Price of HGST 6TB Helium HDD Finally Known
$725 - or $0.12/GB, three times more than 4TB unit ($0.04/GB)
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on March 27, 2014 at 2:58 pmPrice of the HGST 6TB Helium HDD is finally known.
Amazon.com now sells the model HUS726060ALA640 3.5″ 6TB SATA 6Gb/s 7.2K RPM 64M 0F18335 at $724.88 with free shipping or $0.12/GB.
Per comparison the highest capacity HDD from Seagate is the Desktop HDD 4 TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST4000DM000 with conventional technology sold $156.95 by Amazon or $0.04/GB.
At three times the price per gigabyte for the helium model, this unit will have probably a smaller market HGST could get. For example for a configuration needing 100TB raw capacity, total price will be $12,325 for 17 helium 6GB HDDs compared to $3,924 for 25 4TB conventional drives. In exchange the volume used is 33% less with 6TB HDDs.
When the helium drive was revealed, HGST said price per gigabyte will probably be higher than current high-capacity units. It’s much higher. The WD subsidiary is counting on its monopoly on 6TB to amass big margins. At least one competitor is urgently needed but the only two other ones, Seagate and Toshiba, are not involved in helium technology.