Helium to be used in computer hard drives

[reefduffer]

Didn't see a better place to post this, and I expect at least a few here might be a little interested, even if just in passing:
Helium-filled hard disks will lead to higher capacities | Ars Technica

It's a competitive industry; 20% savings in operating energy costs and higher storage densities may make this mainstream technology. I have no real idea if this would represent a significant increase in helium demand in absolute terms, or how it will affect pricing for helium in the long term. A steady and sizable industrial demand might bring more production online. Or it might just increase prices. Or it might have absolutely no effect on the cost of helium for divers. The Ars article comments touch on some of those issues.

 

[nimoh]

I thought it would be fun to do a little research on this.

I am estimating the internal volume of a typical 3.5" hard drive at 0.1ft3 (I calculated volume of about 0.16ft3, but allowing space for internal components).

So that means 10 hard drives, need 1ft3 of helium, and 1000 hard drives about equal to an average scuba tank.

Computerworld estimates hard drive sales for enterprise data centers at about 50 million per year. I wouldn't expect it necessary to include personal computing devices, since these seem to be using solid state drives more and more these days.

So, in a typical year global hard drive production could potentially use the equivalent 50,000 scuba tanks worth of helium.

Before anyone points it out, yes, I am aware that divers don't commonly breathe 100% helium, and if they do, it is mostly likely only once in a lifetime

 

[Akimbo]

Even though the Helium molecule is about [-]2/3rds[/-] 1/3rd the size of a Nitrogen molecule, it is dramatically harder to contain than the size difference implies, even without a differential pressure. It is functionally impossible to keep the Helium in current hard-drive housings for any period of time (after eliminating the breathing holes).

They would have to put the whole drive in a housing and hermetically seal. A stamped aluminum housing that is EB-welded and uses glass-sealed electrical pins would work, but that is getting pretty expensive. Why not just pull a vacuum if the objective is to reduce drag and turbulence? Helium does offer better cooling, but that wasn’t mentioned. Interesting.

 

[Darnold9999]

Why not just pull a vacuum if the objective is to reduce drag and turbulence? Helium does offer better cooling, but that wasn’t mentioned. Interesting.

I think you lose the layer of gas that the heads float on if you use a vacuum.

 

[reefduffer]

Why not just pull a vacuum if the objective is to reduce drag and turbulence? Helium does offer better cooling, but that wasn’t mentioned. Interesting.

That was touched on in the article, and expanded on in the reader comment thread.

"... As the drive's platters spin, their motion drags the air inside the drive along their surface with a shearing force similar to how the bow of a boat drags water along with it, creating what's called an air bearing. The drive's read and write heads float on this air bearing just a few billionths of a meter above the drive's surface. ..."

In a vacuum, the heads would just drag on the platter, otherwise known as a disk crash. The heads are actually withdrawn off the platter, by the same mechanism that locates them radially for reading and writing, until the drive is up to speed.

 

[Wookie]

We wouldn't move on to solid state drives why?

 

[nimoh]

We wouldn't move on to solid state drives why?

Solid state drives are still very expensive. From the article it sounds like helium hard drives could double the capacity of drives without increasing the $/GB.

 

[BabyDuck]

i bet it would end up being a good thing - helium would end up being worth capturing if they could sell it to folks besides us & balloon animal makers.

 

[Tigerman]

SSD might still be very expensive, but after the floods in asia the prices on other disks increased while the SSD prices are dropping. Its just a matter of time before we move on to SSD anyways.
SSD just have too many benefits over mechanical drives not to continue taking market.
One thing is that the capacity of the disks need to increase another is the fact that mechanical disks is and always has been a major bottleneck in computers..

 

[nimoh]

I agree SSD is the future, and helium drives might very well be the last push of and old technology.