Seagate Unveils 14 TB Consumer HDDs: BarraCuda Pro, SkyHawk, IronWolf, & IronWolf Pro
by Anton Shilov on September 11, 2018 2:00 PM EST
Seagate on Monday introduced a portfolio of consumer-oriented 14 TB hard drives. The new HDDs belong to the BarraCuda Pro, SkyHawk, IronWolf Pro, and IronWolf series, and rely on the same helium-filled platform that powers the datacenter-oriented Exos 14 TB HDD introduced earlier this year.
As our review of the BarraCuda Pro 14 TB published earlier this week describes, all the new drives are based on Seagate’s helium-filled platform featuring eight 1.75-TB PMR platters with a 1077 Gb/in2 areal density coupled with two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) heads. The HDDs also feature a 7200 RPM spindle speed as well as 256 MB of multi-segmented cache. Despite increase of areal density, the new desktop hard drives offer exactly the same sequential data transfer rate (250 MB/s) as their 12 TB predecessors. Meanwhile, like all helium-filled hard drives, the new 14 TB HDDs are very energy-efficient and consume just 6.9 W in operating mode, which is in line with previous-gen 12 TB drives.
While the new BarraCuda Pro, SkyHawk, IronWolf Pro, and IronWolf hard drives featuring 14 TB capacity use the same platters, heads and other components, they are still very different products aimed at different applications.
The BarraCuda Pro HDDs are designed for desktops, which is why they are rated for a 300 TB/year workload, but do not feature extensive protection against vibrations (unlike server-grade HDDs), yet they come with Seagate’s Rescue data recovery services.
By contrast, the Skyhawk drives are aimed at surveillance systems that usually employ multiple HDDs, which is why the HDDs feature advance protection again vibration. As such, these drives are optimized to work for 24/7 and can record data from up to 64 HD cameras. Seagate rates Skyhawk HDDs for 180 TB/year workloads.
Moving on to IronWolf 14 TB and IronWolf Pro 14 TB hard drives for NAS. Both models are outfitted with rotational vibration sensors and feature the IronWolf health management technology. Meanwhile the IronWolf Pro version aimed at enterprise NAS, also has top-and-bottom attached motor, and comes with a five-year warranty. Besides, the IronWolf Pro is also considerably faster than the IronWolf when it comes to maximum sustained transfer rate (250 MB/s vs 210 MB/s).
| Brief Specifications of Seagate's 14 TB HDDs | |||||||
| BarraCuda Pro | SkyHawk | IronWolf Pro | IronWolf | ||||
| P/N | ST14000DM001 | ST14000NE0008 | ST14000VN0008 | ||||
| Platters | 8 | ||||||
| Heads | 16 | ||||||
| Recording Technology | Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) / Conventional | ||||||
| RPM | 7200 RPM | ||||||
| Interface | SATA 6 Gbps | ||||||
| Multi-Segmented Cache | 256 MB | ||||||
| Helium-Filling | Yes | ||||||
| Sequential Data Transfer Rate (host to/from drive) | 250 MB/s | 210 MB/s | |||||
| MTBF | ? | 1 million hours | 1.2 million hours | 1 million hours | |||
| Rated Annual Workload | 300 TB | 180 TB | 300 TB | 180 TB | |||
| RV Sensor | No | Yes | |||||
| Rotational Vibration @ 10-1500 Hz (rad/s2) | ? | ? | 12.5 | ? | |||
| Dual-Plane Balance | ? | ? | Yes | ||||
| Error Recovery Control | ? | ? | Yes | ||||
| Hot Plug Support | No | Yes | No | ||||
| Application | Desktops | NAS with 8+ Bays | NAS with 24 Bays | NAS with 8 Bays | |||
| Acoustics (Seek) | unknown | 2.8 bels | |||||
| Power Consumption | Operating | 6.9 W | 7.9 W | ||||
| Idle | 4.9 W | 5.3 W | |||||
| Warranty | 5 Years | 3 years | 5 years | 3 Years | |||
Seagate plans to start shipping the new hard drives today. The desktop-graded BarraCuda Pro 14 TB is priced at $580. The IronWolf and IronWolf Pro 14 TB for NAS cost $530 and $600 respectively. Meanwhile, the SkyHawk 14 TB carries an MSRP of $510. In addition, Seagate disclosed pricing of its datacenter Exos X14 drive, which is $615 when purchased at retail.
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DanNeely - Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - link
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that this article posted a day after Ganesh reviewed on the of the 3 drives.https://www.anandtech.com/show/13340/seagate-barra...
takeshi7 - Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - link
"Seagate rates Skyhawk HDDs for 550 TB/year workloads."But the table you provide only says 180TB/year. Which one is it?
Samus - Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - link
I like how the only difference between these four drives is the firmware and a wide price gap for said firmwares...DanNeely - Wednesday, September 12, 2018 - link
The iron wolf/iron wolf pro are physically different. Both include vibration sensors (vibrations from large numbers of drives can be a killer in NASes) and presumably firmware to slightly adjust spin rates to keep them from all generating the same pattern and making it worse. The IW Pro also has its spindle attached top and bottom instead of on just one end which makes it much less sensitive to vibration problems.Anton Shilov - Friday, September 14, 2018 - link
Thanks for sharp eyes. Looked at a wrong spec when writing.All SkyHawks are rated for 180 TB/year. Meanwhile SkyHawk AIs are rated for 550 TB/year.
Fixed.
Anton Shilov - Friday, September 14, 2018 - link
The news story covers the whole stack, whereas the article covers one of the drives.s.yu - Wednesday, September 12, 2018 - link
I wonder if there's any impact resistance, like if my drive falls off my desk would the spindle immediately disengage before impact.milkywayer - Thursday, September 13, 2018 - link
I wonder how reliable these new Seagate HDDs are. I got burned twice by two dying Seagates a couple years ago and I've been buying WD mainly which so far in my experience have worked faithfully.What is your manufacturer or choice and why?
RealBeast - Friday, September 14, 2018 - link
I have been and continue for now to use HGST He8 and He10 drives, but will certainly consider the Iron Wolf Pro drives as data starts coming out from 24/7 storage users like Backblaze.Years ago I had a few consumer Seagate drives die, but that was then and this was now and anecdotes are not reliable indicators and neither are one or two drives from a long time ago.
RealBeast - Friday, September 14, 2018 - link
is now not was now. Need an edit button since I type like I drive. ;)