Hitachi's latest Deskstar 5K hard drive will reportedly boast 4TB of storage space, making it the largest capacity internal HDD on the consumer market. That's according to Japanese tech site Akiba, who spotted the 3.5-inch SATA hard drive in the wild.
According to the web site, the new drive has a cache size of 32MB, supports 6Gbps SATA speeds and comes with "CoolSpin Technology" which automatically controls the rotational speed to balance power consumption and noise levels.
Hitachi has yet to officially announce the new Deskstar 5K, which we would have expected if they have the world's first 4TB hard drive. It has been suggested that floods in Thailand and a subsequent rise in HDD prices may have factored into the decision for a low-key release.
We have contacted Hitachi and are currently awaiting comment. In the meantime, you can read a translated version of the original story and see the pics here.
UPDATE: Hitachi Australia has confirmed that a small shipment of the 4TB Deskstar 5K drives were released in Japan and North America. An Australian release is planned for the future, but no firm details have been announced.
