PS5 SSD Expansion Testing with the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD

Always a big name in the world of computer components and gaming PC architecture, Gigabyte is a stalwart brand in motherboards but their recent M.2 NVMe SSD is the focus of today’s article. The Gigabyte Aorus 7000s is one of the higher tier SSDs on the market right now and very much in the sights of PS5 SSD upgraders right now (largely because of it’s high specs, it’s affordable price and it’s included premium quality heatsink). Whether you are looking at upgrading the SSD on your PS5 because you are running out of space or because you heard that some SSDs can increase load times for your favourite games, it is always going to be sensible to spend a few minutes researching before pulling the trigger and spending hundreds on the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s to avoid finding out that the benefits are negligible or, worse still, actually slow your games down! Equally, you should always factor in that the PS5 is a relatively new console and games developers are still in the early stages of maximizing how much they can do with the CPU, Memory, GPU and (of course) super-fast NVMe M.2 SSD. Therefore the commitment you make on buying an SSD upgrade to your PS5 needs to also factor in that it will still perform well in the years to come. The Gigabyte Aorus 7000s meets a number of the key specifications of the PS5 storage bay, but then again many, MANY SSDs do. So today I want to put this SSD through it’s paces with many games to see how well it compares against the internal PS5 SSD doing the same thing. NOTE – FULL Videos of the testing of the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s that combined cover more than an hour can be found at the bottom of the article. This article primarily covers the load times of games and saves on the PS5 using the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD and how they compare with the internal PS5 loading the same game. If you want to watch the full videos that cover PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s use that feature frame rates, texture swapping, asset management and more, I recommend you watch those videos at the end of this article.

Here is the PS5 internal Benchmark for the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD at the initialization of the system:

What Are the Specifications of the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD?

Before we go through the load time testing of the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s on the PS5, it is worth taking a look at the hardware specifications. Unlike traditional Hard Drives and SSDs that were using the PS3 and PS4 that used SATA connectivity, this new generation of SSD storage using M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 architecture. This is a very, VERY big difference physically, in terms of maximum performance and opens up ALOT of specifications that you should keep an eye on. Aside from the capacity (i.e the amount of data the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s can hold in gigabytes and terabytes) the key ones to factor in when buying an SSD are the following:

• Controller & NAND – These are the brain of the SSD (handling the transfer of data as quickly and efficiently as possible) and the physical cells on the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD that hold the data. As long as you are using 3D TLC NAND (the industry preferred middle ground for price vs performance), you should be ok. Though the better the quality of NAND, generally the better the performance and durability long term.
• Sequential Read – This is the reported maximum access speed that the data on the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD can be access when accessing large blocks of data
• Sequential Write – This is the reported maximum speed that data can be written to the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD. As far as the PS5 architecture goes, this is much less important right now but could become important later in the system’s life as games, services and the level to which the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s can be accessed changes.
• IOPS – These represent the number of individual operations the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD can handle per second, based on the smallest size possible. Again, not strictly relevant in the PS5 right now because of the way data is largely front-loaded on modern games, but may well impact how larger and evolved worlds and multiplayer games are developed in future
• TBW, MTBF & DWPD – Terabytes Written and Drive Writes Per Day, these indicate how much the drive is designed to withstand in activity over a 5 year or daily basis (respectively), Before the drive begins to deteriorate in performance or eventually fail. The PS5 will hardly be able to hit these kind of numbers daily BUT these figures will give you a good idea of the lifespan of the SSD beyond 5 years. Given the lifespan of some consoles can cross over a decade, the higher these numbers are, the better!

Here are the official specifications of the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD:

Brand/Series	AORUS Gen4 7000s 1TB – $249.99	AORUS Gen4 7000s 2TB – $549.99
PRICE	GP-AG70S1TB	GP-AG70S2TB
Price in $ and $	$199 / £189	$359 / £399
Throughput	GP-AG70S1TB	GP-AG70S2TB
Sequential Read (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	7000MB	7000MB
Sequential Write (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	5500MB	6850MB
IOPS	GP-AG70S1TB	GP-AG70S2TB
Random Read (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	350,000	650,000
Random Write (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	700,000	700,000
ENDURANCE	GP-AG70S1TB	GP-AG70S2TB
Total Terabytes Written (TBW)	700TB	1400TB
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours)	1,600,000	1,600,000
DWPD	0.38DWPD	0.38DWPD

So, now you know the hardware specifications of the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD and you also know that (at the time of writing!) the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s is supported by the PS5 SSD expansion bay.

IMPORTANT – This article contains ALOT of gifs to demonstrate the loading times of the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD versus the internal PS5 SSD, so the page/gifs might take an extra minute to load. Please be patient OR watch the videos of the full testing a the bottom of the page.

