Just a few years ago, the main criteria in choosing a hard drive are its volume and speed, while other parameters were considered unimportant and often not taken into account. Now the situation has changed, and as a pioneer was the company Western Digital, offer users a “color-differentiation” of their products. The result was that pretty girl phrase “I want that one over there, little red” no longer seems strange, even in a computer store

Now all the stores are divided into types, each model has its purpose. Red and blue, black and green – according to the manufacturers, each of these discs should work in a particular system. And if in one case, the manufacturer is focusing on achieving maximum productivity, while in other situations it may be just the opposite – the speed is reduced for greater reliability and energy efficiency.

Let’s look at a few of these drives and try to figure out what is the advantage of various models of drives.

Seagate Desktop SSHD

Not so long ago in the line of drives from Seagate drives were a new type – SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive). These drives are a hybrid of a conventional hard drive, and a small solid state drive, which with the help of special software combines high speed and large capacity SSD classic hard drives.

The model considered ST4000DX001 belongs to the third generation of hybrid devices company Seagate, the first being a 4-terabyte SSHD-disc issued in the form factor of 3.5 inches.

The model carries a four-plate capacity of 1TB each, and also has a built-in SSD 8GB. When this rotation speed is 5900 r / min, and the interface connection – SATA III technology NCQ.

However, the main secret of the device – its solid-state part. With Seagate Adaptive Memory technology hybrid drive automatically determines the most frequently used data and records them on the built-in SSD. As a result of the application requested and the system itself is loaded considerably faster than when using the conventional disc. Thus, in the popular test applications drive Seagate ST4000DX001 demonstrated very good performance speed – about 170 Mbit / s read and 180 MB / s when writing.

Seagate NAS HDD

A series of hard drives Seagate NAS HDD, intended for use as part of network drives, includes models with a range of capacities from 2 to 4 TB.

Provided for testing model ST4000VN000 has four plate capacity of 1000 GB, rotating at a speed of 5900 rev / min, 64 MB buffer and SATA-3 interface.

The main difference from conventional disks is the presence of four special operating modes for optimal network drives. In the first two of these parks the recording heads off and stopping the engine, whereas in the next two, these functions are involved.

In performance tests the device showed very good results, it is appropriate to its price category, so that the drive can be safely recommend to buy, not only for the systems of NAS, but also to work as part of a standard PC.

Western Digital

Western Digital, offers the user several Russian rulers drives with different performance and recommended usage. Series WD Blue provides basic performance for mainstream applications, WD Green includes quiet and “cold” model of large capacity, WD Black allows you to get the maximum performance for demanding applications, WD Red is designed for installation in network drives and WD Purple, according to the manufacturers should maintain smooth operation in the surveillance.

Most popular among home users ruler Green, presented in our review 4-terabyte model WD40EZRX, has a relatively low cost of storage, low power consumption and heat dissipation, and low noise. The price for this is the low productivity, and, interestingly, the exact speed of rotation of the hard disk platters in this series in the official documentation is not specified.

In contrast to the “green” brother, WD Black WD4003FZEX of 4-TB demonstrates excellent performance due to high speed rotation of the plates and 64 MB of cache memory, which controls the dual microprocessor.

“Red” WD40EFRX disk capacity 4TB is designed to work around the clock to provide uninterrupted small home server or NAS. Its size is 64 MB buffer, but the spindle speed modestly silent for designation IntelliPower. Connection interface – SATA-III, and the data rate is estimated at 150 MB / s.

Finally, we considered “purple” brother index WD40PURX – a tireless workaholic, designed to capture a video of various ages intruders. The drive support JavaScript AllFrame, which reduces the number of errors, because of which can decay images or dropped frames during video recording, which sometimes happens in the case of conventional HDD. In addition, this series of drives technology is implemented TLER, allowing to minimize the likelihood of downtime RAID-array when an error occurs in one of the drives. In this case, the necessary correction is postponed for the time when the system is idle, allowing uninterrupted data record.

