14 TB Enterprise Hard Drive: Which Generation Is That Part Number?

Which generation is this 14 TB part number?

Nine lines reach 14 TB on the documents behind this page. Take the string from a listing and look for it here. The grid is a selection: Toshiba's SIE and SED models are left out, and so are other security variants on the Ultrastar lists.

One character can change the drive. ST14000NM004G is a self-encrypting SAS X16, ST14000NM004J is a standard SAS X18, and ST14000NM004C sits on Seagate's factory-recertified list. WUH721414ALE6L4 is an HC530 and WUH721814ALE6L4 is an HC550. Match the whole string.

14 TB enterprise hard drive prices on Amazon.co.uk

Offers we track as in stock at the last price check: 4. Lowest £/TB among tracked offers at the last check: £23.08/TB. Every figure is in pounds sterling inc VAT, and each row carries a Buy on Amazon button.

Hold the Part number column against the grid above, because a title saying only 14TB enterprise settles neither the generation nor the interface. The Recording column names a technology only where a maker document backs that part number. Whatever the table holds on a given day, the grid still tells you which number to search for.

Seagate enterprise drives at 14 TB: Exos X14, X16 and X18

Seagate lists 14 TB on three successive sheets, and its place in the range keeps slipping. The X14 sheet runs from 10 TB to 14 TB, so there it is the largest model. On the X16 it sits under 16 TB, and on the X18 under 16 TB and 18 TB.

Weight is the steady change: the sheets take 20 g off at each step. Speed stands still from X14 to X16, then gains 9 MB/s on the X18. Idle barely moves. Dividing by 14, the X18's 4.9 W comes to 0.35 W/TB against about 0.36 W/TB for a 5.0 W drive, a gap too small to pick a drive on.

Other figures hold still across all three. Each sheet prints a 256 MB cache, a 2,500,000 hour MTBF and a 5-year limited warranty. Those lines describe the new products on those sheets. They are not a promise about a used unit bought through a listing. The Seagate Exos page takes the range past this capacity.

Toshiba 14 TB enterprise HDDs: MG07ACA14TE, MG08 and MG09

MG07ACA14TE is the number people search for. Toshiba's MG07 overview lists it, with MG07ACA14TA, as the 14 TB models of a nine-disk, helium-sealed SATA series also offered at 12 TB.

Each later series adds speed on Toshiba's own figures: 248 MiB/s typical on the MG07, 262 MiB/s typical on the MG08, and 268 MiB/s on the MG09. The MG08 and MG09 also offer SAS as well as SATA. The MG08's active idle figures, 4.00 W for SATA and 4.46 W for SAS, are shared with its 16 TB models, which comes to about 0.29 and 0.32 W/TB at 14 TB by our division. The MG09 keeps nine disks in a range running from 10 TB to 18 TB.

MG07ACA14TE and MG09ACA14TE differ by the generation digit alone, so a title that gets one character wrong points at another series. Active idle is Toshiba's label and Idle A is Seagate's, and this page does not rank drives across the two. Newer generations sit on the Toshiba MG series page.

WD at 14 TB: Ultrastar HC530, HC550 or WD Gold

The HC530 exists only at this capacity. WD describes it as a field-proven, fifth-generation design based on conventional magnetic recording, rated at 550 TB per year. Its sheet prints 5.5 W idle for SATA and 5.9 W for SAS, or 0.39 and 0.42 W/TB.

The HC550 treats 14 TB as the bottom of a 14, 16 and 18 TB range on a nine-disk platform. Its workload rating is the same, and 14 TB shares a 262 MB/s maximum sustained rate with 16 TB. Being the smallest model has a cost at idle: WD prints 5.6 W for SATA and 5.8 W for SAS, which its table turns into 0.40 and 0.41 W/TB at 14 TB, against 0.31 and 0.32 W/TB at 18 TB. So against the HC530, the newer drive is slightly higher on SATA and slightly lower on SAS.

WD Gold's WD142KRYZ is a helium SATA drive, and its 0.4 W/TB idle figure lands level with the HC550's SATA model. This is also the smallest capacity on the Gold sheet with the lower failure rating: 0.35% AFR at 14 TB and 16 TB, 0.44% at 12 TB and below. Keep that in proportion. WD's HC550 sheet warns that MTBF and AFR ratings do not predict an individual drive's reliability and are not a warranty.

New 14 TB listings, and what a recertified 14 TB number means

The new-condition table holds 3 listings from the last price check, the lowest at £32.50/TB.

Seagate's Factory Recertified sheet lists ST14000NM002C, ST14000NM003C and ST14000NM004C under a SATA 6 Gb/s heading, with a 6-month limited warranty. For its 14 TB to 22 TB columns it also prints 7.2 W Idle A, 190 MB/s and 2,400 power-on hours a year. Those are line-wide sheet values, not a test of any one 14 TB unit.

That list does not use the word Exos, and we have not found a Seagate document saying which new line a recertified unit came from. A Used row in the price table does not say whether its drive is on this list, so compare its part number and ask the seller who stands behind it. Used stock beyond this capacity is the subject of refurbished enterprise hard drives.