WD Embraces Helium To Float 8TB Capacity, New Products Available

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Chris Ramseyer
Chris Ramseyer
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Chris Ramseyer was a senior contributing editor for Tom's Hardware. He tested and reviewed consumer storage.

10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hst101rox
    While still stuck at 1TB or less for their 9.5mm thick laptop drives.. Samsung's M9T is at 2TB at that thickness and Seagate has had a 1TB/platter laptop drive now (2TB at 7mm with SMR). The Scorpio Black 750GB product is about 5 years old.
    Reply
  • I'm curious as to when WD will update the Black line - I believe it's been about 3 years? The upgrade to FZEX from FAEX was surprisingly nice performance wise. Even if performance improvements are basically finished for HDDs, reliability improvements etc are always welcome. Maybe helium can be added to lower capacity drives simply due to the decreased resistance which I'm guessing would be positive for durability?
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  • Jamroast
    Goat lovin'
    Reply
  • oyoy
    I'm curious as to when WD will update the Black line - I believe it's been about 3 years? The upgrade to FZEX from FAEX was surprisingly nice performance wise...
    6GB, 5GB Black: WD6001FZWX, WD5001FZWX. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760#Tab3
    And yes only the black are actually working as HDD should ..8-12 years (All other died after 3-4 years). But the main problem remain the same, PRICE.
    Reply
  • 17593604 said:
    I'm curious as to when WD will update the Black line - I believe it's been about 3 years? The upgrade to FZEX from FAEX was surprisingly nice performance wise...
    6GB, 5GB Black: WD6001FZWX, WD5001FZWX. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760#Tab3
    And yes only the black are actually working as HDD should ..8-12 years (All other died after 3-4 years). But the main problem remain the same, PRICE.

    I know of the larger capacity models, and they do offer an increase in performance - but I'm referring to the 1-4 TB models. As a consumer, I have no need for anything larger than 2 TB in my main PC even though I game and have a collection of movies/shows, so I'd like improvements brought to the existing capacities instead of endlessly adding higher capacity single drives which the average consumer has no need for. I hear you, though, WD Black are really expensive drives.
    Reply
  • hst101rox
    You can buy the Black drives as 'whitelabel' sometimes on goharddrive. Not much of a warranty but that's ok. Argh, it does look like WD hasn't updated the lower capacity WD Black drives with the new 1.2TB/platter tech and other updates, because if you look at the datasheet, 8.1 watts at idle for 2TB is still more than the idle wattage for the 6TB, and the weight is almost as much as the 6TB as well (1.32 pounds vs 1.58 pounds) so old 500GB/platter gen. Hopefully they'll update it so people can get the lower capacity but still get the performance. But, you know, corporate profits, greed and SSDs..
    http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771434.pdf
    Reply
  • firefoxx04
    Probably just HGST tech (that they have owned for a while now). They couldnt use it for a while due to merger issues but i think that is all over with now. Good for us as long as prices dont go up. HGST makes top notch drives.
    Reply
  • heliomphalodon
    If He is good, and they've solved the difficult problem of keeping it contained, wouldn't vacuum be even better?
    Reply
  • Justin Crapola
    If He is good, and they've solved the difficult problem of keeping it contained, wouldn't vacuum be even better?

    This is always asked whenever a new helium drive is released. I was told that a vacuum would cause hot spots, you need to gas to carry heat energy.
    Reply
  • Justin Crapola
    If He is good, and they've solved the difficult problem of keeping it contained, wouldn't vacuum be even better?

    This is always asked whenever a new helium drive is released. I was told that a vacuum would cause hot spots, you need to gas to carry heat energy.
    Reply