WD Announces The New HGST Ultrastar 7K6 HDD

WD has announced HGST’s new Ultrastar 7K6 HDD, the company’s latest enterprise-class hard disk drive. The Ultrastar 7K6 is an air-based drive catered to the mid-range capacity enterprise segment and provides an array of system options and price points.

WD has announced HGST’s new Ultrastar 7K6 HDD, the company’s latest enterprise-class hard disk drive. The Ultrastar 7K6 is an air-based drive catered to the mid-range capacity enterprise segment and provides an array of system options and price points.

Featuring improved areal density, the Ultrastar 7K6 HDD has the same capacity as the previous generation drives but uses fewer components (e.g. the 6TB uses 4 disks compared to the previous generation’s 5 disks). WD indicates that this will provide better value and is their most cost-effective enterprise drive on a unit-basis and boasts a 12% increase in speed compared to the prior generation Ultrastar 7K6000.

WD adds that, due to its cost-effective, distributed and scalable architecture, the 7K6 is a great fit for Hadoop, an open-source computing environment popular for data analytics. Other use cases of WD’s new mid-range capacity drive include on-premise data center with a RAID storage system, a Hadoop cluster for Big Data analytics, and a department or SMB server.

The WD Ultrastar 7K6 comes in capacities of 6TB and 4TB.

WD Ultrastar 7K6 HDD Specifications (SATA and SAS models)

• General
  • Interface:
    • SATA 6Gb/s
    • SAS 12Gb/s
  • Capacity (GB):
    • 6TB / 4TB
    • 6TB / 4TB
  • Sector Size (Variable, Bytes/sector):
    • 4Kn: 4096
      512n/512e: 512
    • 4Kn: 4096, 4104, 4160, 4224
      512n/512e: 512, 520, 528
  • Max Areal Density (Gbits/sq. in.):
    • 512e/4Kn: 782, 696 (4TB)
      512n: 753
    • 512e/4Kn: 782, 696 (4TB)
      512n: 753
  • Form Factor:
    • 3.5-inch
    • 3.5-inch
• Performance
  • Data Buffer (MB):
    • 256
    • 256
  • Rotational Speed (RPM):
    • 7200
    • 7200
  • Latency Average (ms):
    • 4.16
    • 4.16
  • Interface Transfer Rate (MB/sec, max):
    • 600
    • 1200
  • Sustained Transfer Rate:
    • 512e/4Kn: Up to 255MB/s; Up to 243MiB/s
      512n: 233MB/s; 222MiB/s
    • 512e/4Kn: Up to 255MB/s; Up to 243MiB/s
      512n: 233MB/s; 222MiB/s
  • Seek Time (read, ms, typical):
    • 8.0 (read) / 8.6 (write)
    • 8.0 (read) / 8.6 (write)
• Reliability:
  • Error Rate (non-recoverable, bits read):
    • 1 in 10¹⁵
    • 1 in 10¹⁵
  • MTBF (M hours):
    • 2M hours
    • 2M hours
  • Annual Failure Rate (AFR):
    • 0.44%
    • 0.44%
  • Load/Unload Cycles:
    • 600,000
    • 600,000
  • Availability (hrs/day x days/wk):
    • 24×7
    • 24×7
  • Limited Warranty (yrs):
    • 5
    • 5
• Acoustics
  • Idle (Bels):
    • 2.9
    • 2.9
  • Operational (Bels, typical):
    • 3.6
    • 3.6
• Power
  • Requirement:
    • +5V, +12V
    • +5V, +12V
  • Operating (W, typical):
    • 7.0
    • 12.1
  • Idle (W):
    • 5.9
    • 7.0
• Physical Size
  • Z-Height (mm):
    • 26.1 (max)
    • 26.1 (max)
  • Dimensions (width x depth, mm):
    • 101.6 (+/-0.25) x 147
    • 101.6 (+/-0.25) x 147
  • Weight (g, max):
    • 715
    • 715
• Environmental (operating)
  • Ambient Temperature:
    • 5°C to 60°C
    • 5°C to 60°C
  • Shock (half-sine wave):
    • 70G (2 ms)
    • 70G (2 ms)
  • Vibration (5 to 500 Hz):
    • 0.67G RMS (XYZ)
    • 0.67G RMS (XYZ)
• Environmental (non-operating)
  • Ambient Temperature:
    • -40°C to 70°C
    • -40°C to 70°C
  • Shock (half-sine wave):
    • 300G (2 ms)
    • 300G (2 ms)
  • Vibration (5 to 500 Hz):
    • 1.04G RMS (XYZ)
    • 1.04G RMS (XYZ)

WD HGST Ultrastar 7K6

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