Testing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD with the PS5 – Test Parameters

All of the tests of the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD on the PS5 were conducted in groups of 5 games at a time. In the event of a game arriving on a disc, the full disc data and all current updates were transferred over the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD. The disc might be present, but it is only for system verification and would be an identical setup to the PS5 internal SSD that it is being compared against. The SSD was tested using the latest PS5 Beta Firmware update (3.0 or 3.1 depending on the time of testing as a further update was made available during the widespread testing) and although the supported drives when the SSD expansion feature might change, the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD is fully functioning and supported on the PS5 at the time of writing. So, let’s get started on the testing of each game:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Demon Souls Nexus Loading Test

This test was loading from the title screen to the central hub world (Nexus) of Demon Souls, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Demon Souls Archstone 2 Test

This test was loading to the Smithing Grounds of Demon Souls, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Demon Souls Archstone 1 Test

This test was loading to the first main area of Demon Souls, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Ratchet & Clank World Loading Test I

This test was loading to the starting area of Ratchet & Clank Rifts Apart, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Ratchet & Clank World Loading Test II

This test was loading to the first main transitional area of Ratchet & Clank Rifts Apart, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Resident Evil Village Castle Loading Test I

This test was loading the Castle Area of Resident Evil Village, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Resident Evil Village Stronghold Loading Test II

This test was loading the Stronghold of Resident Evil Village, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – GTA V Full Game Loading Test

This test was loading the Grand Theft Auto V from the PS5 menu to gameplay on the Single Player Mode, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Doom Eternal Level Loading Test I

This test was loading a level in Doom Eternal from the title screen, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Control Level Loading Test I

This test was loading to an early area of the game from the title screen on Control, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Destruction Allstars Level Loading Test I

This test was loading the first arena of Destruction Allstars from the title screen, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD Testing – Destiny Level Loading Test I

This test was loading the first area of Destiny 2 from the title screen, comparing the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s vs the internal PS5 SSD:

Full Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD PS5 Test Videos

If you want to see the FULL testing of every PS5/PS4 game with the Gigabyte Aorus 7000s SSD, you can watch the videos below. These tests have been grouped into 5 games per video, with each game being assessed on Loading Times, Frame Rate, Texture swapping, Asset Popping and compared against the exact game being loaded on the PS5 SSD. NOTE – These videos are being edited and published throughout September and October, so if a video is showing as ‘unavailable’ below, it might not be published yet, but should be up shortly!

Brand/Series	AORUS Gen4 7000s 1TB – $249.99	AORUS Gen4 7000s 2TB – $549.99
PRICE	GP-AG70S1TB	GP-AG70S2TB
Price in $ and $	$199 / £189	$359 / £399
Throughput	GP-AG70S1TB	GP-AG70S2TB
Sequential Read (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	7000MB	7000MB
Sequential Write (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	5500MB	6850MB

Gigabyte Aorus 7000s PS5 SSD Test 1

Gigabyte Aorus 7000s PS5 SSD Test 2

 

 

PS5 SSD Expansion Testing with the WD Black SN850 SSD

A you are considering buying the WD Black SN850 for your PS5 because of Mark Cerny’s recommendations or because it is currently floating around for a good price online? Either way, it is currently one of the most popular choices for those looking at upgrading their Playstation 5. Whether you are looking at upgrading the SSD on your PS5 because you are running out of space or because you heard that some SSDs can increase load times for your favourite games, it is always going to be sensible to spend a few minutes reseaching before pulling the trigger at checkout before spending hundreds on the WD Black SN850 only to find out that the benefits are negligible or, worse still, actually slow your games down! Equally, you should always factor in that the PS5 is a relatively new console and games developers are still in the early stages of maximizing how much they can do with the CPU, Memory, GPU and (of course) super-fast NVMe M.2 SSD. Therefore the commitment you make on buying an SSD upgrade to your PS5 needs to also factor in that it will still perform well in the years to come. The WD Black SN850 meets a number of the key specifications of the PS5 storage bay, but then again many, MANY SSDs do. So today I want to put this SSD through it’s paces with many games to see how well it compares against the internal PS5 SSD doing the same thing. NOTE – FULL Videos of the testing of the WD Black SN850 that combined cover more than an hour can be found at the bottom of the article. This article primarily covers the load times of games and saves on the PS5 using the WD Black SN850 SSD and how they compare with the internal PS5 loading the same game. If you want to watch the full videos that cover PS5 WD Black SN850 use that feature frame rates, texture swapping, asset management and more, I recommend you watch those videos at the end of this article.

Here is the PS5 internal Benchmark for the WD Black SN850 SSD at the initialization of the system:

What Are the Specifications of the WD Black SN850 SSD?

Before we go through the load time testing of the WD Black SN850 on the PS5, it is worth taking a look at the hardware specifications. Unlike traditional Hard Drives and SSDs that were using the PS3 and PS4 that used SATA connectivity, this new generation of SSD storage using M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 architecture. This is a very, VERY big difference physically, in terms of maximum performance and opens up ALOT of specifications that you should keep an eye on. Aside from the capacity (i.e the amount of data the WD Black SN850 can hold in gigabytes and terabytes) the key ones to factor in when buying an SSD are the following:

• Controller & NAND – These are the brain of the SSD (handling the transfer of data as quickly and efficiently as possible) and the physical cells on the WD Black SN850 SSD that hold the data. As long as you are using 3D TLC NAND (the industry preferred middle ground for price vs performance), you should be ok. Though the better the quality of NAND, generally the better the performance and durability long term.
• Sequential Read – This is the reported maximum access speed that the data on the WD Black SN850 SSD can be access when accessing large blocks of data
• Sequential Write – This is the reported maximum speed that data can be written to the WD Black SN850 SSD. As far as the PS5 architecture goes, this is much less important right now but could become important later in the system’s life as games, services and the level to which the WD Black SN850 can be accessed changes.
• IOPS – These represent the number of individual operations the WD Black SN850 SSD can handle per second, based on the smallest size possible. Again, not strictly relevant in the PS5 right now because of the way data is largely front-loaded on modern games, but may well impact how larger and evolved worlds and multiplayer games are developed in future
• TBW, MTBF & DWPD – Terabytes Written and Drive Writes Per Day, these indicate how much the drive is designed to withstand in activity over a 5 year or daily basis (respectively), Before the drive begins to deteriorate in performance or eventually fail. The PS5 will hardly be able to hit these kind of numbers daily BUT these figures will give you a good idea of the lifespan of the SSD beyond 5 years. Given the lifespan of some consoles can cross over a decade, the higher these numbers are, the better!

