WD today announced its 8TB HelioSeal consumer HDDs. To achieve such a large capacity the disks are filled with Helium in order to reduce internal resistance. The disks are available in both internal and external versions.
The internal drives are the WD Red and WD Purple which rotate at 5400 RPM and have a cache of 128MB. The WD Purple drives are targeted for usage in surveillance systems while the WD Red drives are designed with NAS devices for home or small business in mind. The external drives are the My Book (for Mac) and My Cloud with both 8TB capacity. WD also has 16TB versions available which contain 2 drives.
The high capacity is possible due to the usage of Helium. This gas has a lower density than air which has the benefit that platters and heads suffer from less friction. This in its turn reduces generation of heat which allows platters to be closer to each other. Because in Helium it takes less energy to rotate the platters, the Helium filled HDDs also consume less energy. To properly function the HDDs have to be air-tight.
WD currently allows consumers to pre-order the drives. The WD Red and WD Purple are available at $345. The My Cloud and My Book can be pre-ordered at $299.
