Western Digital is announcing this morning a new 3.5-inch SAS hard drive solution for legacy datacenter storage systems with the release of a the WD Xe, 2.5-inch, 10,000 RPM SAS hard drive which is now available mounted in a 3.5-inch WD performance adapter.  Seeing that the demand for 3.5-inch, high-performance enterprise-class hard drives is slowing, Western Digital realized that there is still a need for an alternate high-performance storage device as a transitional solution for legacy systems.

The drives feature ultra-fast 6 Gb/s transfer rates, best-in-class sequential data rate of 204 MB/s, while delivering up to 67 percent lower power versus 3.5-inch 15,000 RPM drives.  The new drives also sport a 2 million hours mean time between failure (MTBF).

The WD Xe SAS enterprise hard drives are shipping in capacities ranging from 300 GB to 900 GB (models: WD3001HKHG, WD6001HKHG, and WD9001HKHG).  Western Digital has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) ranging from $229.99 to $599.99 USD. The new drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty.