Thread: Anandtech News

Since the announcement of AMD’s mid-range offerings, it was clear that Ryzen 5 is going to have some major advantages over its direct price competition. For $250, the top Ryzen 5 1600X gives six cores and twelve threads of AMD’s latest microarchitecture, while $250 will only get you four cores and no extra threads for the same price. Even though the Intel Core i5 based on Kaby Lake will have an instructions-per-clock advantage, it’s a hard hill to climb when the competition has 50% more cores and 200% more threads. In this review, we take the Ryzen 5 1600X and see if it smashes the market wide open.

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CyberLink has been regularly updating their multimedia playback software / PC DVD & Blu-ray players. While ArcSoft dropped out of the software Blu-ray player market a few years back, the only other legal (i.e, one that includes licenses for all required codecs) player - Corel's WinDVD Pro, receives fairly spaced out upgrades. As the HTPC market shifts from a local media-heavy scenario to one where OTT (over-the-top) content like YouTube and Netflix form the main part of the experience, it has become important for commercial software media players to evolve. CyberLink realized this early, with a mobile-centric experience getting introduced in PowerDVD 12. With PowerDVD 14, the technology updates (such as inclusion of HEVC support) were accompanied by a shift in the marketing message from a 'software Blu-ray and DVD player' to a 'media player for power users'.

CyberLink is launching PowerDVD 17 today. Similar to the focus on mobile devices in PowerDVD 12, the time is ripe for them to focus on the next big content consumption device - the virtual reality head-mounted displays (HMDs). PowerDVD 17 Ultra has a special VR mode that works with the HTC Vive as well as the Oculus Rift for an immersive media experience.
PowerDVD 17 is also the fist certified software Blu-ray player capable of playing back Ultra HD (4K) Blu-rays on a PC. The hardware requirements are quite stringent, though. In addition to the two GIGABYTE boards mentioned below, the ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac is also an option for a UHD Blu-ray playback-capable HTPC. Pioneer is currently the only choice for PC-compatible UHD Blu-ray optical drives.

Coming back to the new features in PowerDVD 17, UHD Blu-ray playback support includes HDR10 capabilities also. The player can also upconvert SDR content to HDR using some proprietary algorithms as part of the TrueTheater feature set. As mentioned earlier, HMD support is available for playback of 360 videos. The UI and navigation is also optimized for HMDs in the VR mode. There is also some additional support for YouTube playback, particularly with respect to 360 and 4K videos.

The introduction of VR HMD support enables CyberLink to be an end-to-end media player irrespective of the device used for consuming the content.

It is no secret that the onerous DRM requirements have made Blu-rays a pain for HTPC enthusiasts. PowerDVD 17 requires an active Internet connection for the first time playback of an Ultra HD Blu-ray movie. Consumers who appreciate the extra video and audio quality from local discs have to put up with these annoyances. In addition to UHD Blu-ray playback, some of the other features such as the TrueTheater effects are not yet matched in a user-friendly manner by excellent open source media players like Kodi. That said, many users appreciate Kodi's open source background, its flexibility, and, obviously the fact that it is free.
That brings us to the final aspect - pricing. PowerDVD 17 is available in four flavors ranging in price from $60 to $100.

CyberLink also has a subscription-based offering - PowerDVD Live. It has the same feature set as that of PowerDVD Ultra, but, is priced at $15 / $45 on a quarterly / annual basis. The gallery below also includes a detailed comparison of the features available in each version.
Gallery: CyberLink Launches PowerDVD 17 with UHD Blu-ray and VR HMD Support





