INTRODUCTION

   As many of you know very well nowadays hard disk drive manufacturers are producing different models for different segments of the market so entry level models are designed for casual consumers, business/enterprise grade models are ment for enthusiasts and professionals, NAS drives have been designed for use in NAS (network attached storage) servers, surveillance models are the ones suitable for use in NVR (network video recording) devices and finally automotive models are obviously aimed towards use inside cars. Things used to be a lot easier in the old days since you just had but a handful of models to choose from but today all these different lines allow people to get exactly what they need to get the job done (much like a custom made suit). Seagate released their 8TB Enterprise NAS HDD a couple of months back and since we did test the 6TB variant not long before that we just had to also take the next model for a spin (and we're probably the first ones to do that).

   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 NAS 8TB HDD by Seagate is based on a 6 platter design (1.33TB per platter), offers a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of up to 1.2 million hours and features cutting edge technologies such as AcuTrac, Power Balance, Adaptive Fly Height, RAID rebuild and PMR (perpendicular magnetic recording). However unlike the previous model of this line which we tested a few months back (6TB) the 8TB model features a total of 256MB cache so although both feature the same rotational speed of 7200RPM this should perform quite a bit faster (Seagate reports a sustained speed of up to 230MB/s for the 8TB model as opposed to the 216MB/s of the 6TB model). Also worth mentioning is that the new Enterprise NAS HDD may offer 2TB more compared to the 6TB model and 128MB extra cache but it has the same exact electrical requirements (0.6W in idle and up to 9W at load) so this is certainly something that will interest some people. Personally however i care about three things when checking out a drive, capacity, performance and reliability so let's see what this new 8TB NAS drive by Seagate has to offer.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE ENTERPRISE NAS HDD 8TB

Once again we received a standalone sample inside the usual clamshell package which we've seen numerous times in the past.

Appearance-wise the 3.5" enclosure of drive is identical to that of the 6TB version so nothing new here.

Typically a very large sticker placed at the top of the drive contains useful bits of information such as barcodes, serial number, model number, part number, factory rollout date (in our case it's September 3rd 2015), electrical requirements and of course the firmware number (seems it got updated with the latest version shortly before reaching our lab).

As usual all of the modules are placed on the opposite side of the PCB for increased protection.

The standard SATA power and data connectors are located at the rear of the drive right next to three 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 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. Finally we also use an ExTech HD600 dBA meter on each of the drives (5cm away) in order to accurately record their noise levels (during access), 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 19th of November 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 / NOISE LEVELS

CONCLUSION

   When we reviewed the Enterprise NAS 6TB model a while back we were all impressed with both its performance results and the “reported” reliability numbers. I even recall thinking as to why Seagate would release a NAS oriented HDD model which was even faster in some cases than their Enterprise Capacity line. Today I feel the same exact way since the 8TB model is the fastest (overall) HDD we’ve reviewed to date. This of course is probably due to the 256MB cache used in this new batch of HDDs so the new Enterprise Capacity V5 8TB which also features the same amount should do even better. For some weird reason as you can all see Sisoftware Sandra Pro doesn’t like this particular drive since (or its cache) but I’m certain this will be resolved soon. Of course we can’t really comment on the reliability aspect of the drive but the 1.2 million hours MTBF reported by Seagate although not the highest we’ve seen with one of their drives still it’s a very good number.

   8TB capacity drives are only second to 10TB ones and as many of you know we haven’t seen those in the market yet. So naturally prices of 8TB drives are still set quite high and thus the Enterprise NAS model (ST8000NE0001) currently retails for USD583.05 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 525Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Let’s not forget however that for casual users Seagate has the much cheaper Archive HDD 8TB and although it’s nowhere near as fast as the Enterprise NAS 8TB model it’s still quite fast. With that out of the way if you want the fastest and highest capacity NAS oriented HDD in the market currently the Enterprise NAS 8TB is a one way which is why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Enterprise Class Quality
- 1.2 Million Hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
- Top Of The Charts Performance
- 256MB Cache
- 8TB's Capacity
- AcuTrack & PowerChoice Technologies
- Temperatures/Noise Levels
- 5 Years Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Power Consumption (Compared To Other NAS Drives)