- High-speed 18TB Seagate Exos 2X18 HDD narrows the gap with SATA SSDs
- Dual actuator Mach.2 technology delivers 554 MBps reads with enterprise-friendly capacity
- Drive is suitable for workloads that require fast rotating media rather than pure capacity
The Seagate Exos 2X18 hard drive is available at Insight for $659.99 — and while it’s not exactly the Black Friday buy of the year, that’s $19 off its usual price of $679.
Aimed at data center and enterprise workloads, this 18TB model stands out for more than just raw capacity – it’s fast.
The Exos 2X18 uses Seagate’s Mach.2 dual-actuator design, which splits the drive’s mechanics into two independent actuator assemblies that work in parallel. The result is quoted sequential transfer speeds of up to 554 MBps for reading and 528 MBps for writing, roughly double that of a typical 7200 rpm enterprise HDD.
Close to SATA SSD speeds
On paper, that puts this hard drive in the same range as many SATA SSDs such as the Samsung 870 QVO, at least for large sequential transfers.
A SATA SSD is still far faster for random access and latency-sensitive work, but for streaming data or backup jobs, the Exos drive closes the gap far more than regular spinning disks.
Exos 2X18 uses a 3.5 inch form factor with a SAS 12Gb/s interface and 256MB cache. Average latency is listed at 4.16ms and spindle speed at 7200rpm, backed by a claimed MTBF of 2500000 hours and a five-year limited warranty.
The drive is listed at 304 IOPS for 4KB random reads and 560 IOPS for 4KB random writes. Power consumption varies from 8W when idle to 13.5W during sequential readings.
Helium-filled construction, PowerBalance and Power Choice features are all aimed at keeping thermals and power consumption predictable in tight racks.
Seagate Secure support can help with hardware-based data protection in managed environments, although of course it will depend on host integration.
This kind of performance comes at a high price for a single 18TB drive. For buyers who only need capacity, slower nearline drives or high-capacity SATA SSDs will work out cheaper per unit. terabytes.
For workloads that are still tied to rotating media but benefit from higher throughput, the Exos 2X18 offers an unusual middle ground between traditional HDDs and entry-level SATA SSDs.
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