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ASUS has released graphics cards based on NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1060 and 1080 GPUs that are equipped with faster memory. The new add-in-boards (AIBs) are designed to offer greater performance in high resolutions than reference designs and enable ASUS to charge a premium for the higher FPS.
Back in February when NVIDIA cut the price on the GTX 1080, the company also announced that they would be working with partners to sell factory overclocked cards with higher speed grades of memory. At launch the fastest grades available for the GTX 1080 and GTX 1060 were 10Gbps GDDR5X and 8Gbps GDDR5 respectively; however in the last year, 11Gbps GDDR5X and 9Gbps GDDR5 have become available. Now those faster memory grades are being made available to their partners for use in factory overclocked cards, giving partners more configuration options for their factory overclocked SKUs.
For partners, this marks their first real opportunity to sell cards with memory overclocks. While NVIDIA’s GPUs have been able to support these higher speeds, the stock configurations for the GTX 1080 and GTX 1060 were already pushing their respective RAM types to their limit, leaving partners no real headroom for the kind of stable and consistent overclocks required for factory overclocking.
At a hardware level, things are pretty straightforward for GTX 1080 cards; vendors can now grab Micron’s 11Gbps GDDR5X chips and use them in the place of 10Gbps chips. Things are a bit less clear on the source of the GDDR5 however. The only manufacturer with an official 9Gbps part listed is Samsung, whose K4G41325FE is still at the "Customer Sample" phase. More importantly however, that chip is only offered in a 4Gb density, whereas NVIDIA has used 8Gb chips for both the GTX 1080 and GTX 1060 6GB. So it will be interesting to see just how 9Gbps GTX 1060s are equipped.
Now, back to ASUS’ GeForce GTX 10 cards with faster memory. At present, the company offers two of such boards: the ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC Edition 8 GB 11 Gbps as well as the ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 OC Edition 6 GB 9 Gbps. The two AIBs belong to different classes of products, but in both cases ASUS did something more than just soldered faster memory chips to PCBs.

The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC Edition 11 Gbps GDDR5X is based on the company’s proprietary PCB design with an 8+2 phase VRM, one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The enhanced power supply circuitry and an additional power connector enable ASUS to increase GPU and memory frequencies from those recommended by NVIDIA and ensure some additional headroom for end-user overclocking. Meanwhile, ASUS does not disclose exact GPU clock rates of its flagship GeForce GTX 1080, which means that the company is still finalizing them.

To ensure proper cooling of the GPU, VRM and memory, ASUS equips its ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC Edition 11 Gbps with a 2.5-wide cooling system featuring six heat pipes and three fans (which stop rotating at low GPU temperatures). As an added bonus, the cooler features ASUS’ user-controllable Aura Sync RGB lighting.
Gallery: ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC Edition 11 Gbps GDDR5X

The ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 OC Edition 6 GB 9 Gbps also uses ASUS’ own PCB as well as the company’s DirectCU II cooling system with four heatpipes and two fans. Obviously, since this is an OC Edition AIB, its GPU frequency is higher than that on reference cards, but ASUS does not publish it. The card does not belong to the ROG or the Strix families, it is not the top-of-the-range GeForce GTX 1060 from ASUS, so expect company to offer something faster based on the GP106 GPU over time.
Gallery: ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 OC Edition 6 GB 9 Gbps

Specifications of ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 11 Gbps and GTX 1060 9 Gbps
		ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 OC Edition 11 Gbps	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition	ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 OC Edition 9 Gbps	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition
Stream Processors		2560		1280
Texture Units		160		80
ROPs		64		48
Core Clock (MHz)		1670 - 1695 (?)	1607	1506 - 1531 (?)	1506
Boost Clock (MHz)		1809 - 1835 (?)	1733	1708 - 1746 (?)	1708
Memory	Capacity	8 GB		6 GB
Type	GDDR5X		GDDR5
Clock	11 Gbps	10 Gbps	9 Gbps	8 Gbps
Power		1×8-pin PCIe 1×6-pin PCIe >180 W	1×8-pin PCIe 180 W	1×6-pin PCIe ~150 W	150 W
VRM		8+2 phases	5+1 phases	?	3+1 phases
PN, Additional Details		ROG-STRIX-GTX1080-O8G-11GBPS	-	GTX1060-O6G-9GBPS	-
Launch Date		Q2-2017	5/2016	Q2-2017	8/2016
Launch Price		?	$699	?	$449

ASUS has not announced MSRPs for its GeForce GTX 1080 11 Gbps and GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB 9 Gbps products, but since they are listed on its website, they are going to show up on shelves soon and thus prices will be revealed. As usual, bear in mind that prices will vary depending on the region.
Related Reading:

