Western Digital ships 4TB WD Black hard drive, melds speed with space for $339
The 4TB hard drives that we've seen gradually filter into the marketplace have come with a few snags for desktop users; they're usually either external drives we'd never boot from or pokey internal models not meant for anything speed-intensive. Western Digital doesn't want us settling. It's shipping a 4TB version of its WD Black desktop drive that holds nothing back for the sake of the extra storage, spinning at a healthy 7,200RPM while packing 64MB of cache, dual processing and a two-stage actuator that together keep the drive working at full burn. At $339, the SATA 6Gbps drive undoubtedly carries a premium in trying to be the best of all worlds; it may be worth the expense for performance-minded types who've been out of options (and capacity) for awhile.
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WD® EXPANDS ITS HIGHEST-PERFORMING DESKTOP HARD DRIVES TO 4 TB CAPACITY
New WD Black Hard Drives Offer Uncompromising Storage Performance for Enthusiasts, Gamers
IRVINE, Calif. – Nov. 20, 2012 – WD®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and a world leader in hard drives, today announced its highest performance, highest capacity desktop hard drive, the WD Black™ 4 TB, 3.5-inch, 7200 RPM drive. Shipping immediately, the fast performance and extreme capacity of the award-winning WD Black drives make them perfect for gaming, high-performance desktop systems and workstations.
WD Black hard drives combine 7200 RPM spin speed, 64 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 6 gigabits per second (Gb/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive.
"Maximizing the features and functionality of power computing applications such as gaming, multimedia and video editing, the new WD Black 4 TB hard drives offer capacity and performance-without compromise," said Matt Rutledge, vice president of WD's client storage group. "In choosing WD Black hard drives, WD desktop customers get the best possible mix of capacity, performance and reliability to handle intense desktop computing with ease."
WD Black 4 TB hard drives feature:
Dual processor – Twice the processing power to maximize performance.
Dual actuator technology – A head positioning system with two actuators that improves positional accuracy over the data track(s). The primary actuator provides coarse displacement using conventional electromagnetic actuator principles. The secondary actuator uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning to a higher degree of accuracy.
IntelliSeek™ – Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.
StableTrac™ – The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations.
NoTouch™ ramp load technology – The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
Price and Availability
The WD Black 4 TB GB (model WD4001FAEX) hard drives are available through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Black 4 TB drive is $339.00 USD. More information about WD Black 4 TB desktop hard drives may be found on the company's website at http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760. WD Black drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty, see http://www.support.wdc.com for details.
