HGST’s first ever Helium-filled hard drive, the HGST Ultrastar He6 6TB hard drive is now available. This is not the first hard drive to offer 6TB capacity, but it is one of the first to become available in the market and it is the first hard drive with 7 platters and uses Helium. Check out its features, specifications, price and where to buy below.
The HGST Ultrastar He6 6TB Helium-filled hard drive, aside from having Helium inside, features 7 platters in one drive that provides the 6TB capacity. It has a speed of 7200 RPM with 64MB cache and uses SATA 6Gbps interface. The He6 6TB drives was primarily designed for RAID and storage systems and is primarily based on an enterprise-class hard drive.
You might be wondering why did they use Helium with this drive? Helium is basically lighter than air. The Helium actually plays a very important role in this drive. It reduces the resistance and turbulence within the chassis making it possible for HGST to fit in 7 platters into one single drive. Thanks also to this noble gas, the He6 6TB was able to achieve the lowest power consumption with best watts-per-Terabyte. It is 23% lower idle power per drive and 49% better watts-per-TB.
The Ultrastar He6 6TB Helium drive is applicable to high-density data centers, cloud storages, massive scale-out data centers, nearline storage application, containerized data centers, enterprise and data centers and bulk storages.
HGST Ultrastar He6 6TB Specifications
| Model # / Part # | HUS726060ALA640 / 0F18335 |
|---|---|
| Interface | SATA 6Gb/s |
| Capacity (GB) | 6TB |
| Sector size (variable, Bytes/sector) | 512n |
| Max Areal Density (Gbits/sq. in.) | 544 |
| Form Factor | 3.5-inch HDD |
| Data Buffer (MB) | 64 |
| Rotational Speed (RPM) | 7200 |
| Interface transfer rate (MB/sec, max) | 600 |
| Sustained transfer rate (MB/sec, typ.) | 177 |
| Seek Time (read, ms, typical) | 8.5 |
| Error Rate (non-recoverable, bits read) | 1 in 10^15 |
| MTBF (M hours) | 2 |
| Load/Unload Cycles | 600,000 |
| Availability (hrs/day x days/wk) | 24x7 |
| Reliability - Warranty (yrs) | 5 |
| Idle (Bels) | 2 |
| Requirement | +5 VDC (+/-5%), +12VDC (+/-5%) |
| Startup current (A, max) | 1.2 (+5V), 2.0 (+12V) |
| Read/Write (W, avg) | 7.3 |
| Active Idle (W, avg) | 5.3 |
| Unload Idle (W) | 3.7 |
| Z-Height (mm) | 26.1 |
| Dimensions (width x depth, mm) | 101.6(+/-0.25)x147 |
| Weight (g, max) | 640 |
| Ambient temperature | 5º to 60º C |
| Shock (half-sine wave) | 70 |
| Vibration (5 to 500 Hz) | 0.67 (XYZ) |
| Ambient temperature | -40º to 70º C |
| Shock (half-sine wave) | 300 |
| Vibration (5 to 500 Hz) | 1.04 (XYZ) |
Price and Where to Buy
Currently, the HGST Ultrastar He6 6TB is listed on Amazon with a price tag of around $775 to $787 USD depending on the Amazon third party seller. Micro Technologies is selling it for $775.
Currently the price doesn’t make sense, since you can buy two 3TB hard drives for a much lower price. But I’m sure once competition starts to build, like Seagate’s upcoming 6TB drive, prices will drop eventually.
