The most capacious hdd. The world's largest hard drives are released. Ways to Increase Storage Density
Every year, the flow of information to Internet users is increasing, so consumers are interested in larger data storage devices. Manufacturers of computers and peripherals are developing this direction, competing in the market.
Tough competition for a buyer in the IT field is the engine of progress - if in 2015 the limit was an external hard drive of 8 terabytes, then today the largest hard drive for ordinary consumers can accommodate 2 times more. If we talk about hard drives for corporate needs, then the capacity of such devices is tens of thousands of times greater.
The world's largest hard drive for private consumers
To date, Samsung's 15.36 TB SSD is considered the record holder in terms of memory among personal computer storage devices; such a pleasure costs $ 10,000. Achieving such a record became possible thanks to the development of NAND chips that can store many times more information than standard 128 GB modules. Advanced NAND chips accommodate 48 layers of V-NAND memory.
Even 4 years ago, 24 layers were considered a capacity record, but Samsung engineers showed creative thinking and placed the silicon elements not in one plane, but put them on edge - this orientation of the silicon elements makes the hard drive work faster. NAND chips are three-dimensional, their concept is similar to the three-dimensional transistors in the latest generation of processors, since the developers also optimally used the available die area.
An innovative approach to the design of chips made it possible to increase the memory capacity in gadgets, and the South Korean company outperformed its main competitors Western Digital and Seagate by an order of magnitude. By the way, the 15.36 TB SSD was announced for the first time back in 2015 at an IT exhibition, but high-capacity external drives appeared in stores only at the end of 2016 and caused a revolution in the market. The fact is that external HDDs with solid state drives (SSDs) have traditionally had the following advantages:
- high-speed transmission of information,
- compact dimensions.
As for the cons, earlier external hard drives such as SSD compared to external HDDs with traditional memory (HDD) were distinguished by a relatively small amount of information storage, but as of the IT market in 2017, this statement is no longer true. The capacious 15.36 TB SSD from Samsung is already in stores. Naturally, the gadget is not designed to store movies and toys - the price level of such a drive is too high.
The target audience of the largest external hard drive- professional photographers, engineers and other pros who use "heavy" professional programs in their work. Competitors breathe Samsung's neck - most of manufacturers are already able to offer customers external drives with a capacity of 10 terabytes, and therefore another record is possible in the near future, which will update the high bar in the portable hard drive sector.
The hard drive with the largest storage capacity for enterprise customers
For those consumers who wish to keep intellectual property out of the reach of hackers, a 100 petabyte hard drive is offered - that's 100,000 terabytes, or 1,000,000 gigabytes. Such a device is portable, but you can't put it in your pocket - the dimensions of a megagadget imply transportation using a sea container or a Snowmobile truck.
However, stores do not receive such storage facilities. Amazon, which owns Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud storage, uses special 18-wheeled trucks to transport information - company archives, film studios, libraries, information bases of government agencies or the army, scientific and research institutes. The truck is filled with hard drives and equipment and is considered to be the storage of information with the largest capacity.
The Amazon Snowmobile service is available to those who wish - files and file cabinets from mobile storage are delivered to the customer's or AWS data center and transferred to the customer's server or to Amazon's cloud storage via high-speed optical lines. The Snowmobile service is used to reduce the load on the fiber optic lines through which Amazon cloud storage users upload information to their 80 terabyte personal cloud. The transmission speed over fiber is not infinite and is 10 gigabits / second. So, to save time, the client transfers hard drives to Amazon, from which information will be uploaded to the cloud, bypassing the network.
Amazon has 10 such trucks at its disposal, which save time for the company's users. Cloud storage processes a huge information flow, and it takes 26 years to transfer 1 exabyte of information. AWS machines can transport the specified amount of information in 6 months - the difference is palpable! How does information move with Snowmobile? Such a truck drives up to the customer's home or office and is connected to the network using several cables with a transfer rate of 40 gigabits / second. If you use a group of cables, then the drives in the truck will fill up at a rate of up to 1 terabit / second. So 100,000 terabytes are loaded onto a truck in 10 days.
Film library at home
More recently, Western Digital has created the world's largest custom hard drive, the My Book Studio Edition II, at 4 TB (4 terabytes = 4096 gigabytes). Such a device is designed specifically for owners of Mac computers. The price of the largest hard drive is relatively high, namely $650. Its practicality is unquestioned, it can easily hold about 1,500 DVD movies, as well as about 800,000 digital photos and about 1 million MP3 music files.
