Files are not getting any smaller these days, not with 4K video and high-resolution vacation photos clogging up our digital storage bins. If you're running low on space and attack the problem with a vengeance, HGST's super capacious 8TB hard drive is now on sale for $260.
The drive in question is the HGST Desktar NAS. It is a 3.5-inch form factor HDD with a large 128MB cache buffer, SATA 6Gbps interface, and 7.200 RPM spindle speed for faster performance compared to 5,400 RPM drives.
HGST equips its NAS drives with a rotational vibration sensor that can detect and predict vibrations, which can be exacerbated in a NAS box environment where several other HDDs might be present.
"If the Rotational Vibration Safeguard (RVS) sensors feel a vibration rippling through the drive, they send a signal to the actuator that controls the head’s position. The actuator then compensates for the disturbance, counteracting it with an equal and opposite force. In this way, the head is able to 'ride' the vibration and stay on track, helping to prevent data loss or corruption," HGST explains.
While these drives are built for NAS appliances, they also work just fine in regular desktop builds. Whether or not you should opt for one of this capacity is up to you. The downside to having a single capacious drive—8TB in this instance—is that you're looking at a massive data loss if something goes wrong with the HDD. Of course, that assumes this drive is your sole backup.
On the flip side, there is a convenience to having large amounts of data on a capacious HDD versus spread out on multiple HDDs. So there's that argument.
As for reliability, HGST has fared well with Backblaze, a cloud storage provider that periodically releases HDD reliability reports. And in limited testing, Backblaze has seen promising results from 8TB models.
HGST backs this model with a 3-year warranty. If you're interested, you can grab it on sale here.
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