Of course, when special drives are used for their intended purpose, one of the main parameters is reliability. Alas, evaluate it in the laboratory is not possible, so we have seen from the data provided by the manufacturer. So, for WD Red indicates the number of parking spaces equal to 600,000, MTBF estimated one million hours and the warranty is three years. However, there is one point – in Russia warranty engaged in the final sellers. Consequently, there may be situations in which the customer will be given a shorter period than the manufacturer says.

Results

Summarizing the results of our testing, we should say that we have considered all the drives are really able to provide secure storage and rapid movement of the user data.

As for specialization, it is necessary to recognize that it is indeed feasible. New models acquire the qualities needed to work in the RAID-arrays, video equipment, servers and cloud storage. Of course, they can be used in conventional computers, only here does it make sense? Speed indicators such drives a little worse, and the price of storage is the same or even slightly higher than the desktop counterparts.

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External hard drive – a very useful device. Especially for people who have little space on your computer (I have, for example, only 200 GB) and do not always have access to the Internet.

But any technology should be improved, or interest in it may disappear. Nothing wrong here, it is quite a normal process. Fortunately, manufacturers of external hard drives got it on time. As a result – a few years ago, the world saw the first of its kind with support for Wi-Fi (made his company Seagate). But today, in his 2014 we look at its successor, however, already from Western Digital. The model is called My Passport Wireless, and I see no reason not to want to drive you this.

Capabilities

The presence of Wi-Fi module and a built-in battery improves the usual notion of an external hard drive at once on two counts: portability (for My Passport Wireless does not need a computer or a special application for mobile devices, although it is) and, as a consequence of the first, self-sufficiency. About the battery capacity manufacturer silent, but promises that the disc can work up to 20 hours of standby time and up to 6 hours if you suddenly want to continuously pastrami video. Frankly, those for a week of testing I have not managed to defuse it completely. But there is one amendment – I often connect it by cable to the computer.

Copy data of the device (or vice versa) in three ways. The first of them tested over the years – USB. Stay a little Captain and say that it uses USB 3.0. About the baud rate I will talk about below. Second – Wi-Fi, there really is where carousing fancy. Drive can be connected to the phone (of course, by wireless) and immediately sent to the store made a photo or video. This Statement Dropbox on 1 TB (in our case), which sometimes needs to be charged. My Passport Wireless is also perfect for broadcast video to your TV (no wires will not need to be connected). The ideal option when you want to watch a movie in good quality, and the Internet “does not pull.” To drive, you can connect up to eight devices and broadcast simultaneously on four rollers four different display. And the last way to copy data – SD-card. Western Digital cares about photography, so has provided such an opportunity. In any case, card reader would be superfluous.

To manage all this wealth has a special tool WD My Cloud. It is available for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. But it is not necessary to install, you can always do your browser. The only thing you need – to connect to the network external hard drive. By default, it is called MyPassport. Here is the first disadvantage – during operation will not have access to the Internet. Enter in the browser address bar «mypassport» and ready.

After that, you open access to very useful settings. The first thing I want to say – the ability to connect to another network drive, that is, My Passport Wireless can be used as an access point. Tunable parameters are indeed many. Economy mode and can include battery, and on the security pokoldovat, and even firmware update.

Speed

When copying the archive volume of 3.46 GB, Wi-Fi from your computer to an external hard drive speed was 4 MB / s to 10 MB / s. But the number of such schedule gave long, and mostly I was watching on the screen for about 7 MB / c.

To test the transmission speed when connected to USB 3.0, I used the familiar to us all utility Crystal Disk Mark. The results surprised me (in a good way). In normal copy of the file (all the same archive 3.46 GB) It stood at 110 MB / s.

As currently leads the drive with USB 2.0, check, alas, failed. Progress went so far that at hand was not such a port.

Appearance

Design disc for me to play a small role, but still nice when next to you is a beautiful and compact device. Dimensions in WD My Passport Wireless is not the smallest (127 x 86 mm), the most frustrating thickness – 2.5 cm. But for autonomy must somehow pay.