• ASUS Demonstrates ROG Swift PG27UQ: 4K, 144 Hz, HDR, DCI-P3 and G-Sync
• GeForce GTX 1080 Price Cut to $499; NVIDIA Partners To Begin Selling 10-Series Cards With Faster Memory
• The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founder's Edition Review: Bigger Pascal for Better Performance
• NVIDIA Announces NVIDIA Titan Xp Video Card: Fully Enabled GP102 for $1200

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HighPoint has started to ship its RocketStor 6600-series Thunderbolt 3 RAID enclosures that can accommodate up to eight storage devices. The enclosures support all popular RAID levels and can enable up to 1.6 GB/s throughput with HDDs or up to 2.7 GB/s throughput with SSDs, which is in line with other 8-bay TB3 storage boxes. Meanwhile, one of the key characteristics of the RocketStor 6618T enclosure is its $999 price point.
The HighPoint RocketStor 6600-series family consists of three models: the RocketStor 6618A tower enclosure with hardware RAID and 8 bays, the RocketStor 6618T tower enclosure with software RAID and 8 bays as well as the RocketStor 6674T rackmount enclosure with software RAID and 16 bays. The DAS boxes support hot swapping of 2.5”/3.5” storage devices, RAID in 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 50 modes, intelligent fan control, audible alarms, and come with HighPoint’s storage management and monitoring software for Apple’s macOS and Microsoft Windows. The manufacturer ships its RocketStor 6600-series enclosures unpopulated and provides a list of compatible drives: the boxes support a wide range of enterprise and NAS-class devices, including 12 TB HDDs as well as up to 4 TB SSDs from various makers, including HGST, Seagate and Samsung.

As for performance, the HighPoint RocketStor 6600-series are designed for various professional applications and are aimed to support simultaneous streaming, editing, and backup of UHD video or other data. When an 8-bay RocketStor 6618A enclosure us populated with HDDs, its maximum sequential read performance is rated at up to 2000 MB/s, with SSDs, its performance as listed increases to 2700 MB/s. The RocketStor 6618T (with software RAID) is a bit slower, offering up to 1800 MB/s throughput with HDDs and up to 2400 MB/s with SSDs. At present, HighPoint does not reveal performance numbers for the rackmount 16-bay RocketStor 6674T.

The HighPoint RocketStor 6600-Series DAS with Thunderbolt 3
		RocketStor 6618A	RocketStor 6618T	RocketStor 6674T
Number of Bays		8 hot-swappable bays for 2.5" or 3.5" HDDs or SSDs		16 hot-swappable bays
HDD/SSD Interface		SAS/SATA	SATA	SAS/SATA
List of Compatible HDDs/SSDs		Link (PDF)
Capacity	HDD	RAID 0: 96 TB (8 × 12 TB) RAID 5: 84 TB (8 × 12 TB)		RAID 0: 192 TB (16 × 12 TB) (?)
SSD	RAID 0: 32 TB (8 × 4 TB) RAID 5: 28 TB (8 × 4 TB)		RAID 0: 64 TB (16 × 4 TB) (?)
RAID		0/1/5/6/10/50
RAID0	HDD	2000 MB/s	1800 MB/s	unknown
SSD	2700 MB/s		unknown
RAID5	HDD	1700 MB/s	1600 MB/s	unknown
SSD	2700 MB/s	2400 MB/s	unknown
RAID Block Size		Up to 1 MB	Up to 128 KB	unknown
RAID Controller		HighPoint RAID-on-Chip I/O controller and 512 MB cache memory with ECC	Software RAID that uses host system's CPU and RAM
Ports		2 × Thunderbolt 3
PSU		integrated
Dimensions (W x H x L)		144 × 330 × 257 mm 5.67 × 13 × 10.12 inch		2U
Cables Included		USB-C (Thunderbolt 40Gb/s or USB 3.1 10Gb/s) cable
Software		HighPoint Storage Monitoring and Management Suite
Price (MSRP)		$1299 (?)	$999	unknown