Here are the official specifications of the WD Black SN850 SSD:

Brand/Series	WD Black SN850	WD Black SN850	WD Black SN850
Model ID	WDS500G1X0E-00AFY0	WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0	WDS200T1X0E-00AFY0
Capacity	500GB	1000GB	2000GB
Price in $	500GB – $169.99	1TB – $249.99	2TB – $549.99
PCIe Generation	PCIe Gen 4	PCIe Gen 4	PCIe Gen 4
NVMe Rev	NVMe 1.4	NVMe 1.4	NVMe 1.4
NAND	BiCS4 96L TLC	BiCS4 96L TLC	BiCS4 96L TLC
Controller	WD_BLACK G2	WD_BLACK G2	WD_BLACK G2
Sequential Read (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	7000MB	7000MB	7000MB
Sequential Write (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	4100MB	5300MB	5100MB
Warranty	5yr	5yr	5yr
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours)	1,750,000	1,750,000	1,750,000
DWPD	0.3DWPD	0.3DWPD	0.3DWPD

So, now you know the hardware specifications of the WD Black SN850 SSD and you also know that (at the time of writing!) the WD Black SN850 is supported by the PS5 SSD expansion bay.

IMPORTANT – This article contains ALOT of gifs to demonstrate the loading times of the WD Black SN850 SSD versus the internal PS5 SSD, so the page/gifs might take an extra minute to load. Please be patient OR watch the videos of the full testing a the bottom of the page.

Testing the WD Black SN850 SSD with the PS5 – Test Parameters

All of the tests of the WD Black SN850 SSD on the PS5 were conducted in groups of 5 games at a time. In the event of a game arriving on a disc, the full disc data and all current updates were transferred over the WD Black SN850 SSD. The disc might be present, but it is only for system verification and would be an identical setup to the PS5 internal SSD that it is being compared against. The SSD was tested using the latest PS5 Beta Firmware update (3.0 or 3.1 depending on the time of testing as a further update was made available during the widespread testing) and although the supported drives when the SSD expansion feature might change, the WD Black SN850 SSD is fully functioning and supported on the PS5 at the time of writing. So, let’s get started on the testing of each game:

 

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Demon Souls Nexus Loading Test

This test was loading from the title screen to the central hub world (Nexus) of Demon Souls, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Demon Souls Archstone 2 Test

This test was loading to the Smithing Grounds of Demon Souls, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Demon Souls Archstone 1 Test

This test was loading to the first main area of Demon Souls, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Ratchet & Clank World Loading Test I

This test was loading to the starting area of Ratchet & Clank Rifts Apart, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Ratchet & Clank World Loading Test II

This test was loading to the first main transitional area of Ratchet & Clank Rifts Apart, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Borderlands 3 Full Loading Test I

This test was loading Borderlands to the Title Screen from the PS5 Main menu on Borderlands 3, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Borderlands 3 Level Load Test II

This test was loading a save game from the title screen to the Pandora World Area, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Resident Evil Village Castle Loading Test I

This test was loading the Castle Area of Resident Evil Village, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Resident Evil Village Stronghold Loading Test II

This test was loading the Stronghold of Resident Evil Village, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Hitman 3 Dartmoor Loading Test I

This test was loading the Dartmoor level on Hitman 3, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Hitman 3 Mendoza Loading Test II

This test was loading the Mendoza level on Hitman 3, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Terminator Resistance Level Loading Test

This test was loading Terminator Resistance Infiltrator Mode, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – GTA V Full Game Loading Test

This test was loading the Grand Theft Auto V from the PS5 menu to gameplay on the Single Player Mode, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Dead By Daylight Bots Test

This test was loading the tutorial Bots Mode on Dead By Daylight, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Red Dead Redemption II Campaign Loading Test

This test was loading the Blackwater Area of Red Dead Redemption II in single Player, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – No Man’s Sky Creative Mode Loading Test

This test was loading No Man’s Sky in Creative Mode from the Title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – In Rays of the Light Loading Test I, Outside

This test was loading the outside world area of In Rays of the Light, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – In Rays of the Light Loading Test II, Inside

This test was loading the underground bunker area of In Rays of the Light, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Star Wars Fallen Order Level Loading Test I

This test was loading the Kashkykk area of Star Wars Fallen Order from the title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Star Wars Fallen Order Trial Loading Test II

This test was loading a combat challenge, mid-game, of Star Wars Fallen Order from the title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Doom Eternal Level Loading Test I

This test was loading a level in Doom Eternal from the title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Control Level Loading Test I

This test was loading to an early area of the game from the title screen on Control, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Plague Tale Level Loading Test I

This test was loading an early Level area of Innocence, a plagues Tale from the title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – WreckFest Level Loading Test I

This test was loading an early challenge in Wrecckfest from the title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Maneater Level Loading Test I

This test was loading the first area of Maneater from the title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 WD Black SN850 SSD Testing – Destruction Allstars Level Loading Test I

This test was loading the first arena of Destruction Allstars from the title screen, comparing the WD Black SN850 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

 

Full WD Black SN850 SSD PS5 Test Videos

If you want to see the FULL testing of every PS5/PS4 game with the WD Black SN850 SSD, you can watch the videos below. These tests have been grouped into 5 games per video, with each game being assessed on Loading Times, Frame Rate, Texture swapping, Asset Popping and compared against the exact game being loaded on the PS5 SSD. NOTE – These videos are being edited and published throughout September and October, so if a video is showing as ‘unavailable’ below, it might not be published yet, but should be up shortly!

