Toshiba Launches N300 HDDs for NAS: Up to 8 TB, Up to 240 MB/s
by Anton Shilov on April 21, 2017 8:00 AM EST
Toshiba this week launched its new lineup of high-reliability hard drives for NAS units. The drives offer up to 8 TB of capacity and are based on enterprise-grade platforms. According to Toshiba's specifications, these and are among the highest-performing 3.5” HDDs on the planet.
The Toshiba N300 family of hard drives consists of three models with 4 TB, 6 TB and 8 TB capacities, a SATA 6 Gb/s interface, a 7200 RPM spindle speed and a 128 MB buffer. All three HDDs are based on a high-reliability platform that attaches a spindle to both sides of a drive (to curb system-induced vibration), has rotational vibration (RV) sensors, shock sensors and temperature sensors as well as supporting error recovery features. The new HDDs are designed for 24/7 availability, 1 million hours MTBF and have a 180 TB/year workload rating, which is in line with other hard drives for NAS devices with 8 bays and is considerably higher than the workload rating of typical desktop HDDs.
Toshiba’s N300 HDDs resemble the company’s MN05-series drives introduced in February (which are also designed for enterprise-class NASes) and are likely based on the same PMR platters (perpendicular magnetic recording) with up to 1.33 TB capacity per platter (the 8 TB version features six of such discs). In addition to the same platters, the N300 drives also have the same power consumption as the MN05 HDDs, but offer slightly different performance, according to the specifications.
| Toshiba N300-Series HDDs | ||||||
| HDWN180XZSTA | HDWN160XZSTA | HDWQ140XZSTA | ||||
| Capacity | 8 TB | 6 TB | 4 TB | |||
| RPM | 7200 RPM | |||||
| Interface | SATA 6 Gbps | |||||
| DRAM Cache | 128 MB | |||||
| Data Transfer Speed (Sustained) |
240 MB/s | 210 MB/s | 200 MB/s | |||
| MTBF | 1 million hours | |||||
| Rated Annual Workload (read and write) | 180 TB/year | |||||
| Acoustics (Seek) | 35 dB | 34 dB | ||||
| Power | Operating | 9.2 W | 10.1 W | 9.6 W | ||
| Active Idle | 6.2 W | 6.7 W | 5.2 W | |||
| Warranty | 3 years | |||||
As for performance, Toshiba claims up to a 240 MB/s sustained data transfer rate as well as a 4.17 ms average latency time for the N300 8 TB model, which is slower compared to the MN05 8 TB. Meanwhile, since the 6 TB and 4 TB N300 HDDs use different platters, their performance is a bit lower (due to the lower areal density).
Toshiba is already shipping its N300 HDDs to partners and the drives are expected to be available in stores this month. Exact prices will depend on the retailer, but keep in mind that although the N300 are aimed at consumers, they are based on advanced platforms and support numerous enterprise-grade features.
Related Reading:
- Toshiba Announces MN-Series HDDs: Up to 8 TB
- Toshiba Launches MG05ACA Enterprise HDDs: 8 TB, 7200 RPM, NAND Cache
- Seagate Confirms Plans for 12 TB HDD in Near Future, 16 TB HDD Due in 2018
- Western Digital Announces Ultrastar He12 12 TB and 14 TB HDDs
- Promise Launches Pegasus3 External Storage via TB3: Up to 48 TB, 1.6 GBps
Source: Toshiba
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Topweasel - Friday, April 21, 2017 - link
They died. Spindle speed and the platters physical size only mattered when using the same data density. One good density jump and a slower drive would overtake it. SSD's have pretty much completely replaced high spin drives in servers. In fact home NAS is about the only place 7200 high capacity drives make sense.HomeworldFound - Friday, April 21, 2017 - link
I'm not sure I'd buy a drive with a three year warranty from a company in serious trouble. If the Japanese government doesn't step in with a bail-out Toshiba will be split and sold, probably at a loss.Tams80 - Monday, April 24, 2017 - link
I was about to post that. Toshiba are in serious trouble. While I'm sure each section will survive in some form, either still as part of Toshiba or bought by someone else, I have doubts as to what would happen with any warranties.ajp_anton - Friday, April 21, 2017 - link
"Toshiba claims up to a 240 MB/s sustained data transfer rate as well as a 4.17 ms average latency time for the N300 8 TB model, which is slower compared to the MN05 8 TB."What? Data transfer is faster, latency is identical. Again, why do you report the average latency?, because it's just another way of reporting the spindle speed. It just makes you look like you don't understand what it is.
Half a rotation (which is the average time to wait for the correct spot to land under the reader) at 7200rpm takes 4.17ms.
shabby - Friday, April 21, 2017 - link
When i quickly glanced on the pipeline section i thought i saw "toshiba launches n300 ssd, upto 8tb/sec" boy was i disappointed when my eyes finally got focus.