Seagate is now able to claim to have the fastest mechanical drives (HDDs) around the globe in terms of measured throughput. The drives are coming out a year after Seagate launched its initial NVMe HDD. This is the sort of thing manufacturers are likely to announce from a high ridge, but for some motive, Seagate has taken a more sluggish approach to the Exos 2X18 drive. 2X18 drives.
It’s true the new additions to Seagate’s storage collection are awe-inspiring, in terms of both capacity as well as speed. To begin, Seagate is offering 18TB and 16TB capacities as part of the Exos 2X18 series, which are with a choice of SATA 6Gbps or SAS 12Gbps connections. The SATA models are actually a bit quicker, however, they are both on par with SATA SSDs.
In particular, the datasheets of Seagate’s models indicate that SATA models are able of up to 554MB/s of sustained transfer speed, whereas SAS drives aren’t far behind with 545MB/s. To put these numbers in perspective, the most powerful SATA SSDs generally fall within the 580 MB/s range. Samsung’s 870 Evo SSD, for instance, is said to provide 560MB/s in sequential reads and 530MB/s writing.
Of course, NVMe SSDs have supplanted SATA drives in the performance space as they offer to write and read speeds of 7,000MB/s or more in the PCIe 4.0 area. We’ll soon witness PCIe 5.0 models enter the market, with twice the performance rated by those models.
The thing is that the common user would find it difficult to differentiate between two systems that are identical except for the SSD model, which is an NVMe model and the different SATA model. It’s evident in tests and specific tasks (like large file transfers) however for running around Windows and general computing SATA SSDs feel quick.
Seagate’s secret to success lies in the MACH.2 multi-actuator technology which was first introduced ago. The Exos 2X18 range features two independent actuators, delivering as much as a 2X performance improvement when compared to single actuator drives.
“MACH.2 is the first multi-actuator technology for hard drives with two independent actuators, which transfer data simultaneously. MACH.2 resolves the requirement for improved performance by enabling the simultaneous flow of data into and from a single hard drive. In allowing the data center host computer to receive and request information from two different areas of the drive at the same time, MACH.2 doubles the IOPS performance of each hard drive.” Seagate explains.
There’s a bit of computer trickery also. The drives operate as 9TB or 8TB logic units that are one to each actuator. The two actuators can transfer data simultaneously onto the host that reads the drive as one device.
Other highlights include a spindle that has a 7,200 RPM speed with 256MB of memory, capability for SMART monitoring, and burst speeds that can reach 600MB/s.
Seagate has not announced when Exos 2X18 HDDs will be on the market or what price they will be. However, there’s an Exos 2X18 product page on the expanded line-up on the Seagate website.
