Western Digital has announced the arrival of a number of new internal SAS drives. The drives feature a 10K RPM speed, and are actually 2.5" drives hidden in 3.5" casings.
The drives feature a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of a massive two-million hours. According to WD, they should consume a lot less power than competing 3.5" 15K RPM drives while also being a lot more reliable. The drives should consume 67 percent less power than these competing drives.
"Delivering up to 50 percent higher capacity, similar or better maximum sequential performance, higher reliability and up to 67 percent lower power consumption versus 3.5-inch, 15,000 RPM drives, the new WD XE drives are the answer for data center server and storage solutions needing a transition strategy. IT managers now have a worry-free migration path to the latest enterprise performance drives from WD, while preserving their chassis and solution investments," said Rich Rutledge, senior VP of WD's Datacenters Business Unit.
The drives will come in sizes ranging from 300 GB to 900 GB, with respective MSRP pricing of $299.99 to $599.99. The WD XE SAS Enterprise drives will ship with a five-year limited manufacturer warranty.