Western Digital finally unveils 28TB HDD as race for 30TB reaches boiling point — but the Ultrastar DC HC680 remains a data center HDD that no consumers will be able to use
Western Digital is ramping up the pressure in the race to 30TB with the launch of its WD Ultrastar DC HC680 HDD for data centers, which has a maximum capacity just below the desired storage capacity.
The ten-drive hard drive, which is based on shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology, comes in three capacities, including 24TB, 26TB and 28TB, and is specifically designed for data center customers looking to reduce costs.
The WD Ultrastar DC HC680 HDD also features enhanced OptiNAND technology that improves storage efficiency, energy-assisted magnetic recording (eAMR), three-stage actuator (TSA) and HelioSeal for higher capacities while maintaining power consumption. The 3.5-inch SATA drives also have a drive speed of 7,200 RPM and a cache size of 512 MB. This is accompanied by a data transfer of up to 265 MB/s.
Seagate and WD go head-to-head in the race for 30TB
With the launch of this hard drive, Western Digital joins Seagate in selling a 28TB hard drive, which is close to the 30TB+ hard drives that Seagate in particular has long demanded launch in 2024.
The company currently distributes a 28TB version of its Exos X24 HDD, but customers of its Exos Corvault storage system can also use 29TB hard drives based on Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology.
HAMR competes with SMR in that it can further reduce the size of the beats in each song and pack more storage capacity into the hard drives it produces. It actually means the largest hard drives could become even larger – with the technology theoretically enabling hard drives of up to 1000 computers 100TB in size.
Seagate is preparing to launch a 30TB hard drive after shipping samples earlier this year, but it is also currently testing a 32TB hard drive and possibly a 50TB hard drive. Western Digital has now laid the foundation for the launch of hard drives with a size of at least 40 TBalthough there is no official launch date.