INTRODUCTION

   As many of you know very well nowadays hard disk drive manufacturers are producing different models for different segments of the market so entry level models are designed for casual consumers, business/enterprise grade models are ment for enthusiasts and professionals, NAS drives have been designed for use in NAS (network attached storage) servers, surveillance models are the ones suitable for use in NVR (network video recording) devices and finally automotive models are obviously aimed towards use inside cars. Things used to be a lot easier in the old days since you just had but a handful of models to choose from but today all these different lines allow people to get exactly what they need to get the job done (much like a custom made suit). Seagate released their 8TB Enterprise NAS HDD a couple of months back and since we did test the 6TB variant not long before that we just had to also take the next model for a spin (and we're probably the first ones to do that).

   Founded in 1979, Seagate is the leading provider of hard drives and storage solutions. From the videos, music and documents we share with friends and family on social networks, to servers that form the backbone of enterprise data centers and cloud-based computing, to desktop and notebook computers that fuel our personal productivity, Seagate products help more people store, share and protect their valuable digital content. Seagate offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of hard disk drives, solid-state drives and solid-state hybrid drives. In addition, the company offers an extensive line of retail storage products for consumers and small businesses, along with data-recovery services for any brand of hard drive and digital media type. Seagate employs more than 50,000 people around the world.

   The Enterprise NAS 8TB HDD by Seagate is based on a 6 platter design (1.33TB per platter), offers a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of up to 1.2 million hours and features cutting edge technologies such as AcuTrac, Power Balance, Adaptive Fly Height, RAID rebuild and PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording). However unlike the previous model of this line which we tested a few months back (6TB) the 8TB model features a total of 256MB cache so although both feature the same rotational speed of 7200RPM this should perform quite a bit faster (Seagate reports a sustained speed of up to 230MB/s for the 8TB model as opposed to the 216MB/s of the 6TB model). Also worth mentioning is that the new Enterprise NAS HDD may offer 2TB more compared to the 6TB model and 128MB extra cache but it has the same exact electrical requirements (0.6W in idle and up to 9W at load) so this is certainly something that will interest some people. Personally however i care about three things when checking out a drive, capacity, performance and reliability so let's see what this new 8TB NAS drive by Seagate has to offer.