WD Purple 6TB Surveillance Hard Drive Review

Introduction In today's review, I am taking a look at a mechanical hard disk, but it isn't one that is intended for your desktop system. Western Digital created their Purple line of hard disk drives to be the perfect choice for digital video recording, network video recording, and surveillance systems. On the test bench today is the 6TB version of this WD Purple surveillance hard disk. All hard disk drives may look the same on the outside, but there is a big difference in what is inside and how it works. That is also the main reason that you should pick a drive suited for the task at hand and not just any random drive of the shelve. As WD puts it: "You wouldn't use a bicycle to transport cargo across the country because it is not the right tool for the job." Whether you want to protect your personal assets and loved ones or monitor the business you worked hard to build, you'll want surveillance-class storage to rely on. Not only are these drives built for 24/7 usage in environments up to 8 disks, they also come with enhanced firmware built just for this kind of operation. When it comes to surveillance, every frame counts, and every frame has to be perfect. This is especially noticeable when many cameras are using the drives simultaneously. WD's Purple series has no trouble here and it is designed to work with up to 32 HD cameras. The drives don't just have to be perfect for the scenario that they are to be used in, they also need to be compatible with the systems themselves. WD made sure that this was the case by working closely with industry leading chassis and chipset manufacturers. If you got an NVR system, you'll most likely find the WD Purple on the official list of supported drives. The entire line of WD Purple drives, from 1TB up to 6TB, all feature 64MB cache and come in the same 3.5-inch form factor. WD also used their IntelliPower system that we know from such drives as the RED series, that uses variable speeds to bring the performance that is needed without excessive noise from the motors. But that is where the similarities of the drives end. The 6TB version that I'm taking a closer look at today is the best performing of them all with a sustained speed rating of 175MB/s where the 1TB model for example only is rated for 110MB/s. The drives naturally also differentiate in power consumption. The bigger the drive, the bigger the power draw, that is if the word big even applies here. The WD Purple 6TB draws 5.3W during read and write operations, 4.9W when idle, and 0.4W when in standby or sleep mode. The noise level is almost identical on all the models, but there are differences. The largest drives are also the loudest with a dBA rating of 25 when idle and 26 when seeking. With a weight of 750grams, the 6TB model is also the heaviest of them all. I've previously mentioned the firmware and that this was an important factor, and it is. One of the things that make the WD Purple series so great is the exclusive AllFrame technology that works with ATA streaming to reduce error pixelation and video interruptions that easily occur when desktop drives are incorrectly used in security systems. Missed frames and lost footage is a serious problem when an event occurs and surveillance footage needs to be retrieved. WD Purple with AllFrame provides the confidence you should expect when it's time to play back and review critical surveillance footage. AllFrame Features: Reduces video frame loss with surveillance-class storage. Specifically tuned for surveillance security systems. Caching algorithms are tuned for write-intensive, low bit rate, high stream count applications that are typical of surveillance applications. Priority change for write allocations and preemptive caching policies. TLER & ATA streaming support. Supports up to eight drives. Next to being designed for 24/7 always-on scenarios, the WD Purple series is also designed for high-temperature environments. The temperature rating of the WD Purple, on the base casting, ranges from zero to 65 degrees Celcius when operating and -40 to 70 when non-operating. Western Digital is backing the Purple series of surveillance drives with a three-year limited warranty worldwide. However, it is unlikely that you'll ever need that warranty as the drives are rated for a mean time before failure of 1 million hours and can withstand 300,000 load/unload cycles. http://media.webcollage.net/rwvfp/wc/cp/18574709/module/wdc//_cp/products/1413335120504/tab-ac400f4c-4428-497b-9f34-63a3b9c75d5f/8cfae72e-fb78-49a4-accb-6f5861c122cb.mov.mp4full.mp4 Specifications The specifications are taken directly from the manufacturers homepage at the time of the review and might as such be subject to possible future changes. Test Procedure & Specifications Testing a mechanical hard drive's performance is pretty straightforward and there isn't much to say about. I will be testing the drive, in this case the WD Purple 6TB Surveillance hard disk, in a wide a variety of applications to gather as many tests results as possible. In return, it will hopefully allow you to find just the right comparison so you are well equipped with knowledge when you decide what you next storage drive should be. Test system: Supermicro C7Z97-OCE Intel Xeon E3-1230Lv3 Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866MHz Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Sapphire R7 240 2GB be quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer Software used: AIDA64 Storage Benchmark Anvil's Storage Utilities AS SSD Benchmark ATTO Benchmark CrystalDiskMark PCMark 8 Storage Benchmark IOMeter HD Tach AIDA64 Engineer 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 has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives and is compatible with most Microsoft Windows operating systems. It also has a disk benchmark tool, and that is the one we'll be using. Linear Performance The Linear Read and Write tests measure the sequential performance by reading or writing all sectors without skipping any. It gives, as the name says, a linear view on the drives overall performance from start to end. 