Seagate today announces a new range of high-end hard drives designed for PC, NAS and surveillance applications. Called Guardian Series, it targets consumers and small businesses alike, with each of the three tailored options boasting a massive 10TB capacity.
BarraCuda Pro, IronWolf and SkyHawk, as they are called, may have the large size as a common selling point, but, according to Seagate, they come with different feature sets depending on the type of device they are optimized for.
The 10TB BarraCuda Pro is the consumer-oriented hard drive in the Guardian Series, being a 7200RPM unit with an emphasis on performance. That said, Seagate says that it includes some power-saving features and, as you might expect from a high-end unit, a five-year warranty as well. Apparently, it's also got a 256MB cache and a 220MBps transfer rate.
For NAS users Seagate has the 10TB IronWolf. Such applications require lower power consumption, increased reliability and lower noise levels compared to PCs, so Seagate has baked in rotational vibration sensors (the first drive in its class to have them, apparently), "RAID optimization" and advanced power management functionality. There's also the rather-gimmicky named "multi-user technology", which is said to provide a 180TB/year workload rate per user.
Last but not least, SkyHawk is the 10TB hard drive designed for surveillance devices. Just like IronWolf, it includes rotational vibration sensors, but it also supports 64 cameras. That is, according to Seagate, "more than any other drive on the market". There is also a "data recovery services option".
It's hard not to fall asleep going through those specs -- and I wouldn't blame you for being doubtful too -- but here is something more concrete: the 10TB BarraCuda Pro will cost $534.99, which is quite a lot considering that an 8TB hard drive in Seagate's existing lineup goes for $250 or less.
However, both IronWolf and SkyHawk are significantly less expensive at $469.99 and $459.99, respectively. Considering that the BarraCuda Pro won't win any performance awards, it might make more sense to opt for one of the cheaper 10TB models and use the difference towards a nice SSD.
Seagate says that BarraCuda Pro and IronWolf are shipping now across the globe, but SkyHawk is currently only available "to select customers" -- its retail availability will be announced at a later stage.
