Random Performance – Iometer (IOPS/latency), YAPT (random)
We are trying something different here. Folks tend to not like to click through pages and pages of benchmarks, so I'm going to weed out those that show little to no delta across different units (PCMark). I'm also going to group results performance trait tested. Here are the random access results:
Iometer:
Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems. It was originally developed by the Intel Corporation and announced at the Intel Developers Forum (IDF) on February 17, 1998 – since then it got wide spread within the industry. Intel later discontinued work on Iometer and passed it onto the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). In November 2001, code was dropped on SourceForge.net. Since the relaunch in February 2003, the project is driven by an international group of individuals who are continuously improving, porting and extend the product.
* We will be discontinuing our File and Web Server tests for client SSD tests after this review, as they employ legacy workloads that are 16 years old (yes, in the year 2000) and are simply no longer representative of modern technology. Specifically, modern storage devices are no longer optimized for <4KB random, yet the outdated Web Server workload applies nearly half (45%) of its workload at those 'wrong' sizes. While it makes for an interesting spread in the results showing artificial penalties with Advanced Format drives optimized for 4KB, those results are just no longer meaningful in modern day enterprise use.
Iometer – IOPS
The BarraCuda Pro 10TB has very quiet seeks, and as a result a longer seek time than competing units. This leads to it sitting mid-pack in random performance, despite its faster rotational speed (7200 RPM).
Iometer – Average Transaction Time
I'm writing this review while on-site at QuakeCon 2016, so there was insufficient time to process latency percentile data for this piece. That data will appear in future comparisons / reviews, so I'm including the legacy average latency results for this one in the interest of time.
YAPT (random)
YAPT (yet another performance test) is a benchmark recommended by a pair of drive manufacturers and was incredibly difficult to locate as it hasn't been updated or used in quite some time. That doesn't make it irrelevant by any means though, as the benchmark is quite useful. It creates a test file of about 100 MB in size and runs both random and sequential read and write tests with it while changing the data I/O size in the process. The misaligned nature of this test exposes the read-modify-write performance of SSDs and Advanced Format HDDs.
YAPT is a 'misaligned' test, in that it does not adhere to 4k boundaries. This causes some drives to behave oddly. We'll be phasing this test out soon, but for now it's here as an additional data point.
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.