Western Digital rolls out 6TB Black hard drives

Western Digital has announced a new Black 6TB Hard Drive. Black drives are on the high performance end of the Western Digital line. Black and lower-cost 5,400 RPM Green drives have largely replaced Blue drives, which are now mostly available in smaller capacities. Blacks are more expensive, but have upgraded from one to two processor cores for better performance. They also have a larger cache, ranging from 64MB - 128MB.

The 3.5-inch, 7,200 RPM 6TB Black is available now. It features an integrated dual-core processor, 128MB cache, a SATA 6 Gb/s interface and dual stage actuator technology, which is used to achieve accurate positioning on data tracks with a pitch of less than 100nm. Western Digital says that the Black 6TB drive is up to 29% faster than the Black 4TB version in maximum data throughput.

StableTrac Technology is used to secure the motor shaft, which increases reliability and reduces impact from vibrations of other components inside your computer. It also has Dynamic Cache Technology which increases performance by improving caching algorithms.

The recommended retail price for the WD Black 6TB drive is $294, although it is currently $296 on Amazon, likely because it’s not stocked by Amazon itself just yet. It is also covered by a five-year warranty. The WD Green 6TB is $217 on Amazon. The equivalent Seagate 6TB hard drive is listed at $268.