Seagate has unveiled its newest Guardian series HDDs for consumers, which will be available in three different versions and come in capacities of up to 10TB.

Aimed at different parts of the consumer market, the new Guardian series HDDs from Seagate will offer different level of performance, be available in various form-factors and different set of features.

The new Seagate Guardian series HDDs start with the new Barracuda HDDs, which are aimed at PC and Gaming consumer market and will be available in two versions, Barracuda and Barracuda Pro.

The Barracuda will be available in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form-factors, and range from 500GB to 4TB for the 3.5-inch and up to 2TB for the 2.5-inch version. The Barracuda Pro on the other hand will only be available in 3.5-inch form-factor and be available in 6TB, 8TB and 10TB capacities.

The 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch Barracuda drives will pack up to 64MB of cache, and offer average performance of up to 156MB/s for read and write. The models above 2TB will also feature Seagate's AcuTrac technology and all feature SATA 6Gbps interface. These will use either a single platter and two heads, in 500GB and 1TB versions, or three platters and six heads in up to 4TB capacities.

The Barracuda lineup is aimed at desktop and laptop storage, external and mobile storage, home servers and similar devices and are backed by a 2-year warranty.

The more interesting is the new Barracuda Pro model, which is aimed at high-performance desktops, creative pro desktop application and gaming. The Barracuda Pro is backed by a 5-year warranty and will pack 256MB of cache, have maximum sustained transfer rate of 220MB/s, use SATA 6Gbps interface and feature either twelve platters and six heads in 6TB and 8TB versions and fourteen platters and seven heads in the 10TB version.

Next in line is the new IronWold series, which are described as tough, ready and scalable. Also available in two versions, IronWolf and IronWolf Pro, these will be available in capacities of up to 10TB and in 3.5-inch form-factor. Meant to be used in home, creative pro and small business NAS devices, the IronWolf ranges from 1TB to 10TB, can be used in NAS devices in up to 8-bay, has AgileArray technology (for dual-plane balancing and RAID optimization in multi-bay devices), offers performance of up to 210MB/s and packs up to 256MB of cache.

The IronWolf series is backed by a 3-year warranty. Unfortunately, the IronWolf Pro series is not detailed as it will come in Fall 2016.

The SkyHawk series is all about surveillance. Available in 3.5-inch form-factor and capacity of up to 10TB, the SkyHawk series is tuned for 24x7 operation, has ImagePerfect firmware which helps to minimize dropped frames and downtime, has rotations vibration sensors and ATA streaming support which supports sustained recording from up to 64 HD cameras, as well as packs up to 256MB of cache, offers the same performance of up to 210MB/s and is also backed by a 3-year warranty.

The new Guardian series is a big shift in Seagate's HDD marketing and should differentiate products much easier, offering consumers a series for specific workloads, similar to what Western Digital is doing with colors.

Unfortunately, we still do not have any details regarding the price or the availability date for these HDDs but we will surely keep an eye out for them in retail/e-tail shops.







Source: Seagate.com.