Brand/Series	WD Black SN850	WD Black SN850	WD Black SN850
Model ID	WDS500G1X0E-00AFY0	WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0	WDS200T1X0E-00AFY0
Capacity	500GB	1000GB	2000GB
Price in $	500GB – $169.99	1TB – $249.99	2TB – $549.99

 

WD Black SN850 PS5 SSD Test 1	WD Black SN850 PS5 SSD Test 2
WD Black SN850 PS5 SSD Test 3	WD Black SN850 PS5 SSD Test 4

 

 

PS5 SSD Expansion Testing with the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD

Are You considering the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD as a PS5 upgrade? Whether you are looking at upgrading the SSD on your PS5 because you are running out of space or because you heard that some SSDs can increase load times for your favourite games, it is always going to be sensible to spend a few minutes researching before pulling the trigger at checkout and spending hundreds on the XPG GAMMIX S70 only to find out that the benefits are negligible or, worse still, actually slow your games down! Equally, you should always factor in that the PS5 is a relatively new console and games developers are still in the early stages of maximizing how much they can do with the CPU, Memory, GPU and (of course) super-fast NVMe M.2 SSD. Therefore the commitment you make on buying an SSD upgrade to your PS5 needs to also factor in that it will still perform well in the years to come. The XPG GAMMIX S70 meets a number of the key specifications of the PS5 storage bay, but then again many, MANY SSDs do. So today I want to put this SSD through it’s paces with many games to see how well it compares against the internal PS5 SSD doing the same thing. NOTE – FULL Videos of the testing of the XPG GAMMIX S70 that combined cover more than an hour can be found at the bottom of the article. This article primarily covers the load times of games and saves on the PS5 using the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD and how they compare with the internal PS5 loading the same game. If you want to watch the full videos that cover PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 use that feature frame rates, texture swapping, asset management and more, I recommend you watch those videos at the end of this article.

Here is the PS5 internal Benchmark for the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD at the initialization of the system:

What Are the Specifications of the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD?

Before we go through the load time testing of the XPG GAMMIX S70 on the PS5, it is worth taking a look at the hardware specifications. Unlike traditional Hard Drives and SSDs that were using the PS3 and PS4 that used SATA connectivity, this new generation of SSD storage using M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 architecture. This is a very, VERY big difference physically, in terms of maximum performance and opens up ALOT of specifications that you should keep an eye on. Aside from the capacity (i.e the amount of data the XPG GAMMIX S70 can hold in gigabytes and terabytes) the key ones to factor in when buying an SSD are the following:

• Controller & NAND – These are the brain of the SSD (handling the transfer of data as quickly and efficiently as possible) and the physical cells on the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD that hold the data. As long as you are using 3D TLC NAND (the industry preferred middle ground for price vs performance), you should be ok. Though the better the quality of NAND, generally the better the performance and durability long term.
• Sequential Read – This is the reported maximum access speed that the data on the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD can be access when accessing large blocks of data
• Sequential Write – This is the reported maximum speed that data can be written to the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD. As far as the PS5 architecture goes, this is much less important right now but could become important later in the system’s life as games, services and the level to which the XPG GAMMIX S70 can be accessed changes.
• IOPS – These represent the number of individual operations the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD can handle per second, based on the smallest size possible. Again, not strictly relevant in the PS5 right now because of the way data is largely front-loaded on modern games, but may well impact how larger and evolved worlds and multiplayer games are developed in future
• TBW, MTBF & DWPD – Terabytes Written and Drive Writes Per Day, these indicate how much the drive is designed to withstand in activity over a 5 year or daily basis (respectively), Before the drive begins to deteriorate in performance or eventually fail. The PS5 will hardly be able to hit these kind of numbers daily BUT these figures will give you a good idea of the lifespan of the SSD beyond 5 years. Given the lifespan of some consoles can cross over a decade, the higher these numbers are, the better!

Here are the official specifications of the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD:

ADATA GAMMIX S70 1TB – $159.99, 2TB – $299.99
PCIe Generation	PCIe Gen 4
NVMe Rev	NVMe 1.4
NAND	3D TLC Micron 96L
Max Capacity	2TB – Single Sided
Controller	Innogrit IG5236
Warranty	5yr
500GB Model	N/A
Price in $ and $	N/A
1TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-1T-C
Price in $ and $	$199 / £175
2TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-2T-C
Price in $ and $	$399 / £355
4TB Model	N/A
Price in $ and $	N/A
500GB Model	N/A
Total Terabytes Written (TBW)	N/A
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours)	N/A
DWPD	N/A
1TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-1T-C
Total Terabytes Written (TBW)	740TB
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours)	2,000,000
DWPD	0.4DWPD
2TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-2T-C
Total Terabytes Written (TBW)	1480TB
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours)	2,000,000
DWPD	0.4DWPD
4TB Model	N/A
Total Terabytes Written (TBW)	N/A
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours)	N/A
DWPD	N/A
Brand/Series	ADTA GAMMIX S70
500GB Model	N/A
Sequential Read (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	N/A
Sequential Write (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	N/A
1TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-1T-C
Sequential Read (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	7400MB
Sequential Write (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	5500MB
2TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-2T-C
Sequential Read (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	7450MB
Sequential Write (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	6800MB
4TB Model	N/A
Sequential Read (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	N/A
Sequential Write (Max, MB/s), 128 KB	N/A
Brand/Series	ADTA GAMMIX S70
500GB Model	N/A
Random Read (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	N/A
Random Write (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	N/A
1TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-1T-C
Random Read (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	350000
Random Write (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	720000
2TB Model	AGAMMIXS70-2T-C
Random Read (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	650,000
Random Write (Max, IOPS), 4 KB QD32	740,000