Just like competing DAS products from other manufacturers, the HighPoint RocketStor systems feature two Thunderbolt 3 ports, making it possible to daisy chain a display or another TB3 device to the storage arrays. The maker bundles one active Thunderbolt 3 cable certified for 40 Gb/s.
One of the key things about the HighPoint RocketStor 6618-series Thunderbolt enclosures are their recommended prices: the more advanced model 6618A is priced at around $1300, whereas the model 6618T (with software RAID and lower performance) is set to cost around $1000. With such price points, HighPoint aims to make Thunderbolt 3-based RAID storage solutions considerably more accessible compared to pre-configured off-the-shelf DAS systems.
HighPoint claims that its RocketStor 6618T is now available in North America at its MSRP of $999. While the enclosure is available, in some cases it comes populated with HDDs and comes at appropriate price points. Meanwhile, Amazon offers empty RocketStor 6618T for $1092.19 (so, not quite $999) as well as empty RocketStor 6618A for $1299.
Gallery: HighPoint RocketStor 6618


Related Reading:

• QNAP at CES 2017 - Thunderbolt 3 and Xeon D NAS Units, Residential Gateways, and More
• LaCie Launches Rugged and d2 Thunderbolt 3 Storage Devices
• Promise Launches Pegasus3 External Storage via TB3: Up to 48 TB, 1.6 GBps
• LaCie Announces Bolt3: 2 TB External SSD at 2.8 GBps over Thunderbolt 3
• AKiTiO Thunder3 PCIe SSD Thunderbolt DAS Review
• Thunderbolt 3 in Action: Akitio Thunder3 Duo Pro DAS Review

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Ultra-compact form factor PCs for business deployments have become popular in the recent past. Compared to traditional UCFF PCs, these business use-cases require ease of management and administration by IT staff. Intel supplies a set of features under the vPro tag for this purpose. This is enabled on select CPU SKUs. OEMs also have limited options for certain components such as the LAN controller. ECS launched the LIVA Z Plus earlier this year, and it was one of the first UCFF Kaby Lake PCs to come with a vPro SKU. Read on for a performance evaluation of the system as well as a discussion of some unique features of the LIVA Z Plus platform.

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In the mood for some free hardware? Well then you're in luck: our awesome community team in conjuction with OCZ is holding a giveaway for a trio of SSDs. The prizes include the 512GB and 256GB PCIe (M.2 w/adapter) versions of OCZ's top-tier M.2 SSD, the M.2-based RD400, along with the 512GB version of their VX500 SATA SSD.

Toshiba OCZ Giveaway Prize Specifications
Capacity	RD400 256 GB	RD400 512 GB	VX500 512 GB
Controller	Toshiba TC58NCP070GSB		Toshiba TC358790
NAND	Toshiba 15nm MLC
Sequential Read	2600 MB/s	2600 MB/s	550 MB/s
Sequential Write	1150 MB/s	1600 MB/s	515 MB/s
Random Read IOPS	210k	190k	92k
Random Write IOPS	140k	120k	64k
Form Factor	M.2 2280 single-sided		2.5" SATA
Protocol	NVMe 1.1b over PCIe 3.1 x4		AHCI
Write Endurance	148 TB	296 TB	296 TB
Warranty	5 years

The giveaway itself is open now, and will be running through April 24^th. You can find the full details for entering the giveaway over on the storage section of our forums.

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One of the biggest bits of news to come out of CES 2016, over a year ago, was Dell announcing a new beacon in OLED monitors: a 3840x2160 panel measuring 30-inch diagonal using an OLED display was set to come to market. When we reported on it back at CES, they stated a $4999 price point for March 31^st. What happened over the next 12 months was interesting: some journalists doing ‘hands-on’ reviews at tech shows, but nothing coming to retail, followed by plenty of CES 2017 news that the display had been shelved due to image quality issues. Well roll around another quarter, and it seems that Dell is ready to sell it, and shipping for this $3499 beast is only 1-2 weeks away.