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 actually 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. The WD Purple 6TB surveillance hard drive shows right away where its strength lies during the AIDA benchmarks. A drive that is designed to handle a lot of HD cameras at the same time also needs to be able to perform well with random operations, and it does. Where the linear performance runs around 130MB/s, the random goes up to 175MB/s and stays above the 100MB/s most of the time. A good result. The access times around 20ms are pretty much as we would expect them to be on a drive like this. Anvil's Storage Utilities Anvil's Storage Utilities is a relative new benchmarking utility that has the ability to test mainly hard drives and solid state drives, but also any other form of storage medium that you can throw at it. It is completely free as well, which is a nice thing As well as testing the drive in a variety of benchmarking tests, it also has a drive endurance test that consistently reads and writes data to the selected medium to give days, months and potentially even years of use in a shorter period of time to see how the drive handles in the long run. Compressible Data Incompressible Data Drive Comparison There is no doubt that the WD Purple 6TB is a great drive when we look at the results from Anvil's Storage Benchmark. The Purple places itself right next to the WD Red with only a marginal difference. AS SSD 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. These tests are performed without using the operating system caches. In Sequential tests, the program measures the time it takes to read and write a 1 GB file respectively. To give a clearer picture of the drives tested, I've chosen to include all tests. Special the copy test is one that I think is relevant on the consumer level as it gives the user a view To give a clearer picture of the drives tested, I've chosen to include all tests, also the copy test. While it isn't the most static test, I think it is a relevant test in the eyes of consumers, giving them a view into one of the operations they're going to be doing many times. Compression Drive Comparison We don't have many drives in our AS SSD database yet, but the small selection already paint a picture. WD's Purple gets pretty much the same performance figures as the WD Red did when we tested that. ATTO The ATTO Disk Benchmark is a performance measurement tool is for Windows. It measures storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for both reads and writes. It has multiple options available to customize your performance measurement, including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. ATTO can be used to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives so it is a popular tool everywhere. Drive Comparison ATTO is great to show the absolute sequential write performance of a drive and it does so very well for the WD Purple 6TB surveillance hard drive. It's a great reader and a worthy writer. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD benchmark utility for your hard drive that enables you to rapidly measure sequential and random 4KB/512KB read/write speeds. Drive Comparison CrystalDiskMark is another simple benchmark tool that still gives a wide array of testing options. The WD Purple slides past the WD Red in reading again but falls slightly behind it when writing. HD Tach HD Tach is a program that tests the sequential read, random access and interface burst speeds of the attached storage device (hard drive, flash drive, removable drive etc.). Drive technologies such as SCSI, IDE/ATA, IEEE 1394, USB, SATA, and RAID are all supported. Version 3.0.4.0 is sadly the final version and the software has reached its end-of-life support. It's still a nifty benchmarking tool and it can't hurt to include it in our tests. Short test Long test PCMark 8 PCMark 8 Storage benchmark is used test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office and a selection of popular games. You can test any recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices. Yes, I know that the WD Purple isn't designed to be worked in a desktop environment where these apps and games are run, but I'll still include it for the sake of comparison. IOmeter IOMeter is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems. It is used as a benchmark and troubleshooting tool and is easily configured to replicate the behavior of many popular applications. One commonly quoted measurement provided by the tool is IOPS. IOMeter allows the configuration of disk parameters such as the ‘Maximum Disk Size’, ‘Starting Disk Sector’ and ‘# of Outstanding I/Os’. This allows a user to configure a test file upon which the ‘Access Specifications’ configure the I/O types to the file. Sequential Performance Random Performance IOmeter is a great tool that allows us to test the drives as they are and find their real strengths, and I think the charts above speak for themselves in this case. Final Thoughts Pricing At the time of writing, the WD Purple 6TB Surveillance Hard Disk can be found at NewEgg for $256.99, at Overclockers UK for £214.99, or through Geizhals starting from €251.04. Conclusion One should never compromise when it comes to safety and surveillance falls within that category. WD's Purple series is designed for just this task and after seeing it in action, there is little doubt that Purple is a great choice for this. The WD Purple 6TB surveillance hard disk is designed to work in harsh environments as well as always-on scenarios. After all, surveillance isn't turned off or it loses its point. The WD Purple series is designed for systems with up to eight drives and can support up to 32 HD cameras while doing so. The real strength of the drive, next to being built on a solid foundation, is the firmware and WD's exclusive AllFrame technology. It specifically tuned for surveillance security systems and reduces video frame loss. The caching algorithms are tuned for write-intensive, low bit rate, high stream count applications that are typical of surveillance applications and it supports priority change for write allocations and preemptive caching policies as well as TLER & ATA streaming. On a pure performance level in our benchmarks, we saw the WD Purple pretty much tie with the WD Red in all scenarios, but there were small differences. With a read and write performance of up to 175MB/s when formatted and 225MB/s raw, the 6TB Purple HDD doesn't need to hide from anyone. In the past, a lot of people opted for a surveillance class drive instead of an NAS drive even though they were equipping an NAS with storage. That scenario is now a thing of the past and as we can see in the price chart above, these kinds of drives cost the same now. The drives are nearly identical, but they are tuned for different working scenarios. No need to settle for anything other than what you need and that's one thing you never should do with your security system, settle. It is also quite the bargain in my opinion, getting 6TB storage at £0.03 per GB. Pros Overall great performance Great price per GB of storage WD AllFrame technology Up to 8 drives Uo to 32 HD cameras Cons Mechanical drive: higher noise and power consumption than solid state "WD's Purple drives are made surveillance systems and that is one place where you shouldn't compromise. When every frame counts, you'll want something you can rely on." Thank You WD for providing us with this sample