So, now you know the hardware specifications of the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD and you also know that (at the time of writing!) the XPG GAMMIX S70 is supported by the PS5 SSD expansion bay.

IMPORTANT – This article contains ALOT of gifs to demonstrate the loading times of the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD versus the internal PS5 SSD, so the page/gifs might take an extra minute to load. Please be patient OR watch the videos of the full testing a the bottom of the page.

Testing the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD with the PS5 – Test Parameters

All of the tests of the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD on the PS5 were conducted in groups of 5 games at a time. In the event of a game arriving on a disc, the full disc data and all current updates were transferred over the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD. The disc might be present, but it is only for system verification and would be an identical setup to the PS5 internal SSD that it is being compared against. The SSD was tested using the latest PS5 Beta Firmware update (3.0 or 3.1 depending on the time of testing as a further update was made available during the widespread testing) and although the supported drives when the SSD expansion feature might change, the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD is fully functioning and supported on the PS5 at the time of writing. So, let’s get started on the testing of each game:

 

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Demon Souls Nexus Loading Test

This test was loading from the title screen to the central hub world (Nexus) of Demon Souls, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Demon Souls Archstone 2 Test

This test was loading to the Smithing Grounds of Demon Souls, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Demon Souls Archstone 1 Test

This test was loading to the first main area of Demon Souls, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Ratchet & Clank World Loading Test I

This test was loading to the starting area of Ratchet & Clank Rifts Apart, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Ratchet & Clank World Loading Test II

This test was loading to the first main transitional area of Ratchet & Clank Rifts Apart, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Borderlands 3 Full Loading Test I

This test was loading Borderlands to the Title Screen fro the PS5 Main menu on Borderlands 3, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Borderlands 3 Level Load Test II

This test was loading a save game from the title screen to the Pandora World Area, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Resident Evil Village Castle Loading Test I

This test was loading the Castle Area of Resident Evil Village, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Resident Evil Village Stronghold Loading Test II

This test was loading the Stronghold of Resident Evil Village, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Hitman 3 Dartmoor Loading Test I

This test was loading the Dartmoor level on Hitman 3, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Hitman 3 Mendoza Loading Test II

This test was loading the Mendoza level on Hitman 3, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Terminator Resistance Level Loading Test

This test was loading Terminator Resistance Infiltrator Mode, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – GTA V Full Game Loading Test

This test was loading the Grand Theft Auto V from the PS5 menu to gameplay on the Single Player Mode, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Dead By Daylight Bots Test

This test was loading the tutorial Bots Mode on Dead By Daylight, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Red Dead Redemption II Campaign Loading Test

This test was loading the Blackwater Area of Red Dead Redemption II in single Player, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – No Man’s Sky Creative Mode Loading Test

This test was loading No Man’s Sky in Creative Mode from the Title screen, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – In Rays of the Light Loading Test I, Outside

This test was loading the outside world area of In Rays of the Light, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – In Rays of the Light Loading Test II, Inside

This test was loading the underground bunker area of In Rays of the Light, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Star Wars Fallen Order Level Loading Test I

This test was loading the Kashkykk area of Star Wars Fallen Order from the title screen, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Star Wars Fallen Order Trial Loading Test II

This test was loading a combat challenge, mid-game, of Star Wars Fallen Order from the title screen, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

PS5 XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Testing – Doom Eternal Level Loading Test I

This test was loading a level in Doom Eternal from the title screen, comparing the XPG GAMMIX S70 vs the internal PS5 SSD:

 

Full XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD PS5 Test Videos

If you want to see the FULL testing of every PS5/PS4 game with the XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD, you can watch the videos below. These tests have been grouped into 5 games per video, with each game being assessed on Loading Times, Frame Rate, Texture swapping, Asset Popping and compared against the exact game being loaded on the PS5 SSD. NOTE – These videos are being edited and published throughout September and October, so if a video is showing as ‘unavailable’ below, it might not be published yet, but should be up shortly!

