DELL MG04SCA40ENProduct 4TB SAS 12Gb/s 7200 RPM 3.5" internal hard drive

Enterprise storage drive

The Dell MG04SCA40ENProduct is a 4TB internal hard drive built for Dell EMC storage systems such as the MD14xx series. It uses a SAS 12Gb/s interface and spins at 7200 RPM to serve mixed read and write workloads in rack-mounted arrays. The 3.5-inch form factor fits standard hot-swap bays for quick replacement during maintenance windows.

SAS 12Gb/s interface limits

The drive connects through a 12Gb/s SAS link that tops out at the bus bandwidth shared across all devices on the same controller. Throughput will fall below the theoretical maximum when multiple drives contend for the channel or when the backplane negotiates a lower speed. Cable length, connector quality and controller firmware also affect sustained transfer rates in production.

4TB capacity and workload fit

Four terabytes of 512n formatted space suits near-line archives, backup targets and secondary application datasets that do not demand flash latency. The 7200 RPM spindle delivers predictable sequential performance but cannot match the random IOPS of solid-state media for heavy transactional databases. Buyers who need higher density per bay or lower access times should evaluate larger-capacity or flash-based alternatives.