There is a cheaper option!
You can, of course, get by with a slightly smaller working volume - it will be cheaper. My Book Studio Edition II is available in 1 and 2 terabytes. By the way, in Russian online stores, the price of such hard drives ranges from 7,000 to 17,000 rubles (depending on the volume). The disk is connected to the computer via a USB port. My Book Studio Edition II is quite bulky, measuring 98x166x154mm and weighing over 2.6kg. Of course, power is supplied through a network adapter, physically the disk consists of two two-terabyte physical disks in a single housing.
What are the other benefits?
Judging by consumer reviews, the size is the only advantage of this hard drive. Consumer properties of the model are strongly criticized by users. In particular, users criticize the fragile case, which is easily deformed and scratched. In addition, computers periodically "do not see" it, its re-detection is not easy to achieve.
Users also criticize the speed of information transfer from the drive, it does not rise above 12-14 Mb / s, but often much lower. Reinstalling drivers and other manipulations do not save the situation. Not satisfied with users and software My Book Studio Edition called WD Drive Manager, which is unable to determine the percentage of free disk space and reports by drive minimum set information.
To take or not to take?
Summing up, we can safely recommend readers not to mess with My Book Studio Edition: this drive has no analogues in terms of capacity, but the quality of this drive does not stand up to numerous criticism, despite the fact that the price of a hard drive is quite high.
A truck called Snowmobile is designed to transfer (or transport?) data from a client's server to Amazon Web Services cloud storage. Is it really necessary to move data to the “cloud” in such an archaic way? The fact is that with a volume of exabytes or, which often happens, hundreds of petabytes, downloading even through a high-bandwidth channel can take a very noticeable time.
For example, uploading one exabyte of data to cloud storage on a 10 gigabits per second connection will take ... about 26 years. That's why Amazon offers AWS customers a data trucking service. 10 of these "Snowmobiles" can transport an exabyte in less than six months, that is, the data transfer rate will be about 514 gigabits per second. Another thing!
Transferring data to cloud storage is quite simple. A truck arrives at the home or office of a customer ordering data transportation and connects to the network using a few cables. Each cable provides data transfer at speeds up to 40 gigabits per second, and the total bandwidth of data transfer to the "Snowmobile" can reach up to terabit per second. With such a connection, it will take about 10 days to fully load a container of 100 petabytes (about 100 thousand terabytes!)
Snowmobile is a waterproof refrigerated container 13.7 meters long and 2.9 meters high, which is mounted on a semi-trailer and moved by a truck tractor. The container requires a 350 kilowatt power source, it is protected from physical tampering, encrypts data, and is also equipped with a video surveillance system and GPS. If this is not enough for someone, for an additional fee, Amazon will provide armed guards during the transportation of data.
You will find a list of all HDDs for your PCs, sorted by the final score obtained within the walls of the testing laboratory. Currently, desktop hard drives reach capacities of 10 TB, and 6- and 8-TB models have already become quite cheap. They are great for computers and in most cases even NAS systems.
In the table below, we show you the always up-to-date "Top 5" 3.5" hard drives that have a capacity of at least 6 GB. In addition, we go into more detail about the impressive 10TB giant and provide an example of a more affordable alternative.
Giant storage: 10 terabyte monsters
Incredible hard drive capacity for PCs and NAS: 3.5-inch 10TB models like the $25,000 IronWolf from Seagate can make a huge hole in your budget. At the same time, the high cost reduces the assessment for value for money at best to average. Despite this, IronWolf is still one of the most affordable representatives of HDD monsters.
During the time with its 7200 rpm spindle speed has established itself as a fast hard drive. After formatting, 9315 GB of disk space remains available for use. The hard disk controller allows you to read information at an average of 200.6 MB per second, data is written at the same speed.
This hard drive is suitable for long-term use and is even marketed as a NAS HDD, so we can wholeheartedly recommend IronWolf for this application.
Alternative: Toshiba X300 6TB
With a price tag of 13,700 rubles, a slightly more affordable and at the same time quite practical alternative is produced by Toshiba and is included in its X300 series. We have already tested the 6-terabyte model. During tests, it proved to be convincing due to its decent data transfer rate and moderate power consumption.
