CONCLUSION

   When i received word roughly 2 years ago that HGST (it was still Hitachi GST back then) was working on a brand new HDD model that used Helium instead of regular air i was very intrigued since like i mentioned in the introduction page we haven't really seen anything new in the HDD industry for as far back as i remember. Today although HGST was unable to send us the regular SATA variant (we hope they will in the very near future) we finally have a glimpse of what the future may hold but things are not as clear-cut as we'd like them to be. The reason we say this is because Helium doesn't seem to be making a difference both in the temperatures and noise levels of the drive since we've seen better from air-filled ones in the past. However let's not forget that the Ultrastar He6 makes use of 7 disks/platters so perhaps compared to a regular HDD with as many disks/platters Helium is indeed better but that's really not something we can comment on. On the bright side performance is almost excellent across the board and although the Ultrastar He6 is certainly not the best all-around HDD model in our charts still it does manage to surpass most especially in write speeds. Combine that with the highest to date 2 million hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) and we think that the first Helium model by HGST could be the beginning of something unique.

   Had we finished this review a few months back we would had turned down the Ultrastar He6 6TB SAS HDD model solely based on its price tag since back then it used to cost almost twice as much as for example the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SATA III by Seagate. Today however things have changed and so currently you can find the drive for a price tag of USD532.95 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for around 560Euros inside the EU. Of course price is still set high but compared to let’s say the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SAS model it's roughly 10% more expensive so for a brand new attempt in the field that comes with such performance levels and an MTBF of 2 million hours we think that it's well worth the extra investment and that's why we give the Ultrastar He6 6TB SAS model our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Enterprise Grade Build Quality
- 2 Million Hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- 6TB's Capacity
- Helium Drive
- 7 Disks/Platters
- Temperatures/Noise Levels
- 5 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)