These new 7,200 rpm HDDs provide 3.5-inch form factor options that can be used as hot-swap drives. The new HDD offerings for the IBM System x family of 3.5-inch SAS HDDs are the highest performing options and provide a wider selection of choices to satisfy a range of applications. These new drives are positioned at the top of the IBM SAS HDD line based on increased capacity.

Some OS limitations have been found to exist when using drives with capacities greater than 2.2 TB in JBOD (just a bunch of disks) configurations on 6 Gbps controllers. With earlier release versions of some OSs, the boot drive must be 2 TB, or smaller. However, those used as data drives may utilize the larger-capacity drives.