In the lab, this hard drive achieved an average speed of 175 MB per second for both reading and writing data. At the same time, this model from Toshiba is not designed for NAS systems and is not suitable for continuous operation, therefore, the proposed by us Alternative option we recommend using it for a regular desktop computer only.
Computer technology has reached unprecedented heights and the most voluminous hard drives have overcome the 60 TB capacity mark. This is shocking, because the average user has a maximum of 1-2 terabytes of drives and still cannot fill up. Professionals understood what kind of 60 TB equipment we are talking about - this is the so-called Lacie STFK60000400. In essence, it is a modular box, inside of which 6 hard drives of equal capacity are placed, but the convenience is that the device clearly regulates their operation. There is somewhere in the world the largest HDD of 100 TB, but overly bulky, comparable to the first punched card processors. But what about the layman who is not very versed in the issue and gets bogged down in various tires, spindles, caches? It's simple: you need to read this material and put everything on the shelves, defining for yourself the selection criterion. The study was conducted to identify volume / price / functionality ratios, so some manufacturers were not included in the list. It is worth noting that manufacturers have modular systems, ready-made home cloud storage, and so on - all this was also ignored.
In this review, standard 3.5 ”drives and external HDD format drives (not to be confused with SSDs), which are commercially available and acceptable for home use. If something is really worthy of attention, then it is mentioned by inserts in the text without participating in the rating.
The most capacious hard drives
3 TOSHIBA MG07ACA12TE
Best value for money
Country: China, Thailand
Average price: 27,500 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.6
Third place is again taken by Toshiba and here it is for a simple reason - the price. Of all the most capacious 12 TB drives, without division into server and home drives, the MG07ACA12TE model is the cheapest. 1 TB of this device will cost a little more than 2000 rubles, with a difference from the previous ones of only 2 TB. Server hard drives are more reliable, work according to a different algorithm, and are able to warn of a crisis in order to save data. One question: how is the data of an individual user less important than the data of some corporation?
This product does not stand out with anything special - the same equipment, which is an order of magnitude better than a regular disc for personal use. By the way, the closest model in terms of cost, which is positioned for the home, costs more than 32,000 rubles. Perhaps this is the most acceptable option from large HDDs.
2 TOSHIBA MG07ACA14TE
The most reliable and secure
Country: China, Thailand
Average price: 39,500 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.7
The Toshiba MG07ACA14TE doesn't use the latest technology, so it ends up in second place. No, he's not worse. Why so: the manufacturer in the product paid attention to reliability and deliberate destruction of data, but the technology for reading data is the previous one. Relatively speaking, Toshiba convinces with great care, while Seagate tries to test everything new as quickly as possible. The drive is convenient for quickly hiding information: Sanitize Instant Erase technology allows you to instantly delete all data from the drive. It should be noted that the probability of occurrence of a bit uncorrectable error is 1*10 16 , which is 10 times higher than the main competitor - Seagate, but still the differences are negligible. For greater reliability, the “Persistent Write Cache” function has been introduced into the disk, when working together with “Power Loss Protection”, it will be able to ensure the safety of data in the event of a computer power failure. Additionally, if the buyer was able to purchase the product under study with a SAS interface, then it may be worth revising this rating, provided that the home computer also supports it. If you need automated security, you should pay attention to MG07ACA14TE. Energy consumption will also please (lower by ~ 15-20%), but this is already important for those who are building a large infrastructure.
The disadvantages include: high price, lack of firmware for home use. However, even under such strict conditions, the model received approval from ordinary consumers and professional testers. The following products are a little less capacious and here it is necessary to explain the nuances of acquiring and using those already listed. Both models have a high price, at which you have to pay almost 2,800 rubles for 1TB of memory. With the same success for the Euro-Asian territory, you can buy 2 disks of 8 TB each and pay only 2000 rubles for 1 TB, and get a total of 16 TB at the output. In addition, it is difficult for the average user to obtain objective information. So, the Toshiba website is basically not for quality choice, and Seagate is mostly in English and without details.
