Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

New Helium-filled hard drives may speed up Netflix

Konrad Krawczyk
By
western digital helium hard drives netflix wd drive
Image used with permission by copyright holder

HGST, Western Digital company, has announced that it will begin shipping its Ultrastar He6 hard drives, which are stuffed with helium as opposed to air.

Replacing air with helium in these drives, which has just one-seventh the density of air, accomplishes two things: it lowers power consumption and allows for more storage capacity. Using helium as opposed to air lowers turbulence within the drive. Internal drive turbulence is caused by spinning disks and other moving parts during drive operation. Less turbulence translates into less power used. Western Digital noted that as a result of the switch from air to helium, the Ultrastar He6 drives use 49 percent less power.

Recommended Videos

The decreased turbulence also ups the drive’s ability to store more data because more platters can be fit into the Ultrastar He6’s 3.5-inch shell. Today’s hard drives employ five platters and top out at 4TB. The He6 drives use seven platters, which helps the drives reach a maximum storage capacity of 6TB; a 50 percent improvement over what’s currently available.

Related

So what sorts of applications will these new helium He6 drives have? They’re targeted at companies that make use of data centers. Before you pass out from boredom, you should know that these drives could soon be put to use by Netflix, which could improve streaming video quality.

“The Netflix Open Connect delivery platform is a highly optimized video content delivery network. We serve billions of hours of streaming video per quarter to over 40 million subscribers,” said David Fullagar, director of Content Delivery Architecture, Netflix. “As part of our efforts to optimize the delivery ecosystem for Netflix and our Internet Service Provider partners, we strive to build better and better streaming appliances. The high storage density and lower power usage of the Ultrastar He6 hard drives allow us to continue with that goal, and create a great customer experience.”

Other recognizable companies like HP and Huawei also will be working with HGST, Western Digital and the He6 drives. However, we’re most excited about the partnership between HGST and Netflix. Will this relationship translate into a better overall Netflix experience? Only time will tell.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Konrad Krawczyk
Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
How to back up your computer
A Seagate external hard drive connected to a laptop.

Viruses, malware, and ransomware pose an ever-present threat to modern internet users. That’s why it’s more important than ever that you know how to back up your computer. Making sure all of your most important files and folders are locked away somewhere safe means that should disaster strike, you have a plan to restore everything to how it was before.

Read more
How to wipe a hard drive on your PC or Mac
Internal hard drives together.

Many people spend a lot of time trying to preserve their hard drives or even upgrade them, but it isn’t every day that you try to completely wipe it clean. If you’re planning to replace your computer, you probably don’t want all the sensitive information to end up in the hands of a stranger.

Read more
How to clean up your hard drive
A hard disk drive that showcases the inner components.

Performing regular maintenance is crucial for ensuring a PC delivers a smooth experience for the system owner and keeping all the core functionality of the computer intact. Generally, as time goes by, data, files, applications, folders, and more all play a part in cluttering hard drives.

Without cleaning your hard drive, HDDs will ultimately turn your machine into a shadow of its former self — opening programs is now a tedious and drawn-out process, performing simple tasks takes longer than usual, and nothing operates as efficiently as it once did. Before you know it, your PC’s hard drive has reached a state where you have no option but to rely on external hard drives to store files on.

Read more