The Raspberry Pi 3 is a very powerful microcomputer that can be purchased for only $35. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU with 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1 integrated, and these features will allow users to accomplish so much more with the Raspberry Pi 3.
Users looking to use the Raspberry Pi 3 for a wider range of tasks would probably need a lot of storage, but the microcomputer does not have any internal storage capacities. Instead, it relies on external hard drives and SD cards, not all of which are compatible with the Raspberry Pi 3.
To help solve the storage issues of Raspberry Pi 3 users, Western Digital has unveiled the PiDrive 314 GB HDD, which is a custom-engineered hard drive made specifically for the microcomputer. The company already has a 1 TB PiDrive out in the market, but it has a price tag of $79.99, which is more than twice the price of the RaspBerry Pi 3 itself.
WDLabs Chief Engineer Dave Chew acknowledged the difficulties that Raspberry Pi users are experiencing in terms of storage, before adding that the PiDrive 314 GB HDD is designed to support the growth of the microcomputer while maintaining the key strengths of the company's hard drive technology.
"[Western Digital] PiDrive 314GB gives our members a low-cost, purpose built hard drive solution that helps them develop even more innovative and unique ways to use Raspberry Pi," said Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton in a statement.
The PiDrive 314 GB HDD has a regular price of $45.81, but it is currently being sold through Western Digital's online store for only $31.42 in a limited-time offer. Customers can only purchase up to 5 units of the hard drive though, with shipping to begin on March 30.
The hard drive will come with a limited warranty of two years, and will also allow customers to download a special WDLabs BerryBoot version for free. BerryBoot is an operating system installer and boot selection screen for ARM devices such as RaspBerry Pi 3.