Specifications of the Dell Ultrasharp UP3017Q
	UP3017Q
Panel	76.19cm (30-inch)
Native Resolution	3840 × 2160
Maximum Refresh Rate	60 Hz
Response Time	0.1 ms (black to white)
Brightness	300 cd/m² (typical) 0.0005 cd/m² (minimum)
Contrast	1000000:1
Viewing Angles	178°/178° horizontal/vertical
Pixel Pitch	0.1713 mm²
Pixel Density	147 ppi
Display Colors	1.07 billion
Color Gamut Support	Adobe RGB: 100% Rec 709: 100% DCI-P3: 97.5% Rec2020: 85.8%
Stand	Tilt (5~21°), pivot (+90°, -90°) and height (100 mm) adjustable
Inputs	1 × DisplayPort 1.2 1 × HDMI 2.0 1 × USB Type-C (DP 1.2. PD 100W).
Audio	None
Launch Price	$3499

The Dell UltraSharp UP3017Q is a 30-inch display with a 3840×2160 resolution, response time of 0.1ms, and is set to run at 60 Hz (not 120 Hz as some outlets originally reported). The monitor can reproduce 1.07 billion colors (in this case we assume 10-bit), it covers 100% of Adobe RGB color space as well as and 97.8% of DCI-P3 color space (used for digital movie projection by the U.S. movie industry and is expected to be adopted in televisions and in home cinema), and 85.8% of Rec2020. The manufacturer declares a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, due to the characteristic black of OLED displays.
The UltraSharp UP3017Q is a thin monitor with narrow bezels, but not remarkably thin like OLED TVs, due to the internal power supply unit as well as complex logic inside. The monitor features a mini DisplayPort (mDP) 1.2 connector, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a USB type-C port which can be used for video and data connectivity, as well as power delivery up to 100W.

The Emissive electroluminescent layer in an organic light-emitting diode is made of an organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current. The organic semiconductor layer is situated between two electrodes and does not require a backlight. As a result, it can display deep black levels unlike LCD panels which also use various kinds of backlighting. Curved TVs and monitors are also possible, since the emissive electroluminescent layer is very thin and can take different shapes.
While OLED technology can deliver deep blacks, high contrast ratio and exceptional colors, it is not free of drawbacks. Colors can shift over time, and the organic layer may degrade over prolonged amount of time. To keep the lifespan of the OLED panel maximized inside the UltraSharp UP3017Q, Dell originally advertised a special integrated presence detector into the front panel of the display, which switches the monitor off when nobody uses it, though it is not clear if this is still present. Another disadvantage of OLEDs is a possibility of static image burn-in. The UP3017Q has a special pixel-shifting technology to try and inhibit this.
The Dell UltraSharp 30 OLED monitor will cost $3499 and is available to order in the United States. The display at this point is only aimed at professionals that work in color-critical environments such as graphic arts and photography. However, due to the colors, contrast, and ultra-fast response time, the UltraSharp UP3017Q will be a dream display for gamers, prosumers and other users thatvalue quality.

OLED panels are considerably more expensive to produce than modern LCD panels, partly because of lower yields. In 2015, an executive from LG Electronics said that yields of OLED panels had reached 80% and would continue to grow. At the International CES 2016, Kwon Bong-suk, the head of LG’s TV business, said that the company had cut prices of OLED TVs in the U.S. by 45% late in 2015. As a result, LG expected sales of OLED televisions to triple in 2016. Price reduction of OLED TVs indicates that production costs of organic light-emitting diode panels are going down. Perhaps, over time, the Dell UltraSharp UP3017Q will also become more affordable, or Dell will release an OLED display for a wider audience.
Original Source: @ChrisK101010

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About two years ago, we looked at the latest creation from the minds of MSI. The GT80 Titan was their boldest move yet, and set the bar for performance, featured the world’s first fully mechanical keyboard on a gaming laptop, and packed in one of the largest displays available, with the 18.4-inch FHD panel. This was the only Broadwell quad-core laptop we tested, since the mobile quad-cores were very short lived, and were quickly replaced by Skylake. It featured two NVIDIA GTX 980M graphics cards in SLI, and sat atop our Notebook Bench with the highest performance we’d seen, at least until NVIDIA’s Pascal came along.

