Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup
Internals
The SATA connector is in an 'odd' place at the rear, but this makes sense for cases with the SATA connectors in a backplane, where you would still see the label in an 'upright' orientation.
Seagate has their own unique approach to the new enclosure style. Changes must be made to enable a true hermetic seal in order to keep the Helium where it belongs.
Here's a close up of the control and data connection contacts. These mate with a pin connector on the PCB and pass that electrical connection through the Helium sealed barrier. This is not a trivial thing to do, as there must be no possibility of the second smallest atoms from diffusing through any gaps present.
Testing Methodology
Our tests are a mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. IOMeter, HDTach, HDTune, Yapt and our custom File Copy test round out the selection to cover just about all bases. Our exclusive Latency Percentile test dives far deeper into IO latencies than any other simple average or maximum figures can. Direct-measured power consumption rounds out our performance results. If you have any questions about our tests just drop into the Storage Forum and we'll help you out!
Test System Setup
We currently employ a pair of testbeds. A newer ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt and an ASUS Z87-PRO. Variance between both boards has been deemed negligible.
PC Perspective would like to thank Intel, ASUS, Corsair, Kingston, and EVGA for supplying some of the components of our test rigs.
| Hard Drive Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 5820K @ 4.125 GHz |
| Motherboard | ASUS Sabertooth X99 |
| Memory | 16GB Micron DDR4 @ 3333 |
| Hard Drive | G.Skill 32GB SLC SSD |
| Sound Card | N/A |
| Video Card | EVGA GeForce GTX 750 |
| Video Drivers | GeForce Game Ready Driver 347.88 |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-650TX |
| DirectX Version | N/A |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 Pro X64 (update) |
- PCPer File Copy Test
- HDTach *omitted due to incompatibility with >2TB devices*
- HDTune
- IOMeter
- YAPT
I’m surprised you didn’t
I’m surprised you didn’t anchor the drive down before taking those pictures. They typically fly away.
By the time I can afford one
By the time I can afford one of these, they will be 20Tb…
“The SATA connector is in an
“The SATA connector is in an ‘odd’ place at the rear”
I’m wondering where the standard position for a SATA connector on a 3.5″ drive became “odd”.
Well the connector is on the
Well the connector is on the front / top edge if the drive if you are looking at the label upright.
??
It looks EXACTLY the same
??
It looks EXACTLY the same as other drives to me.
I actually liked the little
I actually liked the little pictures Seagate would put on their hard drives back in the day, there was a fun cartoon fish, cheetah, a marathon runner or a hand holding a track and field medal. Much better than the boring old Conner, Quantum, or Maxtor labels. And where are they now? That’s right, gone!
There’s a stylized picture of
There’s a stylized picture of a barracuda on the label of this drive.
I quite like their new logos
I quite like their new logos for the drives.
Not touching until there’s a
Not touching until there’s a few years worth of reliability data available!!! Not going to be another Seagate Ginnie Pig with piles of dead drives.
Seriously? Give it up. It’s
Seriously? Give it up. It’s time for that Zombie myth to die. Take a look at current reliability stats and you’ll see that WDs are the worst drives for reliability right now. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016/
Also, it’s guinea pig not “Ginnie Pig”.
Myth? Are 3TB Seagate
Myth? Are 3TB Seagate deniers a thing now?
1. Cherry picking doesn’t a
1. Cherry picking doesn’t a stat make. 2. Post your verifiable source.
Okay, I did have the EXACT
Okay, I did have the EXACT same Seagate model die that was being discussed by Backblaze a while back.
HOWEVER… Backblaze got in hot water because they not only had HDD’s incorrectly mounted, but were also using non-server drives without anti-vibration capability.
The “WD30EFRX” HDD for example is a NAS drive. It is NOT a server drive yet that is how it is being used. The suggested usage is home and small business.
So you need to be very careful about how much trust you give the stats:
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6028/dispelling-backblaze-s-hdd-reliability-myth-the-real-story-covered/index.html
Zero latency on the IOMeter?
Zero latency on the IOMeter? It must have thiotimoline bearings.
I really like the look of
I really like the look of these helium drives… They look slick and futuristic for a HDD.
These are 7,200rpm drives?
These are 7,200rpm drives? Will there be a 5,400rpm version? When you have 6 or more in a NAS they tend to get loud really fast…
Most likely it will downgrade
Most likely it will downgrade to 5400 when the helium is gone 😉
Hopefully these are priced
Hopefully these are priced respectfully. I have my doubts though. Spinners are still going for way too much.