price points."
Following the launch of the two Deskstar lines, Hitachi will also introduce another 3.5-inch HDD series based around its new 1 TB platter: the CinemaStar 7K1000.D and 5K1000.B series. These are designed for A/V streaming on DVRs, set-top boxes and video surveillance systems. However, based on a quick comparison with the Deskstar versions, the CinemaStar drives don't appear to be any different spec-wise even though Hitachi claims they're optimized to record multiple, simultaneous video streams. And as with the Deskstar line, all 1 TB/platter 7200RPM and CoolSpin versions will ship with a 32 MB cache buffer and a 6 Gb/s SATA interface, the company said.
The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D and 5K1000.B CoolSpin versions are shipping today to distributors and channel partners. CinemaStar drives are expected to ship in the Fall.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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junixophobia _Pez_wow is that serious? 227 mb/seg... is it sustained speed or just burst ?Most likely advertised speed...Reply -
alidan nice... but i always hate the thought of getting big hdds, 1 crash, so much lost... have to buy 2 for redundancy, and even than, you may need 3, 2 for in pc backup, and 1 outside for a weekly/monthly backup...Reply
and are these the first 1tb platters? or the first 1tb from hitachi? -
noblerabbit 1TB per platter, but releasing 5 other drives that are all smaller in storage size? my brain is going WTF.Reply -
alidan noblerabbit1TB per platter, but releasing 5 other drives that are all smaller in storage size? my brain is going WTF.Reply
probably they have higher yeilds in those platter sizes. -
amigafan junixophobiaMost likely advertised speed...yes, it's most likely advertised speed because of high density (1 TB per platter).Reply
I think I might get 1 TB (which has only one platter) for my Bulldozer build (along with some good SSD for OS). I hope to see some benchmarks soon (primarily thermals, power consumption and average speed).
CoolSpin feature looks interesting but little is said here. I guess it might be some kind of a rotation speed reduction to match regular 7200 rpm drives performance while it actually spins lower than 7200 rpm (high density would allow for this).
Whatever the case I will surely not get any other type of HDD (with less density) since these according to Hitachi web site offer nearly 30% less power consumption (and less heat & noise). -
amigafan alidannice... but i always hate the thought of getting big hdds, 1 crash, so much lost... have to buy 2 for redundancy, and even than, you may need 3, 2 for in pc backup, and 1 outside for a weekly/monthly backup...that's why I use Dropbox for backing up my most important stuff, SVN for code (and some other files) and I do monthly backup of entire HDD to external HDD.Reply
I wonder how higher density of these new hard drives impact the reliability and integrity of data over time. -
zak_mckraken What do they mean by "a maximum areal density of 569 gigabits per square inch" ? Maybe I fail at math, but with a 1TB platter, I was under the impression that the density would be around 92-110GB, assuming a surface of around 10.5-11in². Or do they imply that the maximum theorical storage size of a single platter using this technology is 6TB ?Reply -
agnickolov So 1TB single platter drive for primary partition is now an option. Still, the main advantage of areal density improvements is larger drives, what with SSDs slowly taking over the boot drive duties. So where is the announcement of the first 4TB HDD using 4 platters?Reply