1 SEAGATE ST14000VN0008
The most modern
Country:
Average price: 39,500 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.7
If an ordinary buyer does not distinguish noise of 2 dB, if for him there is no difference between the operating time of 115 years or 289 years, then the Seagate ST14000VN0008 hard drive has surpassed everyone. A similar drive from a competitor is also good and gets the second place in the ranking, but here's why the HDD in question is better. First of all, it is adapted to work with other disks according to the NAS scenario, in which up to 8 such instances can be combined, for example, for a home station. A total of 112 TB is achieved. The next leading feature is the IronWolf Health-Managment system, which scans almost 200 parameters. It notifies the user of a violation of operating standards: too high a temperature, shock, shaking, etc. Other advantages include a maximum temperature of 70 degrees (suitable for Sochi, Gelendzhik) and is better suited for single use in a home computer, thanks to a separately supplied firmware. It makes no sense to compare with capacious predecessors of 8-12 TB, and given that there is only one competitor for the next 3-6 months, other characteristics will become standard rather than an advantage technical parameters, like: access speed to a block with information - 7200, disk RAM (cache) - 256, form factor - 3.5”. For Russia and other CIS countries, a slightly increased energy consumption practically does not play a role. This parameter is more sensitive for Europe and big business like Sberbank, Aeroflot or Yandex.
Among the shortcomings of the device, only a high price can be distinguished. At the time of writing the review, the device was difficult to find in the general market, but it has already been tested on specialized sites, where it has received a high rating. manufacturer. Now data centers are buying up the bulk of the volume, and as soon as they satisfy their demand, the retail price will drop and something will begin to fall to the mass consumer.
The most capacious external hard drives
3 SEAGATE STEL8000200
Best price
Country: China/Malaysia (assembly), Ireland, USA, Thailand (details)
Average price: 14,000 rubles.
Rating (2019): 3.8
WDBWLG0100HBK from Western Digital with a capacious memory of 10 TB should have taken the last place among the disks, but it is not on sale in Russia. Therefore, the Seagate STEL8000200, which was mentioned earlier, gets here. The computer community gives a good assessment because the product has been tested by time and users, has the best price / terabyte ratio, and is also accompanied by detailed documentation and software.
The disadvantages include, as with the entire product range, the high design and small legs, which do not reduce the sensitivity to shock at all. The reviews note heating and slowness. If the goal is backup storage of data on external media, then the best option exactly this one.
2 SEAGATE STEL10000400
Optimal set of features
Country: China/Malaysia (assembly), Ireland, USA, Thailand (details)
Average price: 19,000 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.0
The Seagate STEL10000400 model is positioned as an external drive for backup data storage. In this regard, full compatibility with the Time Machine program for creating backups is provided. The product does not have particularly outstanding characteristics among analogues of the same capacity: interface speed 160 MB / s, USB 3.0 A, plastic case. As users correctly note this disk, it costs much cheaper than its internal counterpart by as much as 6,000 rubles. Therefore, savings can be made if volume is more important than speed.
Of the shortcomings, the absence of anti-vibration legs is noted. Instead, there are 3 mm racks and a high design - it’s not difficult to hit your elbow and drop it. The older brother STEL8000200 at an average price would be a more suitable option for a computer, since the manufacturer thought out a built-in hub for it and developed software for copying.
1 LACIE D2 THUNDERBOLT 3 10TB STFY10000400
The fastest
Country: China/Malaysia (assembly), Ireland, USA, Thailand (details)
Average price: 33,000 rubles.
Rating (2019): 4.6
If you need all the power, speed and latest advancements in a single drive, then the LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 10TB STFY10000400 External Hard Drive with 10TB of storage cannot be overlooked. Its price is incredibly high - at the level of 33,000 rubles. Suitable for those who care about interface bandwidth and shock protection. However, if you subtract 2 TB, you can buy the same technology at a price two times lower. Why you should choose this product: Up to 40Gb/s with Thunderbolt 3 interface, suitable for 4K video and 3D graphics, can come with a metal case, has shock absorbers and vertical stability.
The disadvantages include: work only with systems higher than Windows 8.1. and Mac OS X, heavy weight of almost 1.5 kg, the highest price per 1 TB. If the criterion for choosing an external hard drive is thoughtfulness and best technology, it's worth taking. There are no analogues among single-disk systems. It's worth passing by: an external 12TB hard drive is the most capacious of all its counterparts, but overly expensive - more than 50K rubles. At the same time, according to reviews, it is very heavy and slow - instead of the declared 15,000 rpm, it produces only 7200.