HDD by stefan @ 2020-10-08
The 14TB variant of the X300 Toshiba HDD series manages to outperform the drives we have tested before in terms of performance, while maintaining low noise during operation but also a low power consumption. It offers a rating of 600000 hours MTTF and plenty of capacity of workstations, no matter the workload.
At first we would like to thank Toshiba Corporation for offering a sample of their X300 14TB Performance Hard Drive for testing and reviewing.
“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.”
Powerful performance
Performing at 7200 RPM, and with a 512 MB, 256 MB or 128 MB buffer, your data is stored securely and accessed quickly. Whether it's a quick game save, a large file that needs backing up, or working with multiple applications, the X300 retains its high-performance all day, every day. Ideal for graphic designers and creative professionals, the X300 is capable of handling almost any workload.
Game on. And on. And on.
When you need more, the X300 delivers. Available in storage capacities of up to 16 TB, the X300 can meet your every requirement, with fast read and write speeds and secure design, making it ideal for demanding roles such as professional computing and PC gaming.
Responds in an instant
The X300’s dual-stage actuator design improves positional accuracy, negating the effects on head-track alignment that vibrations can cause. This design makes for more precise, faster read and write speeds for instant access to your data.
Accurate tracking
Vibration is one big enemy of reliable HDD operation. Toshiba’s innovative Stable Platter Technology minimizes vibrations by stabilizing the motor shaft at both ends. And that means improved tracking accuracy and maximum performance during read and write operations.
Keep data secure
The X300’s design includes an internal shock sensor, ensuring no data is lost. In addition, ramp loading technology means that when the hard drive or desktop PC are being transported, the drive slider does not contact the disk, minimizing the risk of wear or data loss.
Reduced noise and energy costs
The 12 TB, 14 TB and 16 TB X300 Performance Hard Drives use a helium-sealed design, achieving low power consumption while increasing storage density. Toshiba Group’s laser welding technology ensures that the helium remains securely sealed inside the drive enclosure. With the environment in mind, the helium filled X300 models minimize acoustic output to just 20db (typical) in idle mode.
Built to deliver, designed to last
Toshiba is renowned the world over for 50 years of leading innovation – and the power behind its range of hard drives is no exception. Designed for high capacity and excellent performance, you can be sure that Toshiba’s wealth of experience in hard drives is at work in your storage system.
Basic Specifications
Form factor 3.5-inch
Interface SATA 6.0 Gbit/s
Advanced Format (AF) Yes
RoHS compatible Yes
Halogen Free Yes
Performance
Rotational speed 7,200 rpm
Buffer size
Bulk
256 MB (8 TB - 14 TB)
Retail
256 MB (6 TB - 14 TB)
Average latency 4.17 ms
Native Command Queing (NCQ) supported
Reliability
MTTF 600,000 hours
Unrecoverable error rate 1 per 10¹? bits read
Power Management
Supply voltage
5VDC (+10%/-7%) / 12VDC (±10%) (16 TB), 5VDC (±5%) / 12VDC (±10%) (12 TB, 14 TB),
Consumption (operating)
Bulk
6.77 W typ. (12 TB, 14 TB),
Retail
6.77 W typ. (12 TB, 14 TB),
Consumption - Active Idle
Bulk
4.54 W typ. (12 TB, 14 TB),
Retail
4.54 W typ. (12 TB, 14 TB),
Environmental
Temperature (operating / non-operating) 5 to 60° C / -40 to 70°C
Vibration (operating)
7.35 m/s² (0.75 G) (5 to 300 Hz)
2.45 m/s² (0.25 G) (300 to 500 Hz)
Vibration (non-operating)
Bulk
29.4 m/s2 (3.0 G) (5 to 500 Hz) (8 TB - 16 TB),
Retail
29.4 m/s2 (3.0 G) (5 to 500Hz) (6 TB - 16 TB),
Shock (operating)
686 m/s² (70 G) / 2 ms duration
Shock (non-operating)
2450 m/s² (250 G) / 2 ms duration (8 TB - 16 TB)
Acoustics (idle mode)
20 dB typ. (12 TB - 16 TB),
Physical
Dimensions 147 (L) x 101.6 (W) x 26.1 (H) mm
Weight (approx.) 720 g max. (4 TB, 5 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, 16 TB)
In this review we will concentrate our attention upon another desktop, performance HDD from Toshiba which is a member of the X300 series. The sample is the 14GB version, sporting 256MB of buffer and uses a helium sealed design for lower power consumption and decreased overall operating noise.
For keeping the data safe, the drives do also feature an internal shock sensor, while the ramp loading technology makes sure that the drive slider does not contact the disk while being transported, minimizing the risk or wear or data loss.
The X300 series does also feature a dual-stage actuator design for improving the positional accuracy, while the Stable Platter Technology does minimize the vibrations by stabilizing the motor shaft on both ends.
Our test unit has arrived in bulk packaging, but protected by a transparent plastic enclosure:
As we have noted with the N300 12TB, the drive chassis design is different versus the non-helium sealed models:
On the large drive sticker, we will note the total drive capacity, platter rotational speed, product serial number, product internal code name, the currently flashed firmware version, the hardware revision, the power rating, the production date and more!
In the frontal area of the drive, we will note another sticker with a barcode:
The drive sides do feature the mounting threads/holes:
In the back, we will notice the usual SATA Data/Power ports, but also some additional gold-plated pins:
On the bottom area of the drive, we will notice the motor electrical contacts, but also the entire drive electrical board:
The test bench was composed from the following hardware:
CPU: Intel I5 9700K Retail
CPU Cooler: Deepcool Captain 240 EX RGB AIO
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming
RAM: Patriot Memory Viper RGB Series DDR4
Video: KFA2 GeForce GTX 1060 OC 6GB
Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W
SSD: OCZ Vector 150
Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840
First, we have conducted a surface test (HDD Sentinel Read + Write), in order to make sure that the drive has arrived safe from the courier:
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:
The 14TB variant of the X300 Toshiba HDD series manages to outperform the drives we have tested before in terms of performance, while maintaining low noise during operation but also a low power consumption. It offers a rating of 600000 hours MTTF and plenty of capacity of workstations, no matter the workload.
The product does also pack a 2-year warranty and shares plenty of data loss prevention technologies with the N300 series such as Stable Platter feature, the internal shock sensor but also ramp loading technology.
For the total capacity offered by the product, we feel that the current sale price of 367 Euros is quite justified; please also keep in mind that besides performance, this model also brings the helium sealed technology benefits we have reminded earlier.
We would like to thank again to Toshiba Corporation for making this review possible!