SEAGATE

Company released new models of 20TB Exos X20 and IronWolf Pro hard drives

The news will compete with Western Digital's WD Gold 20TB and Ultrastar HC560, which until now was the only company to sell 20TB drives.

The Exos X20 Self-Encrypting Hard Drive (SED) is available in SATA 6 Gb / s or SAS 12 Gb / s, while the Iron Wolf Pro only supports SATA 6 Gb / s. Data transfer speed for both new products is 285 MB/s. The Exos X20 is rated for a workload of 550TB/year, 300TB/year for the more affordable IronWolf Pro.

IronWolf Pro has a nominal 1W power consumption in standby mode, making it a great choice for use on 24/7 active NAS storage. It's important to note that Seagate's solutions generate 28dB of noise in idle mode, compared to 20dB for WD drives. But in operating modes, Seagate devices will be noticeably quieter than 20TB Western Digital drives.

Seagate's new hard drives are slightly cheaper than their Western Digital competitors. This is likely due to the latest OptiNAND technology, which uses flash memory to store metadata to improve drive performance. In relation to Seagate discs, the company says it abandoned the use of recording technology heated with the disc's magnetic surface, without explaining the reason for this decision. New items use familiar CMR technology.

The Seagate Exos X20 is priced at $670. The 20TB IronWolf Pro retails for $650. The units are on sale today.

AVnews