Toshiba N300 10TB NAS HDD Review

I've had the pleasure to test the Toshiba N300 series in the past, but today it is time to take a look at the 10TB version of this drive. Other available capacities include 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12TB, and 14TB. So there should be one for every capacity need. Toshiba N300 NAS Hard Disk The N300 series from Toshiba is purpose-build for NAS usage. While that's the case, there's nothing which prevents you from using it in your gaming rig or workstation setup. Since a NAS setup is demanding on the drives, they'll easily handle the lesser load from a desktop. Naturally, the N300 series is rated for 24/7 usage and they're safe for use in up to 8-bay enclosures and devices. The drives feature RV sensors and control technology. With this, vibrations created by all the drives will be detected and counteracted, thus giving you a more stable and less fail-prone setup. Toshiba also added a temperature control which automatically adjusts the seek speed to reduce heat during high-temperature operations. A feature which improves endurance in demanding situations. This 10TB Toshiba N300 drive is using a traditional design. It is only the larger 12TB and 14TB versions which use a helium-sealed design. Performance and Endurance Let us get to the Toshiba N300 numbers. The N300 series are 7200RPM drives with either 128MB or 256MB cache. How much depends on the drive capacity where it is the 10TB and larger models which come with the 256MB cache. In performance, the 10TB N300 is rated for a sustained transfer speed of 248MB/s. The average latency is rated at 4.17ms. Part of all this is Toshiba’s Dynamic Cache Technology. This is a self-contained cache algorithm with on-board buffer management. It optimises how the cache is allocated during read/write to provide the high-level performance demanded by real-time domains. As far as endurance goes, we get a workload rating of 180 TB per year for the 3-years in which it's also covered with the warranty. The mean time before failure rating comes in at 1 million hours. Feature Highlights 7200 RPM spindle speed24/7/365 usage certifiedSupports up to 8-bay unitsBuilt for NAS usageSolid feature set Specifications The specifications are taken from the manufactures information and are valid at the time of this review. It is possible that things can change if there are future revisions of the product. Package and Accessories Toshiba's retail drives always come in a great looking package. While it doesn't show the included drive as such, there is an HDD representation as well as all the vital feature highlights. In this case, it includes the 10TB capacity, 7200RPM spindle speed, and 256MB cache. The rear side has a comparison between the available Toshiba drive series. With this, it's easy for you to pick the right series for your setup. Inside the box are the drive itself and a small installation guide. There isn't more included as more isn't needed. And when it is, it is provided by the case or device you're going to install the Toshiba N300 10TB HDD in. Testing & Methodology Data Fillage There are many ways to test a storage drive, and we have chosen to include close to every test possible. We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various village scenarios. However, depending on how a drive is built, the performance may differ depending on how much data it is already storing. Testing this, the drive will be tested empty as well as with 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage. For these tests, we will be using Anvil’s Storage Utilities, AS SSD Benchmark, ATTO Benchmark, and CrystalDiskMark. Plain Drive Performance Following the fillage tests, the partition gets removed, and we check the drive’s raw performance. These tests will determine the hardware’s capabilities while eliminating any interference from the set file system. AIDA64’s storage benchmark is a great tool for this, and it help us paint an even clearer picture of the drive. Hardware Supermicro C7Z270-PG Intel Core i7-7700KCrucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz (4x8GB)Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSDbe quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (1200W)Noctua NH-D15SCooler Master HAF XB EVO with Noctua NF-A14 FLX fans Software AIDA64 Storage Benchmark Anvil's Storage UtilitiesAS SSD BenchmarkATTO BenchmarkCrystalDiskMarkWindows 10 AIDA64 Storage Benchmark AIDA64 is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. It provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It also has a disk benchmark tool, and that is the one I'll be using. Random Performance The Random Read and Write tests measure the random performance by reading or writing variable-sized data blocks at random locations on the surface of the drive. The Random tests are a combination of both speed and access times as it moves the position before each new operation. Access Times The Access Time tests are designed to measure the data access performance by reading or writing small 0.5KB data blocks at random locations on the drive surface. Drive Analysis Drive Comparison Anvil's Storage Benchmark Anvil’s Storage Utilities is a complete benchmark solution used to test any writeable storage drive. It also has a drive endurance test that consistently reads and writes data to the selected medium to deliver days, months, and potentially even years of use in a shorter period. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the comparison of the drives, we will use the performance figures from the empty and fresh drive. AS SSD Storage Benchmark The AS SSD software determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). The tool contains five synthetic and three practice tests. The synthetic tests determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD, and they aren’t using the operating system cache. The copy tests are cached and as such not viable results at this time. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the comparison of the drives, we will use the performance figures from the empty and fresh drive. ATTO Disk Benchmark The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customise your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the comparison of the drives, we will use the performance figures from the empty and fresh drive. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD and SSD benchmark utility that allows you to measure a drive’s sequential and random performance. Empty Drive 75% Data Fillage Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive’s consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the comparison of the drives, we will use the performance figures from the empty and fresh drive. Pricing and Final Thoughts It is easy to get your hands on this HDD at the time of this review. It is widely available and ready to ship. For example, you can get it on Amazon for £249.96 in the UK (£64.67 discounted) and $274.61 in the US. Final Thoughts Toshiba is in no way behind the competition, even though the drive I tested today only features 10TB capacity. The N300 series is available with up to 14TB capacity. Well, what is there to say. This is always a difficult part of the review. After all, it is a hard drive which we can't say that much about other than the performance. So let us start with that. The drive delivered a good performance across the board, even if it didn't take any top spots. It landed pretty much in the middle of the charts with a good score for a 10TB drive. Toshiba designed then N300 series for usage in up to 8-bay enclosures and devices with a 24/7 uptime. That should satisfy pretty much all NAS users. Those who go above usually also opt to get full-fledged enterprise-grade drives. Compatibility and easy mounting are also ensured. Most of the common screw holes are present with 3 on each side and four on the bottom. With a 180TB workload per year rating, the N300 should last you quite a while. That's 18 complete writes to the drive per year. Most NAS setups don't see a lot of writes after the first drive-write and overall perform more reads than writes. Should I Purchase One? If you're looking for a good NAS drives with plenty of capacity, then you can't go wrong with the Toshiba N300 series. It delivers what it promises. Want To Know More? I've also reviewed the 6TB version in the past. If you would like to have a look at that review too, you'll find it here: Toshiba N300 6TB NAS HDD Review Pros Available with up to 14TB (Reviewed drive is only 10TB)7200 RPM spindle speed256MB cacheSupports up to 8-bay enclosures.24/7 certified180TB/year workload rating Cons The write speeds fell a little short in some of the tests "Toshiba's N300 series is well-designed and delivers what it promises. You get a great drive with a lot of capacity for your SOHO or SMB NAS." Thank you, Toshiba, for providing us with this sample.