CONCLUSION

    Although I’ve always favored the Exos HDD lineup by Seagate when it came to endurance the IronWolf Pro lineup has always felt slightly faster and the 30TB model doesn’t disappoint. For such drives however durability/endurance and capacity matter just as much if not more and well the IronWolf Pro does very well here as well and on par with the Exos M drive. Unfortunately, I don’t do power consumption tests but according to Seagate the IronWolf Pro is slightly less power hungry compared to the Exos M and on top of that features their IHM (IronWolf Health Management) and AgileArray technologies for increased reliability so those are more than enough for it to be recommended for NAS use (on the other hand both drives performed roughly the same when it comes to noise levels and temperatures).

     Right now, the IronWolf Pro 30TB HDD by Seagate retails for USD599.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com – out of stock currently) and for 654.48Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). Yes, these are not what most people would call affordable but as I pointed out in my Exos M review the fact that you can get an 30TB HDD for the price of an 8TB Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD is already a great deal. Cost aside there are many reasons these drives are sold out in most places, they combine very good performance (for a mechanical drive at least) with ample capacity and impressive endurance numbers and so once again the Platinum Award is in order.

PROS

- Impressive Build Quality / Durability (2.5 Million Hours MTBF)
- Top Of The Charts Performance (SATA III)
- Technologies Used (Mozaic 3+ / AgileArray)
- 512MB Cache
- Massive 30TB Capacity (Up To 36TB)
- Temperatures / Noise Levels / Power Consumption
- Ideal For NAS Use (Power Consumption)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty & 3 Year Data Rescue Services

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Current Availability