Western Digital Unveils Cutting-Edge Enterprise HDDs: Up to 28TB Storage, Impressive 298 MB/s Transfer Rates

Western Digital has announced the commencement of volume shipments for its Ultrastar DC HC580 and WD Gold 24TB hard disk drives utilizing conventional magnetic recording. Additionally, volume production has been initiated for the Ultrastar DC HC680 28TB HDDs, employing shingled magnetic recording technology. These hard drives are specifically designed for a diverse range of data center applications, including cloud, enterprise, exascale, and more. The 24TB WD Gold drives are expected to be available at retail stores soon.

New HDDs by Western Digital

These newly introduced HDDs not only stand out for their remarkable storage capacities, ranking among the highest available, but they also boast impressive speed by HDD standards. With a maximum data transfer rate of up to 298 MB/s (WD Gold, DC HC580) and a sustained data transfer rate reaching up to 265 MB/s (DC HC680), they offer notable performance.

In terms of power consumption, they are rated at 5.5W idle and 6.8W–9.8W operational (50/50 read/write), aligning closely with their predecessors. Despite the increased capacity, their terabyte-per-watt power efficiency is reportedly 10%–12% higher compared to the previous-generation HDDs, offering benefits for power-constrained data centers.

The Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC580 and WD Gold 24TB hard drives are built on the company’s established 10-disk enterprise-grade platform. Operating at a 7200-RPM spindle speed, they utilize energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR) and feature the proprietary OptiNAND enhancements for improved real-world application performance. On the other hand, the Ultrastar DC HC680 28TB employs shingled recording on some bands to increase drive capacity, albeit with trade-offs such as slower re-write speeds and the need for software optimization.

As data center HDDs, the Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC and WD Gold undergo rigorous testing, boasting a 550TB annual workload rating. They incorporate various enhancements to ensure predictable and reliable performance in high-density storage environments, including top- and bottom-attached motors, rotational vibration sensors, enhanced read/write heads, and appropriate firmware.

While the WD Gold 24TB HDDs are already shipping to the channel for enterprises and SMBs, cloud service providers, hyperscalers, and server OEMs are currently validating and qualifying the Ultrastar DC HC680 28TB and HC580 24TB HDDs with a SATA interface. Deployment and availability are expected in the coming months. The SAS versions of the Ultrastar DC HC680 and HC580 drives are anticipated to be available in the first quarter of 2024.