INTRODUCTION

   Different type of consumers rarely ever have anything in common but i think that's safe to say that regardless of whether or not you're a casual consumer, gamer, enthusiast or professional storage space is always an issue. Granted different types of consumers have different needs (for example most people i know are content with just 4TB whereas some professionals have at least 30TB worth of storage at home) but to date I’ve never seen anyone turn down extra storage capacity when they can find it for a good price. Right now the highest storage capacity hard disk drive available to general consumers is 10TB and although we still think this is not nearly enough to cover the needs of really demanding users still it's an obvious improvement over even the 8TB drives released less than 2 years ago. Seagate was the very first manufacturer to release a 10TB drive and today they have numerous models aimed towards every segment of the market including the recently released IronWolf Pro which we have here with us today.

   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.

   Just like the IronWolf was released to replace the NAS line of hard disk drives the IronWolf Pro was released to replace the Enterprise NAS line so these two lines are now the ones recommended by Seagate for use with NAS servers (up to 8 bay models for the first and 16 bay models for the 2nd). Currently the IronWolf Pro model is available in 2/4/6/8/10TB capacities and it actually packs some of the same features found in the "normal" IronWolf model such as their AgileArray technology (dual-plane balancing, RAID optimization, error recovery and advanced power management), Rotational Vibration (RV) mitigation (RV sensors which help maintain high performance in multi-drive NAS enclosures by reducing vibration) and Health Management which according to Seagate "can help avoid catastrophic data loss events by allowing IHM to analyse hundreds of parameters, recommending backup as needed" when used in compatible NAS servers by Synology and ASUSTOR (we do hope they also add QNAP on that list). These aside the IronWolf Pro line also supports Hot-Plug and is rated with an MTBF of 1.2 million hours (as opposed to the 1 million of the regular IronWolf line), 300TB per year endurance / workload rate limit (the IronWolf line has 180TB) and aside being covered with a 5 year warranty (3 for the IronWolf line) it's also backed by a standard two-year Seagate Rescue Data Recovery Service Plan (warranty that covers disasters such as floods, fires and even accidental damage). In terms of specifications the IronWolf Pro 10TB drive is also a 7 platter model that spins at 7200RPM (unlike the regular IronWolf line this applies to the entire IronWolf Pro line), has a total of 256MB cache (2/4TB models have 128MB) and features SATA 6Gb/s connectivity.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE IRONWOLF PRO 10TB

As always our sample arrived inside a plastic clamshell package and a static-free bag (bulk).

The enclosure of the IronWolf Pro drive is pretty much identical with those used in the IronWolf, Barracuda Pro and Enterprise Capacity 3.5 V6 drives.

The top sticker includes information about the drive such as its serial and part numbers, barcodes, firmware version installed, PSID key and factory rollout date.

The alloy used in the enclosures of all of Seagate’s latest HDD lines is nothing like we had seen in the past.

Once again all the modules are placed on the interior of the PCB for increased protection (we also see the same empty area on the right top corner which may or may not be used with an SSD/cache module in future models).

The typical SATA power and data connectors are placed at the rear of the drive right next to 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 (as of October 2016 we also record seek times), 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 25th of July 2017.

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

   Whenever we test a storage media device there are three things we look for, performance, endurance / durability and capacity. Not many products excel on all three but the IronWolf Pro does since not only is it one of the 3 fastest HDDs in our charts but it’s also among the most durable ones (300TB per year with an MTBF of 1.2 million hours) and on top of that it’s also covered by a 5 year warranty and Seagate’s Rescue Data Recovery Service Plan (best in-class warranty plan currently). Of course we were quite surprised to see that for some unknown reason the IronWolf Pro didn’t do that well in PCMark 7 but in others it was able to hit and even surpass 240MB/s in both read and write (largely thanks to its 256MB cache). Now to all the above add the fact that the IronWolf Pro 10TB only uses up to 6.8W on average and it’s clear that this is one of the best hard disk drives currently in the market especially for use with NAS servers.

   The IronWolf Pro 10TB hard disk drive by Seagate doesn’t only feature the highest available storage capacity currently but it also packs many state of the art technologies and is cover but what is perhaps the best warranty to date for one such product so we never expected it to be “affordable”. Still we were quite surprised to see that currently the IronWolf Pro 10TB HDD (ST10000NE0004) retails for USD399.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 425Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which is actually just USD50 / 30Euros higher compared to the regular IronWolf 10TB model. With that in mind there’s simply no reason not to go for the IronWolf Pro model not only because it’s highest endurance numbers and 5 year warranty (2 extra compared to the IronWolf) but also because of Seagate’s 2 year Rescue Data Recovery Service Plan which alone costs USD10 / 8.5Euros (if you get many drives the difference in price grows larger but again we feel the Pro model is well worth the extra money). Long story short you simply can’t go wrong with the Seagate IronWolf Pro 10TB HDD and for that it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (300TB / 1.2 Million Hours MTBF)
- Excellent Performance
- 256MB Cache
- 10TB's Capacity
- Temperatures / Noise Levels / Power Consumption
- Enclosure Material (Low Temperatures)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- 2 Year Rescue Data Recovery Service Plan

CONS

- Price (For Some)