Western Digital ships 3TB Caviar Green 3.5-inch hard drive for $239, 2.5TB for $189
You know that 3TB hard drive that Western Digital slapped into its range of My Book external units earlier this month? Looks like it's finally ready to free itself from those shackles. WD has today announced that it's shipping the component 3TB Caviar Green drive (WD30EZRSDTL) by its lonesome, perfect for those looking to beef up their NAS drives or just add a capacious archive drive to their SSD-equipped desktop rig. The 3TB monster is hitting just under two years after the 2TB Caviar Green went official, with this guy boasting 750 GB-per-platter areal density and Advanced Format technology. The outfit's also shipping a 2.5TB version (WD25EZRSDTL) for those who aren't quite able to swallow the full three, and both of 'em are bundled with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which will enable the operating system to use a known driver with correct support for large capacity drives. Both units should be available to purchase from respected retailers as we speak, with the 3TB demanding $239 and the 2.5TB unit going for $189. Remember when the world's first 1TB drive in this form factor debuted for $400? Yeah... not too shabby!
Update: Storage Review, Legit Reviews and Hot Hardware have put this thing through its paces, and they all seem pretty darn stoked on the performance. Though, LR did seem to run into a few HD Tach issues, so be sure to peek that carefully.
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WD® NOW SHIPPING THE WORLD'S LARGEST CAPACITY SATA HARD DRIVES
WD Caviar® Green™ 3 TB Hard Drives Support the Continuing Demand for Increased Capacity in External Storage and Advanced PC Applications
LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Oct. 19, 2010 - WD® (NYSE: WDC) today announced that the company is shipping the world's largest capacity SATA hard drive. As the latest addition to its WD Caviar® Green™ family of SATA hard drives (photo), the new hard drives deliver up to a massive 3 terabytes (TB) of storage capacity on a single drive. WD is leading the industry in capacity for SATA hard drives by utilizing 750 GB-per-platter areal density and Advanced Format (AF) technology.
WD Caviar Green drives are an eco-friendly storage solution with WD GreenPower Technology™, which reduces power consumption by enabling lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and decreases acoustical noise for quiet operation. The WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB and 3 TB hard drives are designed for use as secondary external storage and next-generation PC storage in 64 bit-based systems.
Drives with capacities in excess of 2.19 TB currently present barriers for PC hardware, firmware and software. To satisfy the new set of requirements of which users must be aware to successfully integrate larger capacity drives, WD is bundling its WD Caviar Green 2.5 and 3 TB hard drives with an Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)-compliant Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which will enable the operating system to use a known driver with correct support for large capacity drives. For more information on solving the 2.19 TB drive barrier, please see the WD information sheet at http://products.wdc.com/largecapacitydrives.
"WD remains a leader of hard drive capacity and low power innovation. With our WD Caviar Green drives, we enable energy-conscious customers to build systems with the highest capacities that deliver the optimal balance of system performance, ensured reliability and energy conservation," said Jim Morris, executive vice president and general manager of WD's client systems storage group. "Customers will be able to take advantage of this breakthrough capacity point now for secondary external storage in legacy 32-bit systems that run on Microsoft® Vista® or Windows® 7 platforms."
Price and Availability
WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB hard drives (model number WD25EZRSDTL) and 3 TB hard drives (model number WD30EZRSDTL) are available now in the U.S. at select resellers and distributors. MSRP for the WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB hard drive is $189.00 USD and the 3 TB hard drive is $239.00 USD. WD Caviar Green hard drives are covered by a three-year limited warranty. More information about WD Caviar Green hard drives may be found on the company's website at http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=866.
