Toshiba has announced its latest HDD offering, the 3.5-inch P300 Desktop PC Hard Drive.
The new release is aimed at graphic designers and creative professionals looking for high performance and is available in storage capacities of up to 6TB.
Toshiba says the new HDD is suitable for use with workstations as well as for gaming PCs as it looks to make hard drives an appealing alternative to SSDs.
How does it work?
The newest drive uses shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology, an alternative technology to solid state drives that has been in use since 2015.
Shingled recording creates new tracks which overlap with part of the previously written magnetic track, like shingles on a roof. This can enable higher track density.
To prevent accidental data loss, the P300’s design includes an internal shock sensor, and also features ramp loading technology, which means that when your hard drive or desktop PC is being transported, the drive slider does not contact the disk and risk wearing or data loss.
In terms of performance, the P300 offers a buffer of up to 256 MB and rotational speeds of between 5,400 rpm and 7,200 rpm.
If you’re looking at power usage, the new drive ranges from 4.11 W to 7.3 W during read/write depending on the size you go for.
In terms of weight, we’re looking at between 680g and 450g depending on the storage capacity you opt for.
When will they be available?
The new drives will be available in 3Q 2022, and no price has yet been announced.
The release comes shortly after Toshiba announced its decision to spin out its hardware division into a separate operation.
The two standalone companies, both of which will be publicly traded, will be: Infrastructure Service, which covers energy, transportation, batteries, and other areas; and Device, which covers digital devices, semiconductors, and storage.
