Seagate Exos X18 18TB 3.5" SAS 12Gb/s 7200RPM HDD

The Seagate ST18000NM004J is an 18TB hard drive created for high-density servers and storage arrays that need predictable speed and round-the-clock availability. It slides into any 3.5 inch bay that accepts a SAS 12 Gb/s connection, so expanding capacity in existing racks is straight-forward and quick.

Inside the helium-sealed enclosure, the platters spin at 7200 RPM and work with a 256 MB cache to push sustained transfers up to 270 MB/s. That combination helps large sequential jobs—such as backup, media archiving, or log aggregation—finish on schedule, while enhanced caching keeps random workloads responsive when virtual machines or database clusters share the same pool.

Reliability is engineered for continuous duty. A 2.5 million-hour MTBF rating, coupled with an annualized failure rate of 0.35 percent, supports demanding service level agreements. PowerBalance technology and the low-drag helium design trim power draw and weight, which eases cooling requirements and lowers operating cost across a rack or an entire data hall.

The drive works naturally in hyperscale environments, private clouds, and scale-out NAS appliances. System builders, IT administrators, and cloud operators who want to maximize capacity while keeping power budgets under control will find it an efficient drop-in choice for JBOD shelves, RAID planes, or object storage nodes.

Highlights:

• 18TB storage capacity for large data sets and archives
• SAS 12 Gb/s interface compatible with enterprise backplanes
• 7200 RPM spindle speed and 256 MB cache
• Sustained transfer rate up to 270 MB/s
• Helium-sealed design reduces power usage and vibration
• 2.5 million-hour MTBF and 0.35 percent AFR support 24×7 workloads