Hard drive manufacturer Western Digital has announced that it has begun shipping the world's largest capacity internal hard drive, the 3TB WD Caviar Green.
The new drive crams 750GB-per-platter onto the drive using WD 'Advanced Format' technology. The WD Caviar Green drives are also an 'eco-friendly storage solution' the company claimed, pointing to reductions in power consumption leading to a reduction in operating temperature, increased reliability and lower noise.
WD said that the new WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB and 3 TB hard drives are “designed for use as secondary external storage and next-generation PC storage in 64-bit-based systems.” The 2.19 TB capacity barrier is being tacked by the company by bundling an AHCI host adaptor which provides large drive support. WD have an information page about large capacity drives.
“WD remains a leader of hard drive capacity and low power innovation. With our WD Caviar Green drives, we enable energy-conscious customers to build systems with the highest capacities that deliver the optimal balance of system performance, ensured reliability and energy conservation,” said WD client systems storage boss Jim Morris.
The WD Caviar Green 2.5 TB hard drives (model number WD25EZRSDTL) and 3 TB hard drives (model number WD30EZRSDTL) are available now in the US, priced at $189 for the 2.5TB unit and $230 for the 3TB model. The drives are covered by a three-year warranty.