INTRODUCTION

   Since day one we've tried bring you reviews of as many SSD models as possible and although we mostly focus on consumer oriented models since that's where the majority of our readers belong (obviously) we also test enterprise class models from time to time to cater to the needs of our more demanding readers. Now as many of you are well aware although the latest 12GB/s standard has been with us for good well over a year now there aren't really many compatible storage solutions in the market as we speak so it's not easy for us to compare similar products. Still when Seagate last year introduced their high-performance 600 and 600 Pro SATA III SSD lines aimed at consumers and professionals they also introduced the 1200 SAS 12Gb/s SSD line aimed towards intensive enterprise workloads and today we will be thoroughly testing the 400GB variant of that line.

   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 1200 SSD series by Seagate is available in 200/400/800GB capacities and is much more advanced compared to the 600/pro SSD lines not only because we're talking about a SAS 12Gb/s compatible product but also because it wears a custom-designed Marvell SSD NAND flash controller (custom firmware) paired with 21nm eMLC NAND flash modules (10 DWPD endurance) by Samsung (something we don't really see in SSDs other than the ones Samsung makes) and a total of 512MB of DDR3-1600 cache. As expected from enterprise grade SSD models Seagate also offers SED and FIPS 140-2 protection for the 1200 SSD (different models) and incorporates capacitors to protect data in case of a power loss. So since we're quite intrigued to see how the 1200 SSD 400GB model will compare with every other model in our charts let's move on.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE 1200 SSD 400GB

Typically we received our sample inside a static-free plastic bag (actually we received two but our card doesn't support RAID).

The 2.5" housing of the 400GB variant is 7mm thick and rather plain without colors (much like most enterprise/industrial grade solutions).

On the sticker placed on the drive we see the company logo, product name, serial number, barcode, connectivity, part number, electrical requirements, capacity, factory rollout date, country of assembly and the installed firmware version (the sample which arrived later on had version 0005 installed so we decided on using that for out tests).

The 4 screws at the rear are the only thing separating us from the interior of the drive.

SAS connectivity is present at the rear of the drive along with 4 pins while at the front we find a service port and a power LED (green).

As you can see Seagate has used thermal pads to transfer heat from the modules to the aluminum housing.

There are 4 NAND flash packages on each side of the PCB along with 30 capacitors and 512MB of DDR3-1600 cache by Micron.

The custom-designed controller by Marvell is placed at the bottom of the PCB (to be honest i didn't expect to see the Marvell logo on it).

To test the 1200 SSD and other 12Gb/s compatible products from now on we'll be using a MegaRAID 9300-8i SATA/SAS host bus adapter by LSI/Avago.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

     Thoroughly testing hard disk and solid state drives may require time and lots of patience but that's just about it. Of course that doesn't mean that one must take it lightly, at least not when people actually base their decision on your results. Because of that 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.

       SAS drive testing however is more complicated than testing regular SATA drives and so although we use the same 6 benchmark suites as with SATA tests in an effort to bring you the most accurate results across the board things are a bit different since we are required to configure/tweak some of those programs to address compatibility issues with the SAS card used. This may not be exactly "fair" for the SAS drive/s in hand since we test them with much heavier read/write loads in some of the suites used but that's the only way to get realistic results without taking into account certain extreme card-specific performance optimizations. So once again the benchmarking applications we use are the AIDA64 suite (former Everest Pro), HD Tune Professional (Partial Test/Full Accuracy), HD Tach RW (Full Bench), ATTO (2GB Length), Sisoftware Sandra Pro, Crystal Disk Mark 64bit (2000MB mode) and IOmeter (4k Random Writes). These benchmark tools are the best at 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. All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to October 23rd 2014.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

TEST RESULTS – AS SSD / IOMETER

CONCLUSION

   When we finished testing the 1200 SSD 400GB model that came wearing the very first firmware version 0001 i can't say we were really impressed and when you're testing an product aimed towards intensive enterprise workloads that costs quite a bit the least you expect is for it to perform a lot better compared to consumer oriented solutions. Because of that (and because i didn't want to bet everything on a firmware update glitch) shortly after wrapping up our tests we requested a new sample from Seagate wearing firmware version 0005 which we did get and started from scratch to see if our results were due to the original firmware version. Luckily we did get improved numbers in our results and although i have to admit that i did expect better ones from a brand new 12Gb/s SAS SSD model i can't at the same time ignore that this is the first attempt from Seagate using the latest standard. So although overall performance may not seem worlds apart compared to some 6Gb/s SATA III SSD models in our charts the fact that the 1200 SSD 400GB surpasses every other SATA/SAS SSD in IOPS and offers endurance numbers like the 7300 TBW (Total Terabytes Written) and the 2 million hours MTBF (Meantime Between Failures) mean that it's far more suitable for enterprise use.

   Performance and endurance are not the only two things one can expect from enterprise grade storage media, price is also one of them and in that couldn't be more true in the case of the 1200 SSD 400GB (ST400FM0053) SAS 12Gb/s model since it currently retails for USD1518.75 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 1298.60Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). That's not all however so unless you have a 12Gb/s card already along with a compatible 12Gb/s host adapter like the 9300-8i the 1200 SSD 400GB will set you back roughly a total of USD1800/1500Euros and for a single drive that's no small amount (although that means you'd be able to plug up to 8 such drives on that card). Superior performance and endurance for a hefty price tag is not something new and although for enterprise users money is not an issue still casual users, enthusiasts and even professionals will obviously be better off with a standard SATA III SSD like the 600 Pro by Seagate or the 850 PRO by Samsung. Still we can't deny that the 1200 SSD series of 12Gb/s drives by Seagate is the beginning of something great and since the 400GB variant surpassed the competition with ease and offers impressive endurance levels we're awarding it with our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Superior Build Quality/Endurance (2m MTBF/10DWPD/7300TBW)
- Superior Read & Write Performance
- One Of The First 12Gb/s SSDs
- Power Loss Protection
- Firmware Optimized For Extremely Heavy Enterprise Workloads
- 5 Year Warranty
- Available In 800GB
- Also Available In SED/FIPS 140-2/High Endurance Models (25DWPD)

CONS

- Price (For Some)