ADATA GAMMIX S70

1TB – $159.99, 2TB – $299.99

XPG GAMMIX S70 PS5 SSD Test 1	XPG GAMMIX S70 PS5 SSD Test 2
XPG GAMMIX S70 PS5 SSD Test 3	XPG GAMMIX S70 SSD Review

 

 

Choosing the Right Rackmount NAS – Understanding the Importance of Depth

There was once a time when owning any kind of rackmount based storage and/or computer equipment was squarely aimed at high-end business and data centres. Unlike the desktop PC, laptop keyboard or touch screen device that you are likely reading this on, a rackmount scale hardware device is HUGE, can be noisy and is designed for a 24×7 environment that we once considered business-only in both price and size. However, fast forward to 2020/2021 and we find that because of the advances in both the efficiency and capability of the hardware, that rackmounts are affordable to even the most modest of home user – often rivalling the suitability of a more commonplace desktop/tower device. However, rackmounts are generally very awkward in size – either too long, too wide or too deep for most normal deployment. Luckily most NAS hardware developers (Synology and QNAP more so than most) have provided a huge range of different scaled rackmount devices, that vary in capacity, power and (most important of all for today’s article) in physical size. They have produced so many options in fact, that there are now too many to choose from. So, today I want to look at all of the more compact rackmount NAS servers and help you choose the right one for your physical hardware environment.

Using the Rackmount Size Guide Below

Much like looking at any physical object, there are the typical parameters of measuring scale (generally measures in millimetres or inches), but in the case of rackmount NAS there are also more hardware-specific ways to measure the suitability of a rack mount NAS device. Here are the ones you need to focus on:

Height – This is a figure that is measured in two ways. First is the physical height that is increased as more and more bays are included for storage. Generally 44mm for a 4-Bay, the 88mm for an 8/12-Bay, 130mm for a 16-Bay and 175mm for a 24-Bay. However, they also use the measurement of 1U, 2U, 3U, etc. These correspond to the number of ‘slots’ in a rack cabinet.

Width – In most cases, this is largely identical on all NAS devices, as a rackmount is designed in rows of 4 bays horizontally, at 481mm – but there are exceptions as you will need to factor in rails and if some devices have handles and/or rails pre-attached.

Depth – This is incredibly important and one of the main driving forces behind how rackmount NAS has evolved. In most cases, the more powerful the NAS – the deeper it is (in order to fit in larger CPU+Heatsinks, Increased PSUs and larger internal cooling). The majority of half depth rackmounts on the market arrive with mid-range hardware inside, but recent years have provided quite a few 10Gbe and Large solutions from companies like QNAP and Synology.

Below is a breakdown of the available rackmount solutions that you can sort by their size.

