At first we would like to thank Toshiba Corporation for offering a sample of their X300 6TB Desktop Internal Hard Drive for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Toshiba Storage Products:

 

“Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation and its affiliates (Toshiba) supply a wide range of innovative hard disk drive (HDD) products to meet the varied demands of the diversified storage marketplace. Products include high capacity power-efficient storage for Cloud Data Centers, capacity and performance HDDs for Enterprise IT, client HDDs for PC/Desktop, and specialty drives for Surveillance, NAS systems, set-top box video, gaming and external storage. Toshiba aims to continue to advance HDD technologies and innovation to meet and exceed customer requirements across a broad spectrum of storage market segments.”

 

Product Features:

 

Designed for Creative Professionals and PC Gamers

7,200RPM speed with 128MB data buffer delivers exceptional performance that gamers and creative professionals demand.

 

High Storage Density and Capacity

High-precision head positioning supported by advanced format technology (physical 4KB sector) and dual stage actuators for impressive high storage density and capacity up to 8TB.

 

Enhanced Real-Time Performance

On-board cache algorithm and buffer management optimize cache allocation between read and write cycles for improved real-time drive performance.

 

Data Protection Technology

Ramp loading technology reduces wear to the recording head and media for improved drive reliability. Built-in shock sensors detect impact, shielding adjacent track data.

 

Drive Stabilization Technology

Secured motor shaft at both ends helps reduce system-induced vibrations, stabilizing the platters for improved tracking accuracy and performance during read and write operations.

 

Native Command Queuing (NCQ) Support

Optimizes the order in which received read and write commands are executed, resulting in increased performance and reduced mechanical workload from the drive.

 

Excellent for Graphic Design / Gaming / Animation

 

2-Year Limited Warranty

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

Capacity: 4TB, 5TB, 6TB, 8TB

 

Compatibility: PC and Apple computers with a Serial ATA interface

 

Interface Speed: SATA up to 6 Gbit/s

 

Form Factor: 3.5 inch

 

Rotational Speed: 7,200 RPM

 

Average Latency Time: 4.17 ms

 

Buffer Size: 128 MB

 

Bottom Mounting Holes Configuration:

 

4TB: Type 2

5TB: Type 2

6TB: Type 1

8TB: Type 1

 

Size:

Inch (WxHxL): 4 x 1.03 x 5.79

Milimeter (WxHxL): 101.6 x 26.1 x 147

 

 

Weight (max):

4TB, 5TB: 25.4 oz (720 g)

6TB, 8TB: 27.2 oz (770 g)

 

 

In this article, we will concentrate our look upon on the latest Toshiba consumer HDDs, which is the X300; it is available in 4TB, 5TB, 6TB and 8TB capacities, its rotational speed is 7200RPM, while the average latency time is 4.17ms. Compared to the P300 series, X300 comes with 128MB of cache (twice the quantity) and the 6TB model we are reviewing does use no less than six platters. The product did ship inside a cardboard enclosure, which shows the product specs right from the frontal layer:

 

 

 

The drive main features can be observed on one of the sides:

 

 

 

Additionally, we will learn that the drive does come with Advanced Format AF logo, meaning that the X300 does support 512-byte emulation:

 

 

 

These details are written in multiple languages, if we do check the backside of the packaging:

 

 

 

For avoiding damages and also for shock-dampening purposes, Toshiba has used two separate air pocket shells. An installation guide can be found inside the box as well:

 

 

 

While the installation is quite straightforward, Toshiba has included the said document in multiple languages:

 

 

 

On the top area of the drive, we do find a sticker with lots of info:

 

 

 

Here we do have the product code name, capacity, rotational speed, serial number, firmware version, revision, power rating and more:

 

 

 

On the side of the drive, we will find an additional sticker with a serial number:

 

 

 

The laterals do show the respective mounting holes:

 

 

 

On the bottom drive area, we do have the usual PCB, the drive motor contacts, but also the SATA Data/Power gold-plated connectors:

 

 

 

 

The test bench was composed from the following hardware:

 

CPU: Intel I5 4690K Retail @ 4.6GHz

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX

Motherboard: BIOSTAR Z97X Gaming

RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 4x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)

Video: KFA2 1060 6GB

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 240GB + OCZ Vertex 460

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

The drive has arrived unformatted:

 

 

In order to conduct our tests, we went ahead and formatted the drive to NTFS:

 

 

With AIDA64 Engineer software tool, we can extract more information regarding the internal drive:

 

 

CrystalMark

 

AIDA64 Disk Benchmark

 

HD Tach

 

HD Tune

 

HD Tune Read Test

HD Tune Write Test

HD Tune File Benchmark

CrystalDisk

 

ATTO Disk Benchmark

 

Anvil's Storage Utilities

 

 

 

 

Judging by the transfer rates, the X300 6TB drive from Toshiba has performed admirably and easily topped our charts; we were also surprised to see that the seek noises were kept at low levels, while the drive did not overheat during our stress benchmarks. Paired with a SSD as a boot drive, this particular model can be easily recommended for gaming systems, backups, video rendering/encoding, which do take a lot of storage space.

 

X300 does also come with failsafe features in place such as the dual-stage actuator, but also the internal shock sensor.

 

The 6TB model can be found online for about 160 Euros; if we are aiming higher at 8TB, then we will have to pay about 213 Euros. The 4TB model can be had for just about 113 Euros, while the 5TB model is available for 130 Euros.

Toshiba X300 6TB Desktop Internal Hard Drive is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank Toshiba Corporation for making this review possible!