Western Digital extends Black drive range capacity to 4TB
updated 12:56 pm EST, Tue November 20, 2012
High-performance WD Black drive uses dual stage actuators
Western Digital has extended its high-performance hard drive line to include a 4-terabyte option, doubling the previous largest capacity drive. The new addition to the WD Black range continues the line's themes of fast access times and reliability, making it ideal for workstations as well as the desktops of performance-hungry gamers.
The 3.5-inch, 7,200 RPM, SATA 6 drive with a 64MB cache uses dual stage actuators to improve positional accuracy of the read head over data tracks, with a primary actuator acting normally to give a generalized location, and a secondary piezoelectric actuator to fine-tune the position. An integrated dual processor, dual-stabalized motor shaft, NoTouch ramp load technology and optimized seek speeds also help in improving the drive's overall performance.
While not reaching the 10,000 RPM the WD VelociRaptor can perform, the new drive does still carry a price premium over more conventional models, costing $340 with a five-year warranty.