Top has two LEDs. One shows the charge (blue – 100% red – “Charge let me brother”), and the second informs about the activity of Wi-Fi. On the left is a card reader, I liked that it is covered with a special plug. And on the top of everything else – USB-connector, power button and the inclusion of the module Wi-Fi.

My Passport Wireless fully executed (sorry) of plastic. Only the top he is black and the bottom and sides – silver. By the way, thanks to special feet on the bottom it will not go on the table.

In summary

Advantages of the device are endless: high speed data transfer, all sorts of nice when working on Wi-Fi, battery life, and in general the opportunity to work with the disk without having to connect the device to the computer, the same card reader, and more.

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Western Digital has announced the immediate availability of hard disk Ultrastar He6, filled with helium. This new model is focused on the use of the corporate sector.

Through the use of helium instead of traditional air could improve the performance of the drive. For example, a 3.5-inch hard disk Ultrastar He6 used 7 platters (instead of 5 plates in conventional devices), and its capacity of 6 TB, which is 50% higher than those of conventional drives. The model presented in the standby mode consumes 5.3 watts of power. Moreover, during operation, it is heated by about 5 degrees Celsius is less than HDDs with air. Additionally reported that the new product provides a 23% lower power consumption in standby mode, as well as the best indicators of energy consumption and weight on a 1 TB capacity – by 49% and 38%, respectively. The device has a mass of 640 g, can be equipped with interfaces connect SATA3 or SAS, supports the ability to use RAID arrays.

Western Digital has already started shipping the hard drive Ultrastar He6. But the price of the device has not been disclosed.

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If you do not have a network storage system (NAS), then you are depriving yourself of a couple of pleasant moments. First, it is the easiest way to back up data from a connected PC, secondly, NAS can broadcast any information stored there, on the other PC and audio devices in the network. You can also arrange to stream on your TV or home theater.

Network attached storage (NAS) allows to gain remote access to information from any device from anywhere you have Internet access. And it does not require imposing costs. However, one must keep in mind – if you are going to store the information that fail to recreate and can not afford to lose – it is better to make a backup.

Test samples

Dismantle the mid-range (up to 7 thousand rubles.) That can hold at least 1 TB of data, support remote access to the Internet and work with media servers that are certified iTunes and DLNA.

Consider the NAS four manufacturers – Buffalo Technology (LinkStation Live), LaCie (CloudBox), Seagate (Central) and Western Digital (My Book Live).

The configuration of these devices are quite similar – all 3.5-inch hard drive, 1-Gbps Ethernet and power adapter. They differ mostly for its software.

Buffalo LinkStation Live

Among the considered our NAS device is a 6 th. with the possibility of streaming offers the best feature set. Weak as it places – low speed data copying and slow user interface, besides not being intuitive to use and configure.

Buffalo’s LinkStation Live – full of functionality

LinkStation Live 2 TB (model with 1 terabyte of disk costs a little more than 4 thousand rubles.) Allows you to create shared folders, user accounts, workgroups and domains, which provide access to the files by FTP or AFTP, supports multimedia servers (iTunes and DLNA).

There is also a BitTorrent to download torrent files and built-in service Eye-Fi, allows you to copy images from the camera to the NAS via Wi-Fi. It also supports integration with Flickr, a full-featured utility NovaBackup to backup from PC to NAS, the ability to perform backups on other devices and remote access via BuffaloNAS.com.

This unit occupies the second place in the test speed. When data is transferred 10GB (not included in the files and folders) write speed was 17.5 MB / s read speed – 29.9 MB / s. But a single large file of 10 GB showed the best results: 22.7 MB / s – write and 49.1 MB / s – for reading. Streaming NAS performs well, the video at 1080p with a rate of 40 MB / s is no problem.

It is considered one of our NAS, converting video on the fly for viewing in Windows Media Player via DLNA.

As for the installation and configuration, LinkStation Live showed the worst results. But this does not negate the advantages in terms of functionality.

LaCie CloudBox

The device of LaCie is a white rectangle, designed by Neil Poulton. Its not so easy to configure for remote access, but in 7 th. (Disk capacity – 2TB), it offers quite a good performance and functionality.

