CONCLUSION

   When we finally started testing the SAS 12Gb/s variant of the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB model we had two goals in mind, first to find out how it compared to its SATA brother and second to see if it would top our charts. Well having tested several SAS HDDs in the past we never really expected for a SATA model to surpass its SAS brother and you clearly tell by our charts that we had no surprises there. However although the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SAS 12Gb/s did top our charts it didn't do so easily since the Ultrastar HE6 by HGST gave it a run for its money and even managed to surpass it in quite a few tests. That being said to be completely fair and honest with all of you (and with Seagate) when we tested the Ultrastar HE6 we did so with the MegaRAID 9271-8i SATA/SAS card by LSI/Areca which thanks to its specifications should do better compared to the 9300-8i card when paired with an HDD even though it doesn't support 12Gb/s (with an SSD however things would be different). So although our results can't be very far off do keep that in mind when comparing the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SAS 12Gb/s with the Ultrastar HE6 6TB SAS 6Gb/s (we will test the Seagate drive with the same card in the near future and if our results change quite a bit we will post them here).

   We are just a couple of hours away from Christmas and as i type these lines the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SAS 12Gb/s (ST6000NM0034) drive by Seagate retails for USD435.50 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 475Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which although high is nothing we didn't expect from what is clearly the fastest 6TB HDD in the market. Of course the difference in performance between the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SAS 12Gb/s model and the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SATA III model doesn't really justify spending more on the drive and quite a bit for an SAS 12Gb/s card (which you will need unless you own one of the latest mainboards with built-in 12Gb/s SAS controllers) so unless you're looking for superior data protection you don't really need to go there. Seagate has once again taken the lead in the HDD industry with the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V4 6TB SAS 12Gb/s HDD (their 8/10TB drives should be just as fast if not even faster) and that's why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Enterprise Class Quality
- 1.4 Million Hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- 6TB's Capacity
- PowerChoice Technology
- T10 DIF Technology
- Temperatures/Noise Levels
- 5 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- 12Gb/s vs 6Gb/s Performance Difference (HDDs)