INTRODUCTION

   When it comes to storage media it's no secret that laptop/notebook owners have been getting the short end of the stick for over a decade now something which is about to change since manufacturers have finally begun to focus in the development of 2.5" drives up to 3TB (as the name of the drive clearly states laptop owners may not be their primary target group but that matters very little in the end since anyone can use it). Certainly compared to the 6, 8 and 10TB 3.5" desktop models available 3TB may not seem as a breakthrough but since until recently the highest capacity model consumers had access to was just 1.5TB we're basically talking about a 100% increase. Unfortunately 3TB 2.5" drives may be a reality but they are months away from a massive release and so today we're going to be taking a look at the next best thing which is no other than the 2TB Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 model 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.

   The Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 is currently available in 2TB, 1TB, 500GB and 250GB capacities with either 12Gb/s SAS, 6Gb/s SAS or 6Gb/s SATA connectivity and optional Self Encryption (government-grade SED FIPS 140-2) and Secure Erase technology (SED models). According to Seagate this generation is improved by 50% in Watts/TB and 18% in sequential performance compared to the previous one (the performance number seems to be on the spot with our data). In terms of performance the Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 offers the usual rotation speed of 7200RPM we see with most similar models along with a total of 128MB cache. Technologies like PowerChoice (reduced power consumption) and RAID rebuild (reduced time to recover data from a damaged drive in RAID) are also integrated into the drive which also features an excellent MTFB (meantime between failures) of 2 million hours and is covered by a 5 year warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE ENTERPRISE CAPACITY 2.5 HDD V3 2TB

Once again our sample arrived inside a plastic clamshell case (bulk).

If it wasn't 15mm thick the Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 2TB drive would look pretty much the same as any other 2.5" drive in the market.

The large sticker at the top includes various information about the drive such as its barcodes, serial number, model number, part number, factory rollout date (in this case it's September 11th 2014), electrical requirements and of course the PSID number and its 2D barcode.

A large PCB with all of the modules on the interior (according to Seagate the primary controller used is by LSI and the DRAM by Samsung) covers the entire bottom of the drive (not something we see often).

At the rear we see the usual SATA power and data connectors along with 4 pins.

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 some 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. The operating system as usual is a fresh installation of Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 with every update installed up until the 23rd of July 2015.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

TEST RESULTS – PCMARK 7 / TEMPERATURES

CONCLUSION

   2.5” hard disk drives are aimed primarily towards enterprise use since they offer reduced power consumption (energy cost) and temperature levels and require less space compared to the quite larger 3.5” drives. Of course the 2^nd target group is always notebook/laptop and PC owners in general looking for a 2.5” drive and since the Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 2TB is amongst the fastest and most durable 2.5” drives to pass from our test bench (to date) we expect it to cover the needs of both groups.

   As we always point out Enterprise grade products don’t come cheap regardless of type and with a current price tag set at USD372.25 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 406.10Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 2TB (ST2000NX0253) hard disk drive is one such product. Of course you’re getting excellent performance (for a SATA III 2.5” drive), very good available capacity (2TB), endurance only an enterprise grade model can offer (2 million hours MTBF) and a second to none 5 year warranty by Seagate. Bottom line if your laptop can support the Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 2TB model both in terms of size (15mm thick) and electrical requirements (many older laptop models don’t) or if you’re just out in the market looking for a 2.5” for whatever reason then it’s highly recommended by us and gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Enterprise Grade / 2.000.000 Hours MTBF)
- Excellent Performance (SATA III)
- Large Storage Capacity (2TB)
- Also Available In 12Gb/s-6Gb/s SAS Connectivity
- Temperatures
- Size Factor (2.5")
- Power Choice Technology (1.14W Idle Consumption)
- 5 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)