Western Digital has announced that the WD Red Pro 20TB CMR HDD is now available, adding to their previously released 20TB Gold and Ultrastar DC HC560 HDDs. Optimized for NAS enclosures (up to 24 bays) and purpose-built for high-intensity workloads in 24/7 environments, the new WD Red Pro line features OptiNAND technology for more efficient data placement.
Western Digital has announced that the WD Red Pro 20TB CMR HDD is now available, adding to their previously released 20TB Gold and Ultrastar DC HC560 HDDs. Optimized for NAS enclosures (up to 24 bays) and purpose-built for high-intensity workloads in 24/7 environments, the new WD Red Pro line features OptiNAND technology for more efficient data placement.
This high-capacity drive helps both SMBs and large businesses archive, share, and protect their rapidly growing data, including high-res video, 3D models and animation, CT/MRI imaging, and other healthcare and scientific workloads. The WD Red Pro line is also available in a range of other smaller capacities, from 2TB all the way to today’s announced 20TB model.
Like others from the WD Red Pro line, the 20TB model leverages NASware 3.0 technology. This is the company’s proprietary advanced firmware technology that enables seamless integration, data protection, and optimized performance for NAS systems.
Also featured is WD’s OptiNAND technology, which combines the iNAND, controller, and firmware into an SoC on the Red Pro’s PCB. The iNAND is a 64-layer dynamic flash (BICS3) package that manages the metadata of the drive. We encourage you to read our OptiNAND platform article for more information on how it boosts drive capacity and performance, and why it’s ideal for hyperscalers regarding their cold data and archive tiers.
Performance-wise, the 7,200 RPM 20TB model is quoted with slightly lower transfer rates compared to the 18TB model at 268MB/s read (vs. 272MB/s read). Reliability remains the same as other higher capacities (20TB-10TB) of the Red Pro line, featuring an MTBF of 1 million hours, a workload rate (TB/year) of 200, and a 5-year limited warranty.
WD Red Pro 20TB Specifications
| Model Number | WD201KFGX |
| Formatted capacity | 20TB |
| Recording technology | CMR |
| Interface | SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Form factor | 3.5-inch |
| Native command queuing | Yes |
| Advanced Format (AF) | Yes |
| RoHS compliant5 | Yes |
| Performance | |
| Interface speed (max) | 6 Gb/s |
| Internal transfer rate | 268 MB/s |
| Cache (MB)1 | 512 |
| RPM | 7200 |
| Reliability/Data Integrity | |
| Load/unload cycles7 | 600,000 |
| Non-recoverable errors per bits read | <10 in 1014 |
| MTBF (hours)8 | 1,000,000 |
| Workload rate (TB/year) | 300 |
| Limited warranty (years) | 5 |
| Power Management | |
| 12VDC ±5% (A, peak) | 1.80 |
| 5VDC ±5% (A, peak) | |
| Average power requirements (W) | |
| Read/Write | 6.9 |
| Idle | 3.8 |
| Standby and Sleep | 1.6 |
| Temperature (°C) | |
| Operating | 0 to 65 |
| Non-operating | -40 to 70 |
| Shock (Gs) | |
| Operating, (2 ms, read/write) | 30 |
| Operating, (2 ms, read) | 50 |
| Non-operating (2 ms) | 250 |
| Acoustics (dBA) | |
| Idle | 20 |
| Seek (average) | 32 |
| Physical Dimensions | |
| Height (in./mm, max) | 1.028/26.1 |
| Length (in./mm, max) | 5.787/147 |
| Width (in./mm, ± .01 in.) | 4/101.6 |
| Weight (lb/kg , ± 10%) | 1.52/0.69 |
WD Red Pro 20TB Pricing and Availability
The WD Red Pro 20TB is available now for $499.99 on the company’s official website.
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