Toshiba Unveils Pro Series N300 and X300 Hard Drives

Toshiba has announced two new drives for the already impressive lineup. The new hard drives are the N300 Pro and X300 Pro, which promise to be excellent solutions for business owners and creative professionals, respectively. While high capacity drives are nothing new, these two are designed for some pretty rigorous usage. Both HDDs boast capacities of up to 18 TB with workloads up to 300 TB/year and an impressive limited 5-year warranty.

“As the working environment continues to evolve, professionals need reliable and performance-driven storage solutions that can keep up with their project needs and work flows,” stated Kyle Yamamoto, Vice President of TAEC’s HDD Business Unit. “Toshiba’s new N300 Pro is an ideal NAS HDD for the mid to large sized business with high intensity workloads, while the X300 Pro is geared to support the demands of professionals seeking a high performance and reliable HDD for content creation or extreme gaming.”

Both N300 Pro and X300 Pro are built around Toshiba’s latest innovations in HDD technology. The N300 Pro and X300 Pro combine Toshiba’s Cache Technology and Stable Platter Technology (≥10 TB range), and FC-MAMR (18 TB) to provide a leading-edge solution for both advanced consumers and professionals.

“These two new products are well-suited for the market, and Toshiba’s pre-established presence and reputation will accelerate the success of both N300 Pro and X300 Pro HDDs,” said Ed Burns, Research Director of IDC. “Toshiba is leveraging their core strengths and their state-of-the-art HDD technologies to bolster their product portfolio and to lift the company’s brand recognition in these two growing market segments.”

N300 Pro

N300 Pro offers 4 TB, 6 TB, 8 TB, 10 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, 16 TB and 18 TB capacities, using a 7200 RPM design, CMR technology, and Toshiba’s laser welding helium-sealed process on the higher capacity 10 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, 16 TB, and 18 TB designs. These are built for 24/7 NAS environments, supports up to 24 drive bays, a built-in RV sensor to mitigate rotational vibration, and are rated at 1.2 million hour MTTF.

X300 Pro

X300 Pro features a design that’s focused on accuracy and read/write performance for real-time access to data. X300 Pro comes in 4 TB, 6 TB, 8 TB, 10 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, 16 TB and 18 TB capacities, just like the N300 Pro. They also use the same helium-sealed design in the 10 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, 16 TB and 18 TB models. All X300 Pro models have a 1.0 million hour MTTF and are built for workload-intensive applications for creative professionals and gaming PC enthusiasts. The X300 Pro is designed for professional desktop workstations, high-end gaming computers, high workload performance PCs, and multi-media design workstations.

Unfortunately, no details on price, but I suspect they’ll be broadly the same as their rivals 4TB, flagship 18TB drives, and everything else in between.