Seagate Barracuda vs Skywolf vs Ironwolf for NAS

2013 · 21 Jun 2017 at 23:20

Seagate Barracuda vs Skywolf vs Ironwolf for 24/7

I need to replace a failed drive in my micro server and think seagate maybe the best option but it gets a little confusing, im not sure which to get they are all the same size but different price and models.

Whats the real difference ?

Im thinking the ironwolf maybe the best option for me.

seagate_surfer · 22 Jun 2017 at 22:05

We highly recommend the IronWolf for your NAS needs. BarraCuda is our current desktop PC/gaming lineup, IronWolf is our current NAS lineup, and SkyHawk is our current surveillance drive lineup.Here is a chart to delves a little into the different drive types:

Drive Types Chart

When you see different drive types like surveillance, NAS, and desktop, this means they were engineered with different uses in mind, and usually have different firmware on the drives for those uses as well. Surveillance drives like SkyHawk are optimized for write operations majority of the time, for example, writing to a surveillance DVR system 90% of the time and playback (reading) the other 10%. Different drive types also have different workload ratings. Nas drives such as IronWolf can be similar to SkyHawk in that they also have a 24/7 rating, but are is more balanced in terms of read/write usage and has firmware designed with multiple users, cloud storage, vibration, and NAS enclosure applications in mind.

You'll find that NAS drives sometimes have longer warranties than other types of drives. The standard IronWolf has a 3 year warranty and the IronWolf Pro has a 5 year warranty (and bumps the TB per year workload from 180TB to 300). This is one of the advantages of either NAS or surveillance drives. They also tend to have more vibration protection (RV sensors, vibration firmware, etc.) as they're designed for NAS units where you could have many drives working in a small, enclosed space which could otherwise really disrupt and wear down each-other.

If you'd like to check it out, here is a short video on choosing the right drive for the right application.

Thank you for considering Seagate, regardless of which drive you end up deciding is right for your needs!

2013 · 22 Jun 2017 at 22:15

Thanks, that was very helpful.

Avalon · 23 Jun 2017 at 04:45

In truth any will do, however as it's in a MS then depending on usage a NAS rated drive may be a better choice (small chassis, 4-7 drives in close proximity, presumable NAS/file server workloads), so Ironwolf or Ironwolf Pro would be my thoughts depending on how valuable your data is and how long you want a warranty - you can pay more for a longer warranty on a Pro and it includes data recovery and higher ratings, but for a home server/NAS you're unlikely to hit those kind of design limits as home users tend to be WORO, either way the Ironwolf range is quite competitively priced, the other contender in the same price bracket tends to be the Toshiba N300 (NAS) or X300 (desktop).