I simply crossed 250TB of storage on the house server, and whereas a bulk of that’s IronWolf Professional drives, I have been attempting out numerous different merchandise during the last 18 months. A lot of the new drives are both the HAT5300 and WD Reds, however the one which stood out is the Exos X20. Seagate makes a number of the greatest NAS drives, and whereas its consumer-facing IronWolf drives are greater than ample for many customers, I needed to see what’s totally different with the Exos sequence.
So I obtained began with the 20TB variant of the Exos drive — referred to as the Exos X20 — at first of the 12 months, and it has been good. The three.5-inch drive makes use of a 6Gb/s SATA interface, spins at 7,200rpm, has a 550TB/12 months endurance, and a better imply time earlier than failure (MTBF) ranking of two.5 million hours, which is greater than what you get with the equal IronWolf Professional drives.
Like different drives that exceed 20TB storage, the Exos X20 is stuffed with helium; this makes the drive run smoother as it’s vulnerable to much less friction, and makes it face up to humidity a bit of higher. Whereas the IronWolf Professional drives are geared toward shopper 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 an awesome job optimizing energy draw when the drive is idling.
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After all, 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 one quibble is that the Exos X20 tends to be a bit of noisy; not an enormous consideration because it’s meant for knowledge middle use, however for those who’re slotting it in your house NAS, it’s best to know that it is marginally louder than the IronWolf Professional drives. The noise is not a lot that it turns into a problem, however the drive is clearly audible when in use — notably you probably have the NAS in the identical room.
Exterior of that, the Exos X20 has been phenomenal. It prices about the identical because the IronWolf Professional, 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 referred to as the Exos X24, and you probably have a excessive storage requirement and need a drive that is designed to final, that may be the way in which to go. However if you wish to maximize worth proper now, the Exos X20 remains to be the only option.
This 20TB drive is a no brainer for those who’re seeking to construct a media middle and wish an HDD that is dependable in every day use and constructed to final.