Western Digital launches 32TB hard drive in SATA and SAS flavors — Ultrastar DC HC690 delivers sequential performance up to 257 MiB/s
Western Digital’s newly launched ePMR-powered UltraSMR HDDs can store up to 32TB, a new record for shingled magnetic recording-based drives.
Thanks to ePMR, which WD has used since 2020 to improve HDD capacity, and the storage company’s much newer UltraSMR technology, WD introduced an 11-disk design for the 32TB Ultrastar DC HC690. WD’s previous champion, the Ultrastar DC HC680, had 28TB of storage thanks to a 10-disk design and was the company’s first drive to use UltraSMR tech.
While the HC690 does have 4TB or roughly 14% more storage than its predecessor, its performance is slightly down. The HC680 hit 265 MB/s, but WD says the HC690 is rated for 257 MB/s. Although a 3% performance loss doesn’t sound like much, it would eventually make a noticeable difference in a long read or write operation.
WD touts that large drives like the HC690 are ideal for AI computers since a large amount of data is required to train AI models, which can also create lots of data (like faked video game trailers) once up and running. Ultimately, the HC690 is just a bigger storage device, so WD might discuss its suitability for AI simply because it’s the current zeitgeist.