Brand	model	Form	Height (mm)	Width (mm)	Depth (mm)	Height (inch)	Width (inch)	Depth (inch)
Synology	FS2017		88	430.5	692	3.46	16.95	27.24
Synology	FS3017		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	FS3400		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	FS3600		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	FS6400		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	RC18015xs+		44	480	515	1.73	18.9	20.28
Synology	RS1219+		88	481.9	306.6	3.46	18.97	12.07
Synology	RS1221+		RS1221+ : 88	482	306.6 RS1221RP+ : 88	0	18.98	12.07
Synology	RS1221RP+		RS1221+ : 88	482	306.6 RS1221RP+ : 88	0	18.98	12.07
Synology	RS1619xs+		44	480	518.6	1.73	18.9	20.42
Synology	RS18016xs+		88	430	692	3.46	16.93	27.24
Synology	RS18017xs+		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	RS217		44	479.4	295.5	1.73	18.87	11.63
Synology	RS2416+		88	430	692	3.46	16.93	27.24
Synology	RS2418+		88	482	696 88	3.46	18.98	27.4
Synology	RS2418RP+		88	482	696 88	3.46	18.98	27.4
Synology	RS2421+		RS2421+ : 88	482	552 RS2421RP+ : 88	0	18.98	21.73
Synology	RS2421RP+		RS2421+ : 88	482	552 RS2421RP+ : 88	0	18.98	21.73
Synology	RS2818RP+		132.3	482	656.5	5.21	18.98	25.85
Synology	RS2821RP+		132.3	482	656.5	5.21	18.98	25.85
Synology	RS3617RPxs		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	RS3617xs+		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	RS3618xs		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	RS3621RPxs		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	RS3621xs+		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	RS4017xs+		132.3	482	656.5	5.21	18.98	25.85
Synology	RS4021xs+		132.3	482	656.5	5.21	18.98	25.85
Synology	RS815+		44	430.5	457.5 44	1.73	16.95	18.01
Synology	RS816		44	430.5	295.5	1.73	16.95	11.63
Synology	RS818+		44	480	492.6 44	1.73	18.9	19.39
Synology	RS818RP+		44	480	492.6 44	1.73	18.9	19.39
Synology	RS819		44	478	327.5	1.73	18.82	12.89
Synology	RS820+		44	480	492.6 44	1.73	18.9	19.39
Synology	RS820RP+		44	480	492.6 44	1.73	18.9	19.39
Synology	SA3200D		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	SA3400		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	SA3600		88	482	724	3.46	18.98	28.5
Synology	UC3200		88	430.5	692	3.46	16.95	27.24
Qnap	tds-16489u r2		130.81	443.99	743.97	5.15	17.48	29.29
Qnap	tes-1885u		87.88	442.47	530.61	3.46	17.42	20.89
Qnap	ts-1232pxu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1232xu		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1232xu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1253bu		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1253bu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1253du-rp		88.65	482.09	423.93	3.49	18.98	16.69
Qnap	ts-1263xu		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1263xu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1273au-rp		88.9	432.05	372.11	3.5	17.01	14.65
Qnap	ts-1273u		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1273u-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-1277xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-1283xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-1673au-rp		132.08	432.05	372.11	5.2	17.01	14.65
Qnap	ts-1673u		130.05	481.08	535.94	5.12	18.94	21.1
Qnap	ts-1673u-rp		130.05	481.08	535.94	5.12	18.94	21.1
Qnap	ts-1677xu-rp		130.05	481.08	573.53	5.12	18.94	22.58
Qnap	ts-1683xu-rp		130.05	481.08	573.53	5.12	18.94	22.58
Qnap	ts-1886xu-rp		88.39	482.09	549.66	3.48	18.98	21.64
Qnap	ts-2477xu-rp		176.28	481.08	672.08	6.94	18.94	26.46
Qnap	ts-2483xu-rp		176.28	481.08	672.08	6.94	18.94	26.46
Qnap	ts-431xeu		43.94	438.91	291.08	1.73	17.28	11.46
Qnap	ts-432pxu		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-432pxu-rp		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-432xu		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-432xu-rp		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-451deu		43.94	430.02	294.89	1.73	16.93	11.61
Qnap	ts-453bu		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-453bu-rp		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-453du		43.18	482.6	483.87	1.7	19	19.05
Qnap	ts-453du-rp		43.18	482.6	508.76	1.7	19	20.03
Qnap	ts-463xu		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-463xu-rp		43.94	438.91	499.11	1.73	17.28	19.65
Qnap	ts-832pxu		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-832pxu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-832xu		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-832xu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-853bu		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-853bu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-853du-rp		88.65	482.09	423.93	3.49	18.98	16.69
Qnap	ts-863xu		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-863xu-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-873au		88.9	432.05	372.11	3.5	17.01	14.65
Qnap	ts-873au-rp		88.9	432.05	372.11	3.5	17.01	14.65
Qnap	ts-873u		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-873u-rp		88.9	482.09	533.91	3.5	18.98	21.02
Qnap	ts-877xu		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-877xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-883xu		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-883xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-977xu		43.18	482.6	484.12	1.7	19	19.06
Qnap	ts-977xu-rp		43.18	482.6	505.46	1.7	19	19.9
Qnap	ts-983xu		43.18	482.6	484.12	1.7	19	19.06
Qnap	ts-983xu-rp		43.18	482.6	507.49	1.7	19	19.98
Qnap	ts-h1277xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-h1283xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	ts-h1677xu-rp		130.05	481.08	573.53	5.12	18.94	22.58
Qnap	ts-h1683xu-rp		130.05	481.08	573.53	5.12	18.94	22.58
Qnap	ts-h1886xu-rp		88.39	482.09	549.66	3.48	18.98	21.64
Qnap	ts-h2477xu-rp		176.28	481.08	672.08	6.94	18.94	26.46
Qnap	ts-h2483xu-rp		176.28	481.08	672.08	6.94	18.94	26.46
Qnap	ts-h2490fu		88.39	481.08	510.29	3.48	18.94	20.09
Qnap	ts-h3088xu-rp		88.39	481.08	515.11	3.48	18.94	20.28
Qnap	ts-h977xu-rp		43.18	482.6	505.46	1.7	19	19.9
Qnap	tvs-1272xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	tvs-1672xu-rp		130.05	481.08	573.53	5.12	18.94	22.58
Qnap	tvs-2472xu-rp		176.28	481.08	672.08	6.94	18.94	26.46
Qnap	tvs-872xu		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	tvs-872xu-rp		88.39	482.09	562.1	3.48	18.98	22.13
Qnap	tvs-972xu		43.18	482.6	484.12	1.7	19	19.06
Qnap	tvs-972xu-rp		43.18	482.6	507.49	1.7	19	19.98
Qnap	tvs-ec1280u-sas-rp r2		87.88	442.47	530.61	3.46	17.42	20.89
Qnap	tvs-ec1680u-sas-rp r2		130.05	442.47	530.61	5.12	17.42	20.89
Qnap	tvs-ec2480u-sas-rp r2		176.28	442.47	530.61	6.94	17.42	20.89
Brand	model	Form	Height (mm)	Width (mm)	Depth (mm)	Height (in)	Width (in)	Depth (in)

Still Need Help Choosing the Right Rackmount for you?

If you are still in doubt about the right sized rackmount NAS drive for your home to business needs or are worried about how accurate the size of the server will be in your chosen spot, why not contact me directly below for help.

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Should You Buy the WD Black SN850, Seagate Firecuda 530, Samsung 980 Pro or Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus M.2 SSD for PS5?

If you have been considering an SSD upgrade for your Playstation 5 now that the feature is enabled (currently in beta and full support coming very soon), then chances are that of all the many PS5 compatible PCIe4 M.2 NVMe SSDs available to buy, that one of four models are at the top of your list. The WD Black SN850 (recommended by Mark Cerny), the Seagate Firecuda 530 (heavy endurance, high speed industry recommendation), the Samsung 980 Pro (widely available, fantastic performance and great value) and the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (great price vs capacity and fantastic architecture). These four SSDs have been the ones that have risen above most others, for various reasons, as the hottest picks for your PS5 storage upgrade. Each drive is pretty much the fastest and most capable drive from their respective brands and although there are a few close ones (such as the Aorus 7000s, ADATA Gamix S70 and PNY CS3140), they have not been as widely embraced at these four SSDs.

