14 DAY TRIAL // In May last year Toshiba launched the MC04 Series high-capacity 5TB SATA 6Gb/s hard disk drive, that integrates 1TB platters that spin at 7200 rpm and 128 cache.
This time Toshiba upped the ante but only in data storage size as it moved from 5TB to 6 TB staying within the same industry standard of 3.5-inch form factor and the same 7200 rpm value as the 5TB version.
However, Toshiba claims that the new 6TB MC04 has its performance improved by 20 percent, enabling more efficient high-density, high-growth storage for multi-petabyte rack deployments.
This being an HDD design for bulk operations, the new MC04 Series improves ROI for scale-out storage solutions with a 20 percent increase in power efficiency (TB/W) terabytes per watt over the older models, promising also, more cost-effective delivery of cloud storage services.
The MC04 that is now available in sizes starting from 2TB to 6TB will support the industry standard of 180TB transferred per year workload rating, being perfect for lower tier workloads in high capacity, scale-out cloud-based storage and server use cases. The Advanced Format sector technology is present on the entire MC04 Series of HDDs, enabling "both higher aerial density and compatibility with legacy applications and operating environments."
One terabyte at a time
Looking through all these rows of "capabilities" and "optimizations," the newest Toshiba 6TB HDD is basically the older 5TB MC04 model, no characteristic being truly innovative as it just follows the general server HDD industry norm.
For comparison, Samsung HDD and its parent company Seagate, together with Western Digital already brought more powerful designs to the market. Western Digital announced lately its Ha10 10TB high capacity HDD, packed with SMR and HelioSeal technology that double both the standard storage space per platter and the average lifespan of each hard disk drive.
Overall Toshiba hopes that will beat its American competition through price affordability as neither are its specs impressive nor do they call for a necessary compromise price/quality-wise.
According to TechPowerUp, the new Toshiba will ship in August this year.