Seagate 8 TB HDDs Widely Available Next Quarter, Shipping Now
Seagate announced that it is shipping 8 TB hard drives to its key customers, and that's it. Period.
About a month ago we saw a report indicating that Seagate was shipping enterprise-class 8 TB hard drives to key customers for testing. Since then we haven't heard much, but today we received an official announcement from Seagate, which in short stated that the company is now shipping the 8 TB drives. Since there is no mention of testing, we can only assume that this is finished and that Seagate is rolling the drives out to customers as they roll off the production line.
These drives come in the standard 3.5" form factor and have SATA3 (6 Gb/s) interfaces. It remains unknown exactly how many platters are used in the drives. Aside from the capacity, physical size, and that it has a SATA3 interface, we weren't told more.
The highest platter count we've seen for a standard size 3.5" hard drive is seven platters, and the highest platter density we've seen lies around 1.2 TB per platter, which together would make the 8 TB capacity. Seagate didn't share any information about this though, so the best we're able to do is make assumptions.
In an attempt to get more information about the hard drives, we've reached out to Seagate, but the company told us that it wasn't able (or willing, as the case may be) to share any details beyond what's in the press release.
Fortunately, the press release did tell us that the drives would be widely available 'next quarter.' At that rate, it won't be reasonable to expect consumer-oriented 8 TB drives anytime this year, especially considering that Western Digital only just rolled out its 6 TB WD Green and WD Red consumer oriented drives.
Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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ssdpro Working for Tom's must be easy... just scan what other sites report yesterday or earlier this morning, patch it all together into something that looks like it is freshly written and post. I watch 3 sites on a daily basis and Tom's always, without exception, posts the same stories just 4-24 hours later. I don't hate Tom's for it, just a reality... heck I am still here aren't I?Reply -
Murissokah I'd wish I was excited by this, but past experience with Seagate tells me this will be the best way to lose a lot of data.Reply -
mesab66 ssdpro: constantly daily monitoring multiple sites for new updates and then complaining that one site is a little slower for a particular story than another is a wee bit unfair. Remember, there are real people involved. Many do this in their free time, and, we don't have to pay to visit these sites. If you have proof that information is routinely being plagiarised - word for word - then please detail.Reply
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srap @ssdpro:Reply
At least they aren't jumping at the bullshift bandwagon like some "write early-write much" sites. -
lp231 Reply14043609 said:ssdpro: constantly daily monitoring multiple sites for new updates and then complaining that one site is a little slower for a particular story than another is a wee bit unfair. Remember, there are real people involved. Many do this in their free time, and, we don't have to pay to visit these sites. If you have proof that information is routinely being plagiarised - word for word - then please detail.
It's not about being slower of faster, some are a day head so they get to publish the article first. If you're on the other side of the globe, right now you would still be in bed and going on to 8/27. If your on the Western side where the U.S. is, you'll probably be still at work and the day is 8/26.
Same article from Tom's UK
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/seagate-8tb-hard-drive-hdd,news-48687.html
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outlw6669 It is about time that we get another boost in storage capacities!Reply
My SFF Server would welcome a pair of these. -
christinebcw I am hoping this isn't another baby-step in platter density but a full-blown 4-platter 1Tb-per-side density - a substantial increase.Reply
Of course, "What took them so long?" and "Why isn't it 2Tb per side?" are some of my next questions. With a baker's dozen of the 2Tb-per-side (16Tb total), I could finally settle down to a real media center.