Seagate shipping 8tb drives

Stu · 1 Apr 2015 at 22:23

Robert said:
So, using these to store and stream media? Surely they'd cope with that.

They are perfect for storing and streaming media, but recommended not to use RAID (just use as single drives).

nalla · 2 Apr 2015 at 00:47

so when can we actually get these, when will ocuk get em in.

div0 · 2 Apr 2015 at 17:26

So the general feeling is that these drives would be fine for media storage and streaming, as long as they're not used as part of a RAID array?

If so, add me to the list of people waiting for stock!

easyrider · 2 Apr 2015 at 18:59

24/7 a no no ?

hernaldo · 7 Apr 2015 at 11:42

easyrider said:
24/7 a no no ?

24/7 availability is fine.
24/7 access, not.

Rated to 180TB read/write a year, so store you're stuff on it and then access as needed, not complete daily backups etc.

apostolis_kt · 8 Apr 2015 at 13:55

Is this hdd applicable for desktop usage for storing and playing videos and games from it? I intent to have this as my data hdd - i have the OS on an SSD and currently a 2tb WD Black which is about to reach it's limits so i would like to inject this hdd in my system for some storage awesomeness.

oxygene · 8 Apr 2015 at 13:58

Personally I would use this for videos and such, but not so much for games. Stuff that wont be accessed often or not many writes and rewrites. But then I do the same on all large drives, mainly because I tend to buy slightly cheaper and slower drives.

Methanoid · 8 Apr 2015 at 14:05

I have some of this drive. Potential buyers might want to know they make a regular chirping noise that is a little disconcerting. They also do run a little hotter than other smaller capacity drives. I use mine for video storage mainly and minimal write cycles as oxygene suggests. My games are on an older design 3Tb drive.

Stu · 8 Apr 2015 at 16:23

oxygene said:
Personally I would use this for videos and such, but not so much for games. Stuff that wont be accessed often or not many writes and rewrites. But then I do the same on all large drives, mainly because I tend to buy slightly cheaper and slower drives.

I don't think regular access/reading is a problem, but rather regular writing will be slow.

Methanoid · 8 Apr 2015 at 16:27

No, this is not a slow drive for R or W but it does have a suggestion that it isn't suitable for high write capacity (i.e. better for archive than work/scratch usage).

Stu · 8 Apr 2015 at 19:47

Methanoid said:
No, this is not a slow drive for R or W but it does have a suggestion that it isn't suitable for high write capacity (i.e. better for archive than work/scratch usage).

Based on the findings at StorageReview, and as I would expect for a SMR drive, sustained write speed is significantly slower than read speed and compared to write speed of a non-SMR drive. The review indicates good burst write speeds with this drive, but I wonder if this drops when the drive is getting full and has higher workload of extra writing for overlapping data.

hernaldo · 9 Apr 2015 at 18:48

Stu said:
Based on the findings at StorageReview, and as I would expect for a SMR drive, sustained write speed is significantly slower than read speed and compared to write speed of a non-SMR drive. The review indicates good burst write speeds with this drive, but I wonder if this drops when the drive is getting full and has higher workload of extra writing for overlapping data.

StorageReview website review is completely flawed and to be disregarded - for our purposes, that is unless you make use of hardware RAID or pseudo hardware RAID (as in firmware based).

These drives have a 25GB flash storage area that is extremely intelligent, when used with a hardware RAID controller this flash area isn't used and the logic built into the drive to compensate for being SMR based isn't able to be used.

Sustained sequential writes are perfectly normal, 180MB-85MB real world.
The RAID rebuild test they did was on a live system as well as the above.

In a word, ridiculous test conditions for an SMR drive that nobody in their right mind would use the drive in, though it does highlight that the drives really are useless in a hardware RAID setup. They perform quite reasonably in a ZFS/RAIDZ1/2 type situation where the logic in the firmware isn't bypassed.

Scrubbing takes much longer but these drives are perfectly fine in a 100% software RAID/ZFS setup for media storage etc. Currently have 8 in RAIDZ2, rebuilds are not the "10 days" people have been talking about. You're talking 2.5-3 days, which is on the very slow end, but not unuseable.

deuse · 9 Apr 2015 at 19:32

@Surveyor why did you delete my post? other members in other section mention price differences but never mention the company.

Methanoid · 9 Apr 2015 at 19:43

hernaldo said:
StorageReview website review is completely flawed and to be disregarded - for our purposes, that is unless you make use of hardware RAID or pseudo hardware RAID (as in firmware based).

These drives have a 25GB flash storage area that is extremely intelligent, when used with a hardware RAID controller this flash area isn't used and the logic built into the drive to compensate for being SMR based isn't able to be used.

Sustained sequential writes are perfectly normal, 180MB-85MB real world.
The RAID rebuild test they did was on a live system as well as the above.

In a word, ridiculous test conditions for an SMR drive that nobody in their right mind would use the drive in, though it does highlight that the drives really are useless in a hardware RAID setup. They perform quite reasonably in a ZFS/RAIDZ1/2 type situation where the logic in the firmware isn't bypassed.

Scrubbing takes much longer but these drives are perfectly fine in a 100% software RAID/ZFS setup for media storage etc. Currently have 8 in RAIDZ2, rebuilds are not the "10 days" people have been talking about. You're talking 2.5-3 days, which is on the very slow end, but not unuseable.

Thanks for your post. Supports my statement about real world use ie R/W are both NOT slow for this drives if used in the designated manner (ie it is NOT a RAID/Enterprise drive). I CBA to argue the point with previous poster but my real world experience is that they are just as good as other drives, just bigger and cheaper per TB

TheBigCheese · 21 Apr 2015 at 02:49

Any updates on when the 8TB drives will be back in stock, or even the 10TB? As SplitCoreGaming mentioned, I was sure they were talking about that size at the start.

I had a quick question about them as well...

Is there any issue with them being supported by any software or hardware? Does Windows seem them normally? Do ext HDD USB3 caddies read from them as normal? The ones I have say up to 4TB but I assume as there wasn't anything bigger at the time, not 100% sure though.

Cheers.

Methanoid · 21 Apr 2015 at 07:21

FYI, Seagate continues it's great rep for HDDs. One of mine failed within 33 days of use... Luckily no important data on it or data I don't have elsewhere but still... Great quality!!!

oxygene · 21 Apr 2015 at 08:33

Methanoid said:
FYI, Seagate continues it's great rep for HDDs. One of mine failed within 33 days of use... Luckily no important data on it or data I don't have elsewhere but still... Great quality!!!

See this is odd, everyone I know has such different experiances on harddrives. Personally I've had hitatchi, WD, and toshiba all fail on me 100%, but Seagate I've never lost one. But I know other people who have lost all their Seagates and swear by WD.
I guess its just RNG trolling us!

ED209 · 21 Apr 2015 at 08:37

I have a external 3TB HDD for a good few years now and never had a issue with it.

Methanoid · 21 Apr 2015 at 08:55

ED209 said:
I have a external 3TB HDD for a good few years now and never had a issue with it.

And all 3 Seagate drives I have owned in last 6 years have failed (2Tb External, forget the 1st, this 8Tb)... and I own 4 "working today" 8Tb drives... I am getting worried!

oxygene · 21 Apr 2015 at 09:00

Methanoid said:
And all 3 Seagate drives I have owned in last 6 years have failed (2Tb External, forget the 1st, this 8Tb)... and I own 4 "working today" 8Tb drives... I am getting worried!

Sounds like they're as good as dead then tbh. I'll take them off your hands for a fiver each?