INTRODUCTION

   Usually whenever the subject of high/large storage capacity needs comes up with friends and colleagues it either has to do with work (mostly local and cloud backups), media collections and game installations. Still there are many reasons one may be in need of a high-capacity drive and one of those is video surveillance. Now although many years ago video recorders used VHS tapes which were later on replaced with laser discs and finally DVDs to record surveillance data today all NVR's (network video recorders) do so on disk drives. The obvious reasons for using disk drives are not just the amount of data (time) that can be stored but also the number of streams/feeds that can be recorded simultenously. Seagate has supported NVR owners (and companies) for roughly 10 years now with their Surveillance HDD models but they somewhat recently started offering the updated Skyhawk line of HDDs designed specifically for DVR/NVR use and today we have the 10TB variant with us.

   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 Barracuda Pro and IronWolf/Pro lines the Skyhawk line of 3.5" hard disk drives by Seagate is part of their new Guardian series and currently includes models in 1/2/3/4/6/8/10TB capacities (4/6/8/10TB models support health management) which according to Seagate are optimized for use in digital and network video recorders (DVR/NVR) connected with up to 64 HD cameras. Just like the Barracuda Pro and IronWolf/Pro drives the Skyhawk is also a helium filled drive based on perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) that features a total of 7 platters (1.5TB in capacity each) that spin at 7200RPM along with a total of 256MB DRAM cache (1/2/3/4TB models only have 64MB). The Skyhawk line of HDDs also features Seagate's DVR/NVR tailored ImagePerfect firmware and ATA streaming support for seamless footage capture even from a total of 64 HD cameras, PowerChoice technology for reduced power consumption and Health Management which informs the user of imminent drive failure thus actively protecting your surveillance storage. Finally Seagate covers the Skyhawk 10TB hard disk drive with a 3 year limited warranty and rates it for a workload of up to 180TB per year and an MTBF (mean time between failures) of 1 million hours.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE SKYHAWK 10TB

This shouldn't come as a surprise really so once again we received our sample inside a clear plastic package.

In terms of enclosure the Skyhawk is pretty much identical to the IronWolf/Pro and Barracuda Pro models (minus the different animal used on the sticker).

As always the sticker at the top of the drive contains information such as the drive serial number, factory roll-out date, interface, capacity, electrical requirements and installed firmware.

Moving at the rear we see a small PCB with all the modules placed on the other side for increased protection (we also see the same empty spot on the upper right corner which may one day be used for extra cache or an SSHD model).

Four pins (probably used for firmware updates) and the usual SATA power and data connectors are located at the rear of the drive.

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 of 3.5” drives), 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 17th of January 2018.

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

   Having the ability to choose from a wide selection of hard disk drives tailored for specific uses is never a bad thing so it’s no wonder the Guardian Series by Seagate has been welcomed by millions of people around the world. Still although Seagate offers solutions for both NAS and DVR/NVR use what happens when one uses a NAS also as a NVR? Actually we happen to be using a NAS at the lab connected to a total of 4 IP surveillance cameras (others may have even more) and although we’ve outfitted it with IronWolf Pro drives would the Skyhawk be more ideal? However we also use it for file sharing and system backups for when we’re not at the lab so perhaps the IronWolf Pro is a better choice after all? Who know perhaps in the future Seagate and other manufacturers may release a drive for both NAS and NVR use (or they may point out which is best for that kind of workload) but for now it’s not really very clear as to which model is better suited for this. With that out of the way the Skyhawk 10TB is by no means the fastest HDD in our charts but it’s just roughly 5% slower compared to the Barracuda Pro and IronWolf Pro 12TB models which are leading our SATA charts so it’s still a very fast model. Our only problem during our tests was with the noise levels of the Skyhawk 10TB since it’s in the top 6 loudest hard disk drives to ever pass from our lab. It’s not a huge deal really (plus it could be just our sample but since Seagate send only one over we can’t really check) since even from 2 meters away it’s inaudible but that’s how it is.

   So how much does Seagate ask for their Skyhawk 10TB SATA III Hard Disk Drive (ST10000VX0004)? Well actually they are asking slightly less compared for example to the Barracuda Pro 10TB since currently the Skyhawk 10TB retails for USD316.92 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 312Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Of course this was somewhat expected due to their performance difference but still it’s a very good price for a 10TB drive. Once again Seagate has released a top-notch mechanical drive (performance/power consumption/features) this time aimed at consumers, professionals and even businesses (although the Skyhawk AI drive may be a better choice for business use) looking to update and/or equip their digital and network video recorders which is well worth of our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (180TBW / 1 Million Hours MTBF)
- Near-Excellent Performance (SATA)
- 256MB Cache
- 10TB's Capacity
- Temperatures / Power Consumption
- Enclosure Material (Low Temperatures)

CONS

- Price (For Some)