Review Toshiba N300 Pro 12TB and 20TB HDD Review: Return of the NAS

[Admin]

The Toshiba N300 Pro is a high-end NAS HDD that stands up to WD’s Red Pro and Seagate’s IronWolf Pro. It offers little to stand out but is a safe alternative if the price is right.

Toshiba N300 Pro 12TB and 20TB HDD Review: Return of the NAS : Read more

 

[atomicWAR]

Great to see more 20TB options but pricing is going to kill this with Seagate Exos drives on Newegg frequently going for 269.99 when on sale, (currently 316.99 on newegg) Toshiba will have a hard time competing in the DIY market at a 439.99.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Great to see more 20TB options but pricing is going to kill this with Seagate Exos drives on Newegg frequently going for 269.99 when on sale, (currently 316.99 on newegg) Toshiba will have a hard time competing in the DIY market at a 439.99.

Yeah, it's the difficulty with all HDDs. When there's a slightly faster, cheaper, just as large HDD already available, what exactly is the selling point of these alternatives? I also wonder if there's really that much of a difference between the NAS models and the non-NAS models that would warrant the extra cost. Given the Backblaze approach, probably not.

 

[atomicWAR]

Yeah, it's the difficulty with all HDDs. When there's a slightly faster, cheaper, just as large HDD already available, what exactly is the selling point of these alternatives? I also wonder if there's really that much of a difference between the NAS models and the non-NAS models that would warrant the extra cost. Given the Backblaze approach, probably not.

Yeah pretty much. If I had to take a guess on why these might be worthwhile down the road, is when these drives price correct to slot into the market better. But who knows how long that could take...

 

[palladin9479]

Yeah, it's the difficulty with all HDDs. When there's a slightly faster, cheaper, just as large HDD already available, what exactly is the selling point of these alternatives? I also wonder if there's really that much of a difference between the NAS models and the non-NAS models that would warrant the extra cost. Given the Backblaze approach, probably not.

There is a difference in the firmware and how the drive handles speeding up and down. NAS drives are spinning 24/7/365, they only spin up or down during restarts of the SP. Regular drives on the other hand will attempt to save power by spinning up / down on demand. This can cause lifetime reliability issues as the drive experiences the most stress when it's spinning up. Also there can be thermal considerations, regular drives know that they are primarily accessed in bursts and won't be expected to go 24/7/365, so they don't vent heat as well. NAS drives are expected to be rotating all the time and have better sustained thermal design.

I built my own NAS using FreeNAS and common parts off newegg/amazon. I made the mistake on my first array of using 7200RPM desktop performance drives. Ended up being a nightmare with thermals and I then swapped them for 5400RPM power saving drives, worked for awhile but then started having all sorts of problems. Finally bit the bullet and switched to 4x4TB WD Red 5400 and haven't had any problems in years. This system not only does typical CIFS shares for the house, but also iSCSI volumes for my ESXI system where I do lab work.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

There is a difference in the firmware and how the drive handles speeding up and down. NAS drives are spinning 24/7/365, they only spin up or down during restarts of the SP. Regular drives on the other hand will attempt to save power by spinning up / down on demand. This can cause lifetime reliability issues as the drive experiences the most stress when it's spinning up. Also there can be thermal considerations, regular drives know that they are primarily accessed in bursts and won't be expected to go 24/7/365, so they don't vent heat as well. NAS drives are expected to be rotating all the time and have better sustained thermal design.

I built my own NAS using FreeNAS and common parts off newegg/amazon. I made the mistake on my first array of using 7200RPM desktop performance drives. Ended up being a nightmare with thermals and I then swapped them for 5400RPM power saving drives, worked for awhile but then started having all sorts of problems. Finally bit the bullet and switched to 4x4TB WD Red 5400 and haven't had any problems in years. This system not only does typical CIFS shares for the house, but also iSCSI volumes for my ESXI system where I do lab work.

Good to know it can actually make a difference, though I’d love to see someone do long-term testing with modern HDDs like the X300 Pro 20TB and N300 Pro 20TB. I’m sure the hardware is nearly the same (economies of scale being a big factor), and specs are otherwise very similar. Going from one set of 4TB 7200 RPM drives to a completely different set of 4TB 5400 RPM drives is obviously a significant change in the internal hardware.

I don’t use HDDs much these days, but I also tend to turn off the drive power down feature in Windows because I don’t want to have to wait for a drive to spin back up. I’ve heard in the past that spin up/spin down is one of the hardest things on HDDs in terms of wear and tear as well.