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GIGABYTE has added its first Intel Apollo Lake-based desktop motherboard to its product list. The platform is designed primarily for low-power entry-level PCs, but the manufacturer decided to tailor its J3455N-D3H also for customers who need various legacy I/O technologies, indicating that this board was perhaps orignally designed for a specific customer but is now being released to the wider public. The mainboard is equipped with a host of older interfaces, including COM, LPT, PS/2, D-Sub and PCI.
Just like the name suggests, the GIGABYTE GA-J3455N-D3H is based on the the Intel Celeron J3455 processor (four Goldmont cores clocked at 1.5/2.3 GHz, 2 MB cache, dual-channel DRAM controller, HD Graphics 500, 10W TDP) that feature Intel’s ninth-generation graphics architecture (Gen9) as well as a refined media playback engine with hardware-accelerated playback of 4K video encoded using HEVC and VP9 codecs. The Mini-ITX motherboard is equipped with two DDR3L SO-DIMM slots (supporting up to 16 GB of DDR3L-1866), two Realtek GbE controllers, four SATA connectors (two controlled by the ASMedia ASM1061), one HDMI 1.4 output (up to 3840×2160 at 30 Hz), a connector for a TPM module, USB 3.0 headers (additional USB 2.0 ports are supported using the internal header and a Genesys Logic USB 2.0 hub) and so on.

In addition to the aforementioned regular I/O capabilities of a modern PC, the GIGABYTE GA-J3455N-D3H also features a number of legacy interfaces. The latter includes two COM ports, an LPT port header, PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse, a D-Sub output for displays, as well as a PCI slot for various add-on cards (and such cards may carry additional legacy interfaces, such as PATA, etc.). While the presence of the connectors makes the motherboard a viable candidate for a system running legacy applications, it should be noted that Intel’s Apollo Lake is not supported by Windows 7, 8, Vista or XP. Windows 10 does support legacy hardware, including COM, PCI and other interfaces, but the problem is those old software applications that use COM ports or PCI cards might not work in Windows 10, or require VMs and abstraction to do so. Therefore, to use them, one will need to install Windows 7 or XP on a virtual machine, which is not always convenient. Failing this, a Linux distribution might be a preferred option.

GIGABYTE's Intel Apollo Lake Motherboard
		GA-J3455N-D3H
CPU		Intel Celeron J3455 4C/4T Goldmont 1.5 - 2.3 GHz 2MB cache 10 W TDP
Graphics		HD Graphics 500 12 EUs 250 - 750 MHz
PCH		Integrated into CPU
Memory		2 GB DDR3L-1866 pre-installed Two SO-DIMM slots, up to 16 GB of DDR3L-1866
Ethernet		2 × Realtek GbE controllers
Display Outputs		D-Sub (implementation unclear) HDMI 1.4
Storage		2 × SATA 6 Gbps (SoC) 2 × SATA 6 Gbps (ASM1061)
Audio		Realtek ALC887 7.1 channel audio
USB		2 × USB 3.0 Type-A 2 × USB 2.0
Other I/O		2 × COM ports LPT internal header 2 × PS/2 PCI
Form-Factor		Mini-ITX
OS		Windows 10
Detailed Specifications		Link

While the GA-J3455N-D3H motherboard is heading to retail, the presence of two GbE ports indicates that GIGABYTE either plans to offer the platform to corporate customers, or is already shipping it to interested parties. If the latter is the case, it looks like GIGABYTE has clients who need more or less modern low-cost PCs with legacy interfaces in their corporate networks. It's always easier to replace a $500 PC connected to a $500k machine than to replace the machine, after all.
GIGABYTE has not announced MSRP of its J3455N-D3H motherboard or its actual release date. Keeping in mind that the COM, PS/2 and LPT controller, the additional SATA controller as well as a PCIe-to-PCI bridge all cost money, we expect GIGABYTE’s Apollo Lake-based platform to cost more than the base Apollo Lake solutions available.

