I wouldn't bold drives that are in lower workload class tiers if they don't have lower prices - why would anyone buy a worse drive for more money? Heck, given current prices (in the table), only two drives really make sense - Seagate 20TB if you need density and 10TB for everyone else.Reply
As implied, enterprise and high performance drives sacrifice acoustics and power consumption for performance. I recently replaced a WD Red Pro with a Toshiba N300 because the hollow clunking of the WD made it the loudest component in my PC. Worse, it was notorious for making this noise when idle, randomly seeking for no reason. Additionally, 7200RPM motors themselves make a higher pitch whine that has become more and more notable as they have added nearly a dozen platters to drives and the spinning mass requires stronger motors, which are louder.
All considered, even the lowest workload drives are adequate for simple data storage in most conditions. 55TB/year is still a ton of data.Reply
Every link to a HD guide I can find on the website points here, and this one seems to be about the very high end niche for this particular product. If there are other reviews in the "series" that address interests of the masses, where are they?Reply
AT hasn't actually reviewed any of these drives whatsoever so the site is making recommendations based on paper specs, prices, and manufacturer data absent apparent hands-on experience. That should be a bit alarming, but AT has been doing it for quite a while now. They're trying to keep a head above water in an age of mega-empire video reviewers, rampant adblockers (for good reason - this site is disgusting without one), and a loss of the original owner and a fair chunk of the talent while coping with (probably) Future, the owning company, milking the cow down to its skeleton while it still lasts - something PAINFULLY obvious to the dwindling readers.Reply
I only have experience with the WD equivalent, but my guess is the Exos enterprise might either be too loud or have highly audible seek\access that may turn off some buyers who have their PC in a quiet room\office. Acoustics are not even a consideration with drives designed for data centers.Reply
Previous HDD articles here constantly ignored WD Ultrastar DC series. These are some of the most reliable models that are often cheaper than their competitors with similar specs. Good to see them added to the list.
Case in point. Comparing 550TB/y workload drives that have 600k load/unload cycles, 2.5M MTBF and five year warranty: 24TB: $630. Ultrastar has price parity with Gold. Seagate Exos is $117 more expensive. Toshiba MG has no equivalent model. 22TB: $460. Ultrastar is the cheapest. Leading Exos by $40 and Gold by $90. Toshiba MG has no equivalent model. 20TB: Exos is $75 cheaper and MG is $25 cheaper here compared to Ultrastar. Gold is way overpriced at this capacity point. 18TB: Exos is up to $70 cheaper here with promo code and MG is $20 cheaper. 16TB: Exos is only $23 cheaper and MG is $40 cheaper. 14TB: MG is only $24 cheaper. Exos is slightly more expensive. 12TB: Ultrastar is the cheapest again with MG and Exos being slightly more expensive. 10TB: Not sure how but Exos is less than half the price here with MG being almost the the same as Ultrastar.
So in 22TB and 24TB Ultrastar is the best deal. In 20TB it could be worth going with Exos but only when buying bulk. 14TB, 16TB and 18TB the price differences are relatively small and there is not reason to go for Exos or MG. 12TB the Ultrastar is the cheapest again. 10TB is skewed because of the Exos promo.
In terms of price/TB the 10TB and 12TB models are largely pointless because you can get 14TB for roughly the same price. 16TB could have some merit but 18TB is again pointless because 20TB is roughly the same price. 22TB and 24TB obviously carry a price premium so they're only worth it if you are buying 1-2 units and replacing several 5+ units with the intention of keeping them for a long time.Reply
You really should stop using newegg as a reference place for prices. It is not available in the EU, so that's practically useless for your European readers (or maybe you just don't care about them?).Reply
Quite certainly, other websites do provide information that's more relevant to people living in the EU. But indeed, it is somehow disappointing to get an answer that can be summarized as: "go elsewhere, this place's not for you".Reply
For this guide we use both when available. In the case of the 20TB Exos, that is not available from Amazon US (only third party sellers who charge far more).
All of that said, the majority of AnandTech's readership is from North America. So while we don't purposely exclude EU readers, our pricing focus is first and foremost on North America. Especially as prices (and thus what's cheaper than what) over in the EU can be wildly different from NA.Reply
Thanks for your answer. I guess that's fair game, indeed; knowing this, though, it also means that I see no interest in keeping anandtech as a source of information.Reply
Yeah, sorry we can't be of more help on EU hard drive pricing. That's just one of those things where it's going to be hard to beat regional sites. To explicitly cover EU pricing, we'd basically have to write 2-3 additional hard drive guides to account for what's available in each country/region.
