Joined on 01/12/08
First one failed, replacement works well though
Pros: - Potentially good Linux support - Button to turn off chirping - Simple, useful display that is not always on - Great customer support
Cons: - Questionable reliability (see below). Perhaps there are issues with the design of the pure sine wave version of the UPS as opposed to the step function version.
Overall Review: My first unit failed shortly after I started using it. Basically I came home to find my workstation off and UPS smelling a bit like burnt plastic (though not as bad as some people have described here). Load was about 300-400W, well below what this UPS was designed for. As per the manual I unplugged the UPS from the wall and unplugged everything from the UPS, but when I plugged it back in it sparked. After writing a review here, Schneider Electric contacted me with instructions on how to contact them and arrange for a replacement. After a few minutes on-line with a support specialist we had a replacement arranged, and a couple days later I received a new unit and a pre-paid return shipping label (I was able to use the box to ship the unit back to APC). So far the replacement unit has performed well, and I was impressed at how quick and easy exchanging the units was.
Avoid for desktop RAID, it's very loud (before FW update) and does not mount in many 3.5" drive bays
Pros: - You may gain the distinction of mounting your drive using velcro and/or tape. - You might get to utilize some of those empty 5.25" drive bays.
Cons: - Unreliable - May require a firmware update to mitigate noise. (see "other" below) - Only has two screw holes (front and back, no middle). Likely will not fit into tool-less drive bays that come in many desktop chassis since they usually utilize front and middle holes. - I took my drive to a local computer shop and tried about a dozen cases from Antec, Corsair, NZXT, and other popular brands and the drive did not mount securely into their 3.5" bays (the bays utilize middle holes). - Common 3.5" to 5.25" mounting brackets do not work either since most of them use the middle holes. - Mounting with velcro and/or tape might not dampen vibration enough which in turn may degrade performance.
Overall Review: [Update 3] The replacement drives Seagate sent have been working fine after several months - Bumped the rating up. [Update 2] I RMA'd my dead drive and Seagate sent a replacement. No hassles, thankfully. Things got off to a rocky start with these drives, hopefully Seagate will make things right with other customers who experience failures or other issues and have improved newer versions of the drive. +1 egg. [Update] I ordered two of these and now one is dead after about 14 months. I filed a support ticket with Seagate and they basically told me that I'm out of luck since I can't run their Windows-based diagnostic utility (I run Linux). I sent them output from smartctl showing SAT command failures but they refused to work with that. I don't expect them to support everything but it would be nice if they showed at least some competency with standard, open-source tools that a lot of enterprises use. For mounting into a 5.25" bay, iStarUSA RP-HDD35V2 brackets worked: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816215435&ignorebbr=1 For noise and firmware: My drives came with SC60 firmware and according to the internet SC61 is the newest revision that helps solve the noise issue. Fortunately there is a Linux tool (seaflashlin) for 32 and 64-bit systems, but unfortunately I had to obtain the SC61 firmware from a third-party website since Seagate's website didn't have it listed for my two drives' serial numbers (The FW I found claims to be compatible with Iron Wolf and NAS drives with FW version SC60). Hopefully I'll see an explicitly supported FW version from Seagate, but until then SC61 *seems* to work and makes the noise tolerable. I added +1 egg to my original rating since with the special mounting brackets and FW update this drive seems to work, albeit with a fair bit of effort on the customer's part (it's not totally defective at least).
Worked perfectly for mounting HDD with only front and rear mounting holes
Pros: - Works as advertised - Comes with plenty of screws (12 IIRC) for mounting the HDD into the bracket and the bracket into the 5.25" bay.
Cons: - A little pricey, but fits a niche.