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We have 6TB hard drives now. Neat. (7 platters, 3.5" form, filled with helium, porn*)

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Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
We've come a long way, baby.

http://www.maximumpc.com/hgsts_heli...r_he6_hard_drive_floats_over_data_centers2013

http://arstechnica.com/information-...s-disk-capacity-with-helium-filled-6tb-drive/
The technology required to keep the helium reliably sealed within the drives, called Helioseal, has been in development by HGST for over 10 years. The company initially announced this commercial development in September of 2012. The use of helium rather than air allows additional storage platters to be squeezed into the design, nearly doubling their capacity with existing storage media technology while reducing power consumption and weight.

The new six terabyte Ultrastar He6 fits seven disk platters into the same form factor as HGST's previous five-platter/four terabyte drive. In addition to half again as much capacity, the drives run considerably cooler than conventional drives—as much as four to five degrees Celsius cooler, greatly reducing heat output. These drives even consume 23 percent less power at idle, drawing just 5.3 watts
Click to expand...

http://www.storagereview.com/hgst_6tb_ultrastar_he6_hdd_now_shipping

Using HGST’s patented HelioSeal process, the Ultrastar He6 drive is the industry’s first hermetically sealed helium-filled HDD that can also be manufactured in high volume in a cost-effective manner. HGST’s helium-based platform will serve as the main platform for new technologies like shingled magnetic recording and heat-assisted magnetic recording. Additionally, the new platform will serve as the future building block for new, growing market segments such as cold storage, an area that HGST plans to address.

Liquid can remove heat more efficiently and maintain a more constant operating temperature than air. However, traditional drives cannot be submerged as they are open to the elements and would thus allow the cooling liquid inside, damaging or destroying the HDD. HGST’s HelioSeal platform provides the only cost-effective solution for liquid cooling; drives are hermetically sealed and are able to operate in almost any non-conductive liquid.
Click to expand...
AirHDD_vs_HeliumHDD_Drives_whiteBG_300dpi.jpg


Product page: http://www.hgst.com/hard-drives/enterprise-hard-drives/enterprise-sas-drives/ultrastar-he6


*might not actually be full of 6TB of porn, or meticulously organized photos of Natalie Portman.
 
B

Bricky

Member
Funny how it wasn't even two years ago I asked myself what in the world I would do with 1TB of space, and now I'd love to have more (especially now that next-gen game-sizes are known. Dat 40GB per game).

Now to wait for cheap 1TB+ SSD's to arrive.
 
N

nullset2

Junior Member
Call me when we get cheap SSDs in the order of TBs.

(though I'd be damned if I don't need a 14 TB RAID box right now...)
 
S

Savitar

Member
I remember people saying anything two or over tended to be rather unstable and prone to failing. Was that something people simply said and had no basis in reality.
 
N

Neo C.

Member
I've been sitting with 2TB for two years now, about time to move on. I'm more interested in a 3TB 2.5" though.
 
H

Hrothgar

Member
Azure Dream said:
Isn't basing your product off of helium a bad idea now?
Click to expand...

Yes. While the amount used in a single one is obviously very little, if this idea of helium based HDDs ever takes off, it would be a waste of Helium. But then again, people are still filling birthday balloons with it too...
 
N

Nekofrog

Banned
A few years ago I'd have been all for it. Now? I barely even use 1TB thanks to Netflix, Hulu, and shit like that.
 
N

netBuff

Member
Hrothgar said:
Yes. While the amount used in a single one is obviously very little, if this idea of helium based HDDs ever takes off, it would be a waste of Helium. But then again, people are still filling birthday balloons with it too...
Click to expand...

This would be a reasonable use of Helium - filling balloons, on the other hand, is not.
 
R

RumblingRosco

Member
dIEHARD said:
Wait, how did pushing back the date in which the government had to sell off its helium reserve magically make more helium?
Click to expand...

It didn't make more, but it means the helium we have readily available at the National Helium Reserve in Texas will still be pumped out for years to come. Beyond that, there is actually quite a lot of helium spread around the globe in various mines, it's just a matter of setting up the infrastructure to obtain it. The closing of the NHR was only going to be a major problem because as of now there haven't been many other mines established, so a sudden disappearance of 30-40% of the global helium supply would have been catastrophic in the short-term.

I still think it's stupid to use helium for non-essential services until someone out there gets off their ass and establishes more mines, but this is cool none the less.
 
W

Why would you do that?

Member
Wouldn't that be bad for hard drive recovery, like if the drive fails and you replace whatever you need to by opening the hard drive in a dust free clean room?

But yes, 6 TB is insane. Weird to think that a few years ago, I was flipping out at 1 TB...
 
M

Mirk

Member
Where the hell are the 2TB micro sd cards and 10TB ssds that I read about at,damnit. Hell I am still waiting on 128GB cards to become worth the money. Its like 32GB came out and dropped to 40 bucks. Then the more for less fell off for the past 2 years.
 
S

shakin_haitian

Banned
luoapp said:
No, that's the end, truly. What's next?
Hypothetically,
Hydrogen for 8 platters and that's it. The era of exponential growth of storage capacity may come to an end.
Click to expand...

Hydrogen is... reactive. I'd rather not have hydrogen around spinning metal discs and wires.
 
Cute Dragon Here

Cute Dragon Here

Member
Now I'm beginning to wonder what kind of storage will be in a new computer that I'll be getting when I start working. Perhaps hard disk drives will be so capacious that I'd be tempted to fill it up...

One thing I do know is that HDD ain't going away anytime soon.
 
T

tuffy

Member
Mirk said:
Where the hell are the 2TB micro sd cards and 10TB ssds that I read about at,damnit. Hell I am still waiting on 128GB cards to become worth the money. Its like 32GB came out and dropped to 40 bucks. Then the more for less fell off for the past 2 years.
Click to expand...
Solid state drive densities are limited by lithography so it's unlikely they'll ever match the price/GB ratio of magnetic drives.
 
Rentahamster

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
dIEHARD said:
Wait, how did pushing back the date in which the government had to sell off its helium reserve magically make more helium?
Click to expand...

The EARTH has plenty of helium. The amount of easily accessible helium RESERVES that we stored up was mismanaged.
 
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