The silver lining, at least, is that this is really only a guide problem. New products at least launch at specific MSRPs, which makes review pricing a lot more consistent worldwide.Reply
Hey Ryan, I realize you are not actually doing a review and instead merely post datasheet metrics so how about including power consumption and noise levels in "Metrics of Interest" table? These would obviously be of interest to some of us and you already went through the trouble of copy-pasting MTBF and load/unload cycle ratings ...Reply
Thanks AnandTech for review. I am reading you from EU and the pricing doesn't match to the one in US. I am also looking to your next acoustics testing of the HDDs we have on the market. Noise is a very important parameter for me. Please!Reply
Decent comparative article--which came in handy as I just bought a Toshiba x300 Pro 8TB from Amazon for $139, with a 5-year, Ltd factory warranty included in the purchase. The article was informative, but as you accurately point out, a lot of the information is really spurious in its value. That's not a fault of the review, and it's not really a problem, but the information is confusing and often isn't even applicable to platter drives--such as the so-called "annual workload numbers" for these platter drives...;) What they've done is borrow the numbering from SSD marketing schemes which list the "wear and tear" & so-called "endurance" numbers in TBs written--which is *only an estimate* and is chiefly a marketing metric/gimmick as opposed to a literal fact. Indeed, only the length of time the drive is owned matters, because whether you write 3x the annual written TB data estimate within the warranty period, or you put one-third the TBs written in the warranty period--you are still covered only to the limit of the warranty period. What counts is how long you've owned the drive--not how many TBs you've written to it during the same period. The other numbers literally don't count in terms of anything the manufacturer guarantees for the *endurance* of the drive, the actual "endurance" being only the duration of the warranty period. As always, this is yet another Caveat Emptor situation. As long as people understand that "endurance estimates" that promise a lively drive long after the warranty period has elapsed--whatever period the warranty may cover--has expired, are meaningless--then no harm done...;)Reply
You mention noise several times but I would have loved an actual db measurement of the drives - reading, writing, and idle. I have 16 drives in my system so the noise level actually measured would be helpful.Reply
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21 Comments
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Zizy - Thursday, November 23, 2023 - link
I wouldn't bold drives that are in lower workload class tiers if they don't have lower prices - why would anyone buy a worse drive for more money? Heck, given current prices (in the table), only two drives really make sense - Seagate 20TB if you need density and 10TB for everyone else. ReplySamus - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
As implied, enterprise and high performance drives sacrifice acoustics and power consumption for performance. I recently replaced a WD Red Pro with a Toshiba N300 because the hollow clunking of the WD made it the loudest component in my PC. Worse, it was notorious for making this noise when idle, randomly seeking for no reason. Additionally, 7200RPM motors themselves make a higher pitch whine that has become more and more notable as they have added nearly a dozen platters to drives and the spinning mass requires stronger motors, which are louder.All considered, even the lowest workload drives are adequate for simple data storage in most conditions. 55TB/year is still a ton of data. Reply
DBissett - Thursday, November 23, 2023 - link
Every link to a HD guide I can find on the website points here, and this one seems to be about the very high end niche for this particular product. If there are other reviews in the "series" that address interests of the masses, where are they? ReplyPeachNCream - Thursday, November 23, 2023 - link
AT hasn't actually reviewed any of these drives whatsoever so the site is making recommendations based on paper specs, prices, and manufacturer data absent apparent hands-on experience. That should be a bit alarming, but AT has been doing it for quite a while now. They're trying to keep a head above water in an age of mega-empire video reviewers, rampant adblockers (for good reason - this site is disgusting without one), and a loss of the original owner and a fair chunk of the talent while coping with (probably) Future, the owning company, milking the cow down to its skeleton while it still lasts - something PAINFULLY obvious to the dwindling readers. Replymeacupla - Thursday, November 23, 2023 - link
This can be simplified into "get the exos while it's at $120"Unless you somehow don't have enough SATA ports Reply
Samus - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
I only have experience with the WD equivalent, but my guess is the Exos enterprise might either be too loud or have highly audible seek\access that may turn off some buyers who have their PC in a quiet room\office. Acoustics are not even a consideration with drives designed for data centers. ReplyR7 - Friday, November 24, 2023 - link
Previous HDD articles here constantly ignored WD Ultrastar DC series. These are some of the most reliable models that are often cheaper than their competitors with similar specs. Good to see them added to the list.Case in point. Comparing 550TB/y workload drives that have 600k load/unload cycles, 2.5M MTBF and five year warranty:
24TB: $630. Ultrastar has price parity with Gold. Seagate Exos is $117 more expensive. Toshiba MG has no equivalent model.
22TB: $460. Ultrastar is the cheapest. Leading Exos by $40 and Gold by $90. Toshiba MG has no equivalent model.
20TB: Exos is $75 cheaper and MG is $25 cheaper here compared to Ultrastar. Gold is way overpriced at this capacity point.
18TB: Exos is up to $70 cheaper here with promo code and MG is $20 cheaper.
16TB: Exos is only $23 cheaper and MG is $40 cheaper.
14TB: MG is only $24 cheaper. Exos is slightly more expensive.