Lacie’s CloudBox – the most beautiful in the NAS review

Powered NAS operating system Dashboard. In addition to features such as shared folders and user folders, working groups and FTP, you get the BitTorrent, and a full file manager (browser-). In addition to being offered various backup functions – in conjunction with the company’s My Book Live Western Digital, with Genie Timeline for PC and Intego for Mac, plus to this – copying from device to device using Rsync.

In tests CloudBox proved himself well. Working with DLNA and ITunes is ideal, the device is easily coped with streaming video (40 MB / s) on three PCs at a time. The speed of reading and writing data array ClousBox takes first place: reading array of files and folders – 33.7 MB / s, Write – 16.5 MB / s. A single file is 10GB – 31.6 and 63.5 MB / s (read and write, respectively).

For remote access, LaCie offers a special application for iOS and Android (for Windows Phone 7/8 is not here yet). Applications are not as concise as Dashboard OS from Seagate, but they do their job. And the user will receive a free one-year subscription to Wuala – Online Storage Services.

If you add to the listed advantages of client BitTorrent, good design and excellent performance, the device looks quite attractive.

Seagate Central

This is the simplest NAS. To configure remote access you only need to go to the settings page and create an account by entering your desired username, email and password. The selected username will be the name of your network, and the mailbox – login for remote access.

Passive cooling makes Seagate’s Central Silent

To access the settings page, you can use the built-in Dashboard or manually enter the desired URL. Remote access can be managed by SeagateMedia applications for iOS, Android and Kindle or using the site Tappin.

Due to the design having a thin perforated bottom and a lid without a special cooling device is a fan. With such a cooling system it runs smoothly, allowing you to place it near the product (if it retrodizayn NAS fit into the interior).

The device costs a little more than 5 thousand rubles. (2 TB) and is the only one presented in the review of the owner of the port USB, for which a Seagate developed a special interface. There is a special feature that allows you to save all photos to the device from your account Facebook. However, there is a drawback – you can easily make a backup of the data from the PC to the device, but that means backing up data from the NAS to another device Dashboard does not provide.

With tests Central coped well: streaming video (40 MB / s) on three PCs went without problems. This is the only NAS, sending a stream in Ogg Theora.

With the transfer of these problems have arisen. Thus, the write speed of the array of information (multiple files and folders) 10GB 16.9 MB / s and read – 20.1 MB / s. Recording a single large file of 10 GB equals 40.3 MB / s read – 75.2 MB / s.

Quiet and easy to set up Seagate Central is well suited for A / V-systems. But I would like to have added support to the Seagate Backup data from the device, BitTorrent and a bunch with a large number of social networks.

Western Digital My Book Live

Like other NAS, device My Book Live is available on the network without additional configuration – just plug it in to the router, and all. Of useful properties have public shared folders and sub-folders, you can use to share photos, videos and music. There are convenient backup features (including work with TimeMachine Backup and proprietary WD – SmartWare). Secured and backed up the contents of the NAS via a special function, creating a “safe point of recovery.”

My Book Live supports most video codecs (except for Ogg Theora). This is the only NAS of four case that converts FLAC format files for playback on a PC via iTunes.

The device has experienced some complications when reading an array of 10 GB (multiple files and folders) – reading speed was only 16.4 MB / s. But the same writing speed array has more than three previous NAS, – 26,9 Mb / s. Indicators for a single large file size of 10 GB: record – 32.4 MB / s read – 77.1 MB / s.

WD My Book Live has the best set of applications, having a version of its media player WD2go for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7.

As a result

Thus, the device Seagate Central – absolutely silent, high-speed USB and availability make it an excellent choice for use with A / V-systems. But here it would look more modern. Buffalo LinkStation Live performs well as a tape drive, but folds up to speed and ease of customization. CloudBox from LaCie – solidly made product with useful features at an affordable price. However, it is Western Digital My Book Live has the best combination of price, performance, functionality, and ease of customization. All this and brings him first place in the survey.

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