Related Reading:

• ECS LIVA Z Fanless Dual-LAN Apollo Lake UCFF PC Review
• ECS Preps LIVA Z: Apollo Lake-Based Nettop with 4K and USB-C Support
• CES 2017: GIGABYTE Shows Passive Apollo Lake BRIX in Embedded UCFF
• Launch of Intel’s Apollo Lake NUCs Gets Closer as Intel Lists Them on Web Site
• Intel Quietly Launches Apollo Lake SoC: Goldmont CPU, 6 SKUs, 6 & 10 Watts
• Intel Readies New NUCs Based on Kaby Lake and Apollo Lake SoCs
• Intel Unveils New Low-Cost PC Platform: Apollo Lake with 14nm Goldmont Cores

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Western Digital has expanded its Purple lineup of hard drives, aimed at video surveillance applications, with a 10 TB helium-filled HDD. The drive is optimized for write-intensive workloads and supports various technologies that minimize the number of potential errors due to the high-number of incoming data streams. The new WD Purple is also the company’s first 10 TB HDD with a 5400 RPM spindle speed and a large cache.
The WD Purple 10 TB drive (WD100PURZ) is based on the HelioSeal platform featuring seven PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording) platters with ~1.4 TB capacity apiece, which it inherited from last year’s top-of-the-range HDDs. The increased areal density of the platters allowed the hard drive to increase its sustained transfer speed from host to drive to 210 MB/s, or by ~18% compared to the previous-generation helium-sealed WD Purple 8 TB HDD (WD80PUZX, 178 MB/s). This is at the same 5400 RPM spindle speed and at a slightly lower power consumption (up to 6.2 W vs up to 6.4 W). Just like other hard drives with a 10 TB capacity, the new WD Purple is equipped with a 256 MB DRAM buffer, which may further increase the real-world performance of the HDD against its predecessors.

Comparison of Western Digital's WD Purple HDDs
		WD100PURZ	WD80PUZX	WD60PURX	WD50PURX
Capacity		10 TB	8 TB	6 TB	5 TB
RPM		5400 RPM
Interface		SATA 6 Gbps
DRAM Cache		256 MB	128 MB	64 MB
Helium-Filling		Yes		No
Data Transfer Rate (host to/from drive)		210 MB/s	178 MB/s	170 MB/s	150 MB/s
MTBF		unknown		1 million hours
Rated Workload (read and write)		180 TB/year
Acoustics (Seek)		29 dBA		26 dBA
Power Consumption	Sequential read/write	6.2 W	6.4 W	5.3 W
Idle	5 W	5.7 W	4.9 W
Sleep	0.5 W	0.7 W	0.4 W
Warranty		3 Years
Price (as of April 2017)		$399.99	$281.99	$214	$200
$0.04 per GB	$0.035 per GB	$0.035 per GB	$0.04 per GB
25 GB per $	28.39 GB per $	28.03 GB per $	25 GB per $

Since the WD Purple hard drives are purpose-built for video surveillance applications, they support the ATA streaming extension of the SATA standard as well as a number of WD proprietary technologies, including AllFrame 4K cache policy management and firmware enhancements to optimize data flows during playback and writing. All WD Purple drives can work with up to 64 cameras and are rated for a 180 TB/year workload. In addition, high-capacity WD Purple HDDs are optimized for operation in NVRs and DVRs with more than eight drives and support time-limited error recovery technology (TLER), which prevents drive fallout caused by extended HDD error recovery processes.

Western Digital claims that the new WD Purple 10 TB is compatible with new and existing video surveillance systems (including chassis, chipsets, etc.) and thus can be used for new and current deployments (except those that require drives with 512B/512e sectors – the new WD Purple only support 4Kn sectors). The manufacturer has already started to ship the new hard drives to its partners and they will be available shortly for $399.99.
While the addition of a 10 TB HDD into the WD Purple series is a significant event, the fact that Western Digital began to roll out 10 TB helium-filled hard drives with a 5400 RPM spindle speed is even more important (until recently, WD used to offer only 8 TB helium-filled 5K HDDs). With the introduction of a 10 TB product with a reduced spindle speed, Western Digital can launch WD Red and WD My Book hard drives of the same capacity in the coming weeks or months. Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that recently Western Digital cut down the price of its WD Purple 8 TB HDD by 30% and it can now be acquired for $281.99 from Amazon.
Gallery: Western Digital Expands Purple Lineup with a 10 TB Helium-Filled HDD


Related Reading:

• Western Digital Introduces Its First Helium-Filled HDDs for Consumer Applications
• Western Digital Announces Ultrastar He12 12 TB and 14 TB HDDs
• Western Digital Adds Helium-Filled WD Gold 10 TB HDD to Lineup

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