Western Digital expanded its WD Gold enterprise hard drive line with the 18 terabyte flagship model. The drive features a 3.5-inch 6Gb/s SATA form factor and is designed for 24/7 RAID operation. The drive uses the Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) method, so the performance degradation noticeable in the case of SMR drives is not compromised.
18-terabyte WD Gold (WD181KRYZ) is characterized by a spindle speed of 7200 rpm, 512 Mbyte DRAM buffer and HelioSeal technology, which implies filling the internal space of the device with helium. The maximum sequential read/write speed is not yet known, but for the junior solutions of the line it reaches 267 Mbytes per second. The reported failure time is 2.5 million hours.
An 18TB WD Gold hard drive is available in European retail for €650. Western Digital also offers a 16-terabyte model for €582. Unfortunately, the timing of new products in Ukrainian stores is not disclosed.
