Helium filled hard drives

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BlueShift

1692 posts

Uber Geek

#133875 6-Nov-2013 14:56

Will these things give any actual, real-life performance improvement, or is it the PC equivalent of filling your tyres with nitrogen?
How long would it take for the helium to osmose out of the drive anyway, that stuff is tricksy.

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

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Vocus

#928188 6-Nov-2013 15:11

Article explains everything:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243751/6TB_helium_filled_hard_drives_take_flight_bump_capacity_50_

k1wi

484 posts

Ultimate Geek

#928193 6-Nov-2013 15:19

At this point in time they are designed very much for the datacentre.

A lot of people are questioning the durability of the seal, and whether they can remain sealed for such a long period (5 years), but I doubt they would have gone to market with them if they foresaw an issue with it.

Netflix-esqe applications have such high levels of redundancy that a failure or two (or an entire array) is no big deal to them. IIRC they purposely 'kill' servers in order to test their system resilience...

BlueShift

1692 posts

Uber Geek

#928214 6-Nov-2013 15:35

If they're that well sealed, why not go for a vacuum, or near-vacuum? No air friction at all then.

BruceHamilton

77 posts

Master Geek

#928227 6-Nov-2013 15:49

BlueShift: If they're that well sealed, why not go for a vacuum, or near-vacuum? No air friction at all then.

Helium has excellent thermal conductivity for a gas, Helium at 100C = 17.06, Air at 100C = 3.17.
Hydrogen at 100C is slightly better ( 21.6 ), but has other issues... eg boom.

It's not clear that the units are at atmospheric pressure, they could be slightly above or below. Helium leak detectors are very sensitive, and are used in a lot of industries, as the small, low viscosity helium molecules produce high leak rates, so manufacturers could easily check for minute leaks.

Bung

6477 posts

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Subscriber

#928230 6-Nov-2013 15:52

Don't drive heads have to float above the platter? That would require an atmosphere. AFAIK ordinary drives aren't totally sealed by design so there can be pressure equalisation.

Klipspringer

2385 posts

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Inactive user

#928241 6-Nov-2013 15:56

I seriously would not bother with one.
I would be too concerned than my drive decides to float away

jaymz

1133 posts

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#928273 6-Nov-2013 16:26

BlueShift: Will these things give any actual, real-life performance improvement, or is it the PC equivalent of filling your tyres with nitrogen?
How long would it take for the helium to osmose out of the drive anyway, that stuff is tricksy.

Personally, i think the whole "Nitrofill" is a marketing ploy. If you keep your tyres properly inflated you will get the same results!

as for the HDD, i would rather save the money

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ubergeeknz

3344 posts

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Vocus

#928276 6-Nov-2013 16:29

You can't really compare it with filling tyres with Nitrogen... need to keep in mind that the air is about 78% Nitrogen already, and density is roughly the same.

Helium on the other hand has a much lower density; this means there is less drag and they can pack more platters into the same space. That's the point. There are also power savings.

This tech is aimed at high density data storage applications rather than general use, it might filter down but probably not to the low-mid end.

macuser

2120 posts

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#928277 6-Nov-2013 16:29

Helium in HDD's should take us to new highs...of capacity storage

BTR

1527 posts

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#928289 6-Nov-2013 16:40

Does this make the hum of the drive spinning higher pitched?

hellonearthisman

1819 posts

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#928445 7-Nov-2013 01:15

It's still an old fashion spinning disk with read heads. SSD can be got in 6TB sizes which offer 90% energy saving, a 60% reduction of the data center footprint and a 90% cut in load times. http://news.softpedia.com/news/WhipTails-Unveils-the-6TB-SSD-Tier-9-Storage-Appliance-116516.shtml

The spinning disk would slow down with the number of users accessing that drive, while an SSD would quickly jump around the different files without a worry.

LOL higher pitched Helium drive noise, nice one.

stevenz

2802 posts

Uber Geek

#928562 7-Nov-2013 10:10

hellonearthisman: It's still an old fashion spinning disk with read heads. SSD can be got in 6TB sizes which offer 90% energy saving, a 60% reduction of the data center footprint and a 90% cut in load times. http://news.softpedia.com/news/WhipTails-Unveils-the-6TB-SSD-Tier-9-Storage-Appliance-116516.shtml

The spinning disk would slow down with the number of users accessing that drive, while an SSD would quickly jump around the different files without a worry.

LOL higher pitched Helium drive noise, nice one.

Problem with that is the price differential, including TCO, of a 6TB SSD versus HDD is still pretty out there. Not to mention the reliability.

@KnightNZ