12TB: Ultrastar is the cheapest again with MG and Exos being slightly more expensive.
10TB: Not sure how but Exos is less than half the price here with MG being almost the the same as Ultrastar.
So in 22TB and 24TB Ultrastar is the best deal. In 20TB it could be worth going with Exos but only when buying bulk.
14TB, 16TB and 18TB the price differences are relatively small and there is not reason to go for Exos or MG.
12TB the Ultrastar is the cheapest again.
10TB is skewed because of the Exos promo.
In terms of price/TB the 10TB and 12TB models are largely pointless because you can get 14TB for roughly the same price.
16TB could have some merit but 18TB is again pointless because 20TB is roughly the same price.
22TB and 24TB obviously carry a price premium so they're only worth it if you are buying 1-2 units and replacing several 5+ units with the intention of keeping them for a long time. Reply
kkilobyte - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
You really should stop using newegg as a reference place for prices. It is not available in the EU, so that's practically useless for your European readers (or maybe you just don't care about them?). Replymeacupla - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
That's what Tom's Hardware is for, isn't it? Replykkilobyte - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
Quite certainly, other websites do provide information that's more relevant to people living in the EU. But indeed, it is somehow disappointing to get an answer that can be summarized as: "go elsewhere, this place's not for you". ReplyRedGreenBlue - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
AnandTech and Toms Hardware are sister-sites owned by the same company. Or at least, last I read they were, it was a few years ago. ReplyRyan Smith - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
For this guide we use both when available. In the case of the 20TB Exos, that is not available from Amazon US (only third party sellers who charge far more).All of that said, the majority of AnandTech's readership is from North America. So while we don't purposely exclude EU readers, our pricing focus is first and foremost on North America. Especially as prices (and thus what's cheaper than what) over in the EU can be wildly different from NA. Reply
kkilobyte - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
Thanks for your answer. I guess that's fair game, indeed; knowing this, though, it also means that I see no interest in keeping anandtech as a source of information. ReplyRyan Smith - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
Yeah, sorry we can't be of more help on EU hard drive pricing. That's just one of those things where it's going to be hard to beat regional sites. To explicitly cover EU pricing, we'd basically have to write 2-3 additional hard drive guides to account for what's available in each country/region.The silver lining, at least, is that this is really only a guide problem. New products at least launch at specific MSRPs, which makes review pricing a lot more consistent worldwide. Reply
BAPEHUK - Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - link
Agree. By being a US focused, AnandTech disappoints everyone outside the bubble.Hey! EU is watching you! Reply
tygrus - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
Can you make the "HDD Recommendations - Warranty Basis"a $/TB/warranty_yr metric (lower is better)? Reply
mrnewbro - Saturday, November 25, 2023 - link
22TB Red Pro just dropped to $339 I think is pretty good deal ReplyArnulf - Sunday, November 26, 2023 - link
Hey Ryan, I realize you are not actually doing a review and instead merely post datasheet metrics so how about including power consumption and noise levels in "Metrics of Interest" table? These would obviously be of interest to some of us and you already went through the trouble of copy-pasting MTBF and load/unload cycle ratings ... ReplyBAPEHUK - Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - link
Thanks AnandTech for review. I am reading you from EU and the pricing doesn't match to the one in US.I am also looking to your next acoustics testing of the HDDs we have on the market. Noise is a very important parameter for me. Please! Reply
WaltC - Sunday, December 10, 2023 - link
Decent comparative article--which came in handy as I just bought a Toshiba x300 Pro 8TB from Amazon for $139, with a 5-year, Ltd factory warranty included in the purchase. The article was informative, but as you accurately point out, a lot of the information is really spurious in its value. That's not a fault of the review, and it's not really a problem, but the information is confusing and often isn't even applicable to platter drives--such as the so-called "annual workload numbers" for these platter drives...;) What they've done is borrow the numbering from SSD marketing schemes which list the "wear and tear" & so-called "endurance" numbers in TBs written--which is *only an estimate* and is chiefly a marketing metric/gimmick as opposed to a literal fact. Indeed, only the length of time the drive is owned matters, because whether you write 3x the annual written TB data estimate within the warranty period, or you put one-third the TBs written in the warranty period--you are still covered only to the limit of the warranty period. What counts is how long you've owned the drive--not how many TBs you've written to it during the same period. The other numbers literally don't count in terms of anything the manufacturer guarantees for the *endurance* of the drive, the actual "endurance" being only the duration of the warranty period. As always, this is yet another Caveat Emptor situation. As long as people understand that "endurance estimates" that promise a lively drive long after the warranty period has elapsed--whatever period the warranty may cover--has expired, are meaningless--then no harm done...;) Replyboe_d - Sunday, January 7, 2024 - link
You mention noise several times but I would have loved an actual db measurement of the drives - reading, writing, and idle. I have 16 drives in my system so the noise level actually measured would be helpful. Reply