INTRODUCTION

   If we exclude the unfortunate floods that took place in Thailand roughly a year ago (and forced several factories to cease HDD manufacturing and shipping) HDD prices normally get serious cuts each day that goes by (as do SSD prices) and so currently even the highest capacity 4TB models retail at such prices that can be easily purchased by casual users and gamers around the world. That however mostly stands with entry level models that offer exactly what most users want and that's a good price to capacity ratio without however sacrificing performance. On the other hand however professionals and enterprise users want the best money can buy not only in terms of performance and capacity but also in terms of durability under extreme conditions and that's where enterprise class HDDs like the latest Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V.3 (former Constellation ES.3) 4TB SATA III come in.

   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 Capacity 3.5 V.3 line of HDDs is the successor of the award winning Constellation ES.2 line launched by Seagate roughly a year ago (and the Constellation ES before that) so i was a bit surprised when i got word that Seagate changed the name from Constellation ES.3 (as was expected and even printed on the HDD stickers of the first batch to leave the factory) to Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V.3. Names are really not important as specifications however and so the latest Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V.3 spins at 7200RPM, has a total of 128MB Cache and comes with several features such as Seagate’s PowerChoice technology (offers reduced power consumption up to 54%), enhanced error correction, super-parity, ramp load technology (moves the read/write heads/sliders from an small ramp placed inside the drive and onto the surface of the disks only when the optimal rotational speed has been achieved), enhanced rotational vibration tolerance (vibration reduction) and a humidity sensor (controls the vertical position of the sliders) for optimum performance. However although specs-wise the new Constellation ES.3 (for short) looks amazing it's the 175MB/s sustained transfer rate that Seagate claims it can deliver that steal the show especially for people who are after the very best in terms of performance. Well the time has come to see if these claims are true.