I simply crossed 250TB of storage on the house server, and whereas a bulk of that is IronWolf Pro drives, I’ve been attempting out varied different merchandise during the last 18 months. Most of the brand new drives are both the HAT5300 and WD Reds, however the one which stood out is the Exos X20. Seagate makes a few of the finest NAS drives, and whereas its consumer-facing IronWolf drives are greater than enough for many customers, I needed to see what’s totally different with the Exos sequence.
So I bought began with the 20TB variant of the Exos drive — known as the Exos X20 — in the beginning of the yr, and it has been sensible. The 3.5-inch drive makes use of a 6Gb/s SATA interface, spins at 7,200rpm, has a 550TB/yr endurance, and a better imply time earlier than failure (MTBF) score of two.5 million hours, which is greater than what you get with the equal IronWolf Pro drives.
Like different drives that exceed 20TB storage, the Exos X20 is full of helium; this makes the drive run smoother because it is vulnerable to much less friction, and makes it face up to humidity a bit higher. Whereas the IronWolf Pro drives are geared toward client NAS units, the Exos sequence is aimed strictly at companies, and also you get a number of extras: Seagate’s PowerChoice and PowerBalance utilities do a fantastic job optimizing energy draw when the drive is idling.
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Of course, you get wonderful vibrational resistance — a key requirement in a drive that is designed for twenty-four/7 use. The Exos X20 has a 256MB cache, and Seagate touts transfers of as much as 285MB/s in intensive workloads. I slotted the NAS right into a DiskStation DS182xs+, and I noticed the drive go as much as 240MB/s with sustained reads, which is on par with one of the best drives I’ve used thus far.
The solely quibble is that the Exos X20 tends to be a bit noisy; not an enormous consideration because it’s meant for knowledge middle use, however when you’re slotting it in your house NAS, you need to know that it is marginally louder than the IronWolf Pro drives. The noise is not a lot that it turns into a problem, however the drive is clearly audible when in use — significantly you probably have the NAS in the identical room.
Outside of that, the Exos X20 has been phenomenal. It prices about the identical because the IronWolf Pro, however you get higher total effectivity figures, and that alone makes it a simple suggestion. Seagate is now promoting a 24TB model of the drive known as the Exos X24, and you probably have a excessive storage requirement and desire a drive that is designed to final, that may be the best way to go. But if you wish to maximize worth proper now, the Exos X20 is nonetheless the only option.
This 20TB drive is a no brainer when you’re trying to construct a media middle and want an HDD that is dependable in every day use and constructed to final.