INTRODUCTION

   Through the years we've had the chance to review several 3.5" and 2.5" HDD models ranging from normal everyday ones ideal for consumer use and up to enterprise class ones designed for 24/7 heavy duty workloads. However no matter how many HDDs we've gotten our hands onto we never really got interested in testing an enterprise class self-encrypting model since we just didn't feel it was needed. That changed recently when some readers asked us whether or not self-encrypting models share the same performance numbers as their normal brothers and since we too were quite interested as well we decided to check it out. Of course aside the self-encrypting drive itself we also needed to have the normal version in our hands and what better candidate than the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 (AKA Constellation ES.3) 4TB drives by Seagate which we reviewed a while back? So today plugged into our primary test rig we have the latest Enterprise Capacity 3.5 SED 4TB SATA III drive by Seagate.

   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.

   Self-encrypting drives are quite unique since they offer hardware-based AES-256 data encryption and enhanced secure erase capability. Such feature is possible via a circuit built into the controller chip which in turn allows on the fly encryption with the help of a key (provided either by the user or the system/network) which is used both while data is written and retrieved giving the end user the highest level of data protection currently available. The Enterprise Capacity V3 3.5/Constellation ES.3 SED 4TB SATA III drive is also FIPS 140-2 (level 2) certified which means that aside hardware encryption it also either features tamper-evident coatings and/or seals (must be broken in order for someone to gain physical access to the cryptographic keys and critical security parameters) or pick-resistant locks on covers or doors (thus providing extra protection against unauthorized physical access). All of the above must sound really sweet for people who work with mission critical data and thus may need such features but do they hinder the performance of the drive, that's up to us to find out.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE ENTERPRISE CAPACITY 3.5 SED 4TB (CONSTELLATION ES.3 SED 4TB)

Yes once again our sample arrived in bulk form and inside a plastic clamshell protective.

If not for the SED classification and the PSID number (Physical Security. IDentification) with the 2D barcode used for the encryption part of the drive the Constellation ES.3 SED looks just like the regular version.

Two seals are placed on the two sides of the drive and a large sticker covers the rear PCB (FIPS 140-2 feature).

The large sticker at the top still carries the Constellation ES.3 name along with other information including barcodes, serial number, model number, part number, factory rollout date (in our case it's May 23rd 2013), electrical requirements and of course the PSID number and the 2D barcode.

This particular drive has SATA III power and data connectors along with 4 pins probably used for FW updates.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY 

     Thoroughly testing hard disk drives may require time and patience but that's just about it. Of course that doesn't mean that one must take it lightly, at least not when people base their decision on your results. True many choose to only use 2 or 3 benchmarking suits in order to measure the performance of a drive or drives since quite honestly most benchmarking suites do tend to agree with each other (so it's not really wrong) but we always like to take things a step further not because we have to but because we want to be almost 100% certain of the results we get and post in our charts.

     So in this kind of reviews we will use a total of 7 different benchmarking suites in an effort to bring you the most accurate results across the board. Now the only reason why i say effort is because real-world usage is not always on par with what results one gets by running several benchmarks on a drive and that's mainly because there are many variables at work from ambient temperatures to hardware configurations and even firmware versions. The benchmarking applications we use are the AIDA64 suite (former Everest Pro), HD Tune Professional, HD Tach RW, ATTO, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, Crystal Disk Mark 64bit and the PCMARK 7 (secondary storage suite). These benchmarking tools are the best in what they do and as you will also see later on their results more or less agree. Each test is performed a total of 6 times and then the average is recorded into the charts. Temperatures are recorded using Hard Disk Sentinel and after 45 minutes of continuous testing in a 23 degrees Celsius temperature controlled room. Finally we also use an ExTech HD600 dBA meter on each of the drives (5cm away) in order to accurately record their noise levels, although if you don't turn off all system fans when doing so it's quite possible that you will never even hear the drive. The operating system as usual is a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 with every update installed up until the 29th of March 2014.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS - PCMARK 7

TEST RESULTS - TEMPERATURES / NOISE LEVELS

CONCLUSION

   One of the myths surrounding SED drives always has been their reduced performance levels compared to their normal brothers so after checking our charts there's not much for me to add since the only difference we could spot between the normal Enterprise Capacity 3.5 and the SED models was the slight reduced temperatures levels of the second (inconsequential really). Moving to the performance segment read and write levels were identical in some tests, better in others and worse in others so although we really did expect from the SED model to perform slightly worse overall in the end I’d call it a draw between the 3 members of the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 family.

   As we've pointed out numerous times in the past unlike consumer oriented products enterprise class products are aimed towards an entirely different segment of the market and thus they never come cheap so i doubt anyone would expect otherwise from a 4TB self-encrypting HDD. So as we speak the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 SED 4TB/Constellation ES.3 SED 4TB (ST4000NM0073 model) retails for no less than USD427.56 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 367.42Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). Of course since the normal 4TB version costs roughly 150USD/100EUR less it's the obvious choice for people who don't need the extra security features offered by the SED model but for enterprise users who work with large amounts of mission critical data every day whether that's at work or home the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 SED 4TB SATA III is exactly what they need and thus it's no surprise that it grabs our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Enterprise Class Quality
- 1.4 Million Hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
- Top Performance
- Self-Encrypting (AES-256)
- FIPS 140-2 Certified
- 4TB's Capacity
- Power Choice Technology
- Temperatures/Noise Levels
- 5 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)