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The Bottom Line
Pros
- + Capacity
- + Throughput performance
- + Random performance
- + Endurance
Cons
- - None
Should you buy it?
AvoidConsiderShortlistBuyIntroduction & Drive Details
As we see it, Conventional Magnetic Recording, or CMR, is the way to go for consistency, reliability and performance as opposed to competing recording technologies like SMR or Shingled Magnetic Recording. In our opinion, CMR, although it is more capacity-limited compared with emerging technologies such as HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) or current overlapping recording technologies (SMR), the superior performance realized through CMR more than offsets the higher or potentially higher capacity of those alternative technologies.
Western Digital's WD Gold 24TB is its newest, highest-capacity, enterprise-class HDD. At a whopping 24TB, it's the highest capacity and most advanced CMR HDD we've encountered to date. Some of what makes this HDD stand out from its competition include the following: With a maximum data transfer rate of up to 298MB/s, it provides strong performance In RAID environments. The WD Gold 24TB drive also delivers high system performance in storage platforms that require strong random read/write capability. Its high capacity and improved power efficiency while idle help reduce energy consumption and heat, especially on a watt/capacity basis.
Additional and unique attributes of the WD Gold 24TB include sophisticated vibration monitoring and correction capabilities. Armor Cache technology provides enterprise power loss protection of data in write-cache enabled (WCE) mode while increasing performance in write-cache disabled (WCD) mode.
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 20 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 20](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_20_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
The WD Gold 24TB is warranted for a massive 550 TBW per year for 5 years.
Drive Details
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 01 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 01](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_01_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 02 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 02](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_02_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 03 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 03](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_03_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 04 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 04](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_04_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.jpg)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 05 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 05](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_05_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.jpg)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 06 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 06](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_06_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 07 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 07](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_07_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
The unique feature set that OptiNAND technology brings to the table really sets the WD Gold 24TB apart from competing high-capacity offerings.
![Buy at Amazon Buy at Amazon](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415+3xtlyTL._SL160_.jpg)
Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, ATTO & Blackmagic
CrystalDiskMark
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 08 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 08](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_08_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
Especially impressive here is the drive's 1.42 MB/s random read performance, which is about 50% higher than we've extracted from any 7,200 RPM HDD previously.
ATTO
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 09 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 09](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_09_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
Exceptional small file performance here really stands out, along with its overall throughput capabilities.
Blackmagic
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 10 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 10](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_10_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
The 24TB WD Gold shows itself capable of handling MP4 recording/playback at up to 8K 60 frames. Impressive.
Transfer Rates, Iometer, and HDTune
DiskBench - Transfer Rates
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 11 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 11](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_11_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 12 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 12](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_12_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
A transfer rate of 127 MB/s to and from itself is impressive for a mechanical HDD, as is its read transfer rate of 206 MB/s to the host.
Iometer - Random and Sequential
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 13 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 13](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_13_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 14 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 14](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_14_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 15 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 15](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_15_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 16 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 16](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_16_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
These Iometer-based benchmarks were provided by Western Digital, and we have included them as we find them to be quite informative.
HDTune - Transfer rates at disk position
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 17 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 17](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_17_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 18 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 18](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_18_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.png)
These HDTune-based benchmarks were provided by Western Digital, and we have included them as we find them to be quite informative.
Final Thoughts
As stated previously, we are of the opinion that Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) still affords the best overall proposition when it comes to mechanical based storage and Western Digital's WD Gold 24TB is the best of the best of its kind available today. It is loaded with unique features that enhance data protection, availability, and reliability beyond any of its kind we've encountered to date.
![Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 19 Western Digital WD Gold 24TB HDD Review - High-Capacity Masterpiece 19](https://static.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/10733_19_western-digital-wd-gold-24tb-hdd-review-high-capacity-masterpiece.jpg)
It's the biggest and best of its kind and as such is well deserving of our highest award. Editor's choice.