Seagate Cheetah 15K.7, Model# ST3600057SS
A high-performance, high-reliability enterprise-level storage solution for mission-critical applications. It features a 15,000RPM spinning speed and operates on the SAS 6Gbps host interface, delivering fast, consistent transfer speeds with minimized CPU utilization. Seagate PowerTrim technology provides a 62% improvement in GBs/W at idle over typical 3.5-inch hard drives. Read/write advances deliver a nonrecoverable error rate of 1x10E16, ensuring unbeatable data integrity.
Best-Fit Applications
- Business and transaction processing
- Storage area networks and network-attached storage (NAS)
- E-mail, decision support, Internet and e-commerce
Lowest Cost of Ownership
- Seventh-generation Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 drive is the fastest, highest capacity and most reliable ever
- Lower watts/GB ratio helps achieve reduced power and cooling costs while optimizing capacity requirements
- Higher performance with fewer drives—reducing support infrastructure, physical space requirements and storage management costs
- The highest reliability of any 3.5-inch drive, with increased system reliability due to the need for fewer drives
Highest Reliability
- Seagate continues to focus on reliability and data protection. MTBF is an industry-leading 1.6 million hours.
- Seagate-exclusive enhanced Error Correction Code better maintains performance throughout the life of the drive and reduces the probability of lost data.
- The third generation of Seagate-exclusive Background Media Scan proactively scans the media for potential defects during drive idle time. It enables incipient errors to be corrected before data is lost.
- Quick and Robust Download feature loads new firmware in seconds, with built-in protection to ensure no corruption in the event of a power failure during firmware switch.
Pros: I do a lot of work with extremely high bit rate audio files, high definition video up to 4k/8k UHD resolutions, and needless to say this takes up a LOT of space. However, I also have to have backups of every single project I've worked on, which is a hefty amount. I have relied on WD's RE series for years and have had a grand total of 1 fail out of 51 total (specifically, an RE2 500GB that ran 24/7 well through its warranty, and even then it isn't dead it just started to err and a sudden large amount of bad sectors appeared). Still, I recently got a very nice and very high end hardware RAID card from my work for the needed data expansion (PCIe 2.1 x8 with 4GB DDR3 upgradeable Cache and Battery Backup Unit supporting SATA/SAS 6g), and I was already overhauling my "storage PC/server" so I decided to go with the SAS drives due to the speed and Daisy Chaining possible, and I already had a number of 150-450GB SAS 15Krpm drives given to me by the head of the IT Department (a friend). I am running 14 of these bad boys, and after a few months, here's some thoughts on PROs: - Wow these are fast, and I can't believe how many IOPS they put out, it simply should not be possible! - Small size makes housing them easy, and with my new case (modified Lian Li D8000) they get incredible airflow which keeps them at 30C (ambient 18-20C) under heavy I/O loads - Of 14 drives, not one single error! I checked each individually and just wow. - Good capacity for a 15Krpm 2.5" SAS drive, although 1TB would be nice - Seriously fast on their own (one drive), but these were built for RAID and scale better with RAID than anything not solid-state; scaling is 98-100%! - Using the array as my "active project storage", I am getting responsiveness that is almost always instantaneous, thanks to the insane seek speeds - If you are looking for even more speed, I tried short-stroking some to various capacities while playing around before the "serious business" install, and with a 100-150GB/drive short stroke, they will show seeks as low as 0.9ms in CrystalDisk or ASSD; throughput increased by over 50% in random R/W and doubled in sequential - SERIOUSLY OVERKILL! AND I LOVE IT
Cons: - EXPENSIVE FOR HOME USE - Loud when you have 14 running full speed, but I keep my storage machine two walls away and the entire house (iincluding interior walls) have Blown-In Wet Pack Cellulose insulation (interior walls to R-value 35) which is a very strong sound deadener - I honestly don't think I am capable of getting the full performance of the drives, even using 10GbE dual-teamed between machines or 4x eSATA 6Gbs teamed connections! - Not available in larger sizes - Not solid state? Although honestly, the array is faster than any SSD (outside of enterprise PCIe ones) while providing many times the capacity - Unsure about the reliability as I don't normally run SAS - Do NOT use 2x2.5-to-1x3.5 adapters! I am using Scythe adapters, but only one drive per bay with a Slipstream 120x12mm fan in the lower section of each adapter and it's perfect - LOUD
Overall Review: I just overhauled my primary storage machine, which is separate from my workstation, and needed as I have all x16 slots filled in my Rampage IV Extreme with EVGA GTX680 4GB cards in 4-way SLI (to power the pre ordered U2713AH 2560x1440p AH-IPS displays which will be attached to a pair of 3-arm Ergotron fully adjustable monitor mounts in 5-monitor surround using a 30" AH-IPS 1600p for center). I am using my old workstation parts: Rampage III Extreme, 980X, 2x GTX580 3GB in SLI, 2x 180GB X25 SSD's for System Drive in RAID0, a new 1500W modular PSU, 48GB DDR3-2000 7-8-7-14, the new RAID card, 3x LG BD-R/W 14x drives, Lian Li D8000 case, backup 850W PSU, 28x 140mm Fans, Custom H2O for CPU/MB/GPUs (putting a universal block on RAID card) with 2x 420 + 1x 280 rads with p/p fans, 1x 4TB Hitachi HDD, and 2x 3TB WD Green RAID1. Now,it also folds so it's not going to waste, and I enjoy the 890,000ppd total I get (:D), but it is also serving as a home server, storage server, media server, and backup pc. BENCHIES FOR FUN: 14x in RAID0 (current configuration, which backs up daily to a separate 8x4TB RAID5 array on a separate PC via an LSI card): Sequential: Read 2,150MB/s Write 2,011MB/s Random 4K: Read 311MB/s Write 212MB/s IOPS: around 62,000 with bursts much higher AWESOME!