TOP 4 Recommended PS5 Storage Expansion Compatible SSDs
WD Black SN850	Seagate Firecuda 530	Samsung 980 Pro	SABRENT Rocket 4 Plus
500GB – $169.99 1TB – $249.99 2TB – $549.99	500GB – $149.99 1TB – $239.99 2TB – $489.99 4TB – $949.99.	250GB – $69.99 500GB – $119.99 1TB – $199.99 2TB – $429.99	1TB – $200 2TB – $469.99 4TB – $999.99

But which one should you buy? Which SSD should you choose for your PS5 Expansion storage? Today I want to go through a large selection of loading tests that were performed on each SSD in order to work out which one is the best SSD to upgrade your PS5. Let’s begin.

Note: SN850 = WD Black SN850, FC 530 = Seagate Firecuda 530, 980 Pro = Samsung 980 Pro and Rocket+ = Sabrent Rocekt 4 Plus.

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison – PS5 Internal Benchmark

The first thing to test is the PS5 internal Sequential Read performance benchmark on all four SSDs.

WD BLACK SN850 1TB – 6,457MB/s	SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 500GB – 6,558MB/s
SAMSUNG 980 PRO 250GB – 6,317MB/s	SABRENT ROCKET 4 PLUS 2TB – 6,557MB/s

Although it HAS TO be taken into account that the capacities of these drives differ, this has very little impact on sequential real (given that all four brands say that their smallest 250/500GB drives can all hit/surpass 7,000MB/s). The Seagate Firecuda 530 SSD had the highest PS5 reported speed at 6,558MB/s. However, this is a singular reported benchmark from the system bootup and not fully representative of game loading/handling when in use. So, let’s look at the game loading comparisons.

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 1 – Demon Souls 1

This test was for the PS5 launch title Demon Souls and was loading into the game from the title screen (offline). Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

Though incredibly close, in the case of the Loading of the save file, frame by frame analysis shows that the WD Black SN850 was the fastest loading.

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 2 – Demon Souls 2

This test was for the PS5 launch title Demon Souls and was loading from the nexus hub and into another world (offline). Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

Once again, with barely hundredths of seconds between them all, the WD Black SN850 SSD was still the first to load this demon souls level change.

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 3 – Demon Souls 3

This test was for the PS5 launch title Demon Souls and was loading from the nexus hub and into another world (offline). Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

The last Demons Souls test was once again, painfully tight, but this time I would say it was a tie between the WD Black SN850 and the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus SSD.

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 4 – Resident Evil Village 1

This test was loading a save file from Resident Evil Village in the later stages of the game. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

When loading Resident Evil VIII for PS5 from a save game, the Seagate Firecuda 530 SSD was first by just a few frames in the first test.

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 5 – Resident Evil Village 2

This test was loading a save file from Resident Evil Village in the early castle stages of the game. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

Once again, in the 2nd Resident Evil savegame load (this time in to a more compact environment) the Seagate Firecuda 530 SSD was the fastest, but only just.

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 6 – Ratchet & Clank 1

This test was loading a save file from Rachet & Clank and featured the long transitional world-changing sequence in the first 30mins of the game. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

When testing the Rachet and Clank long level change transitional rail segment, the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus and the Seagate Firecuda 530 SSD were a tie.

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 7 – Ratchet & Clank 2

This test was loading a save file from Ratchet & Clank again and the very start of the game, in a very dense asset-rich environment. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

In the 2nd Ratchet & Clank test, the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus was the fastest but barely 2 frames! Still, a win is a win!

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 8 – GTA V

This test was loading GTA V from the PS5 main menu (notorious for an incredibly long loading time) and into single player. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

Grand Theft Auto 5 is a game that has been migrated and upscaled from PS3, to PS4 to PS4 Pro. Now running on PS5 for this test (with a PS5 version coming soon), the loading screen is still VERY long! Of the four SSDs, the WD Black SN850 loaded the fastest but a VERY comfortably margin!

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 9 – DOOM Eternal

This test was loading a save file from Doom Eternal from the preliminary stages of the game. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

Loading Doom Eternal PS5 upgrade (with high graphical settings and ray tracing enabled) from a save game, the Seagate Firecuda 530 and Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus SSD were the fastest, but once again, only by a tiny number of frames.

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 10 – Destruction Allstars

This test was loading an arena match in arcade mode of Destruction Allstars. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

For Destruction Allstars, as the game uses a sneaky form of hidden loading (as you go into the arena, the game loads assets one by one, with smart camera angling) I judged loading to be ‘completed’ when the help splash screen appeared, as this signalled the start of the player control. In this case, the Samsung 980 Pro was the fastest!

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison Test 11 – Control

This test was for the PS5 full version of Control and was loaded from the PS5 console menu and directly into the game. Below is a quick video/gif demonstrating this and how the WD, Seagate, Samsung and Sabrent PCIe4 SSDs compared:

This one was INCREDIBLY tight, but in the case of Control for PS5, the fastest loading SSD of the four was the Samsung 980 Pro SSD, but only by 1-2 frames.

 

SN850 v FC 530 vs 980 Pro vs Rocket+ SSD Comparison – RESULTS!

It is important to remember that all four of these SSDs are still amazing drives and still easily some of the best choices when upgrading your PS5 storage. Even when one SSD managed to load a game faster than another, it did so within 10ths/100ths of a second faster than the others in some cases. Below is a breakdown of points for each time an SSD either loaded the game first or was given a higher benchmark at the start. There is also the FULL TEST video below over on YouTube that goes through these tests in greater length and detail. It is also VERY important to factor in that these 4 drives were not all the same capacity, though this would have more sway/impact in writing operations (which were largely irrelevant here). I hope you enjoyed this guide and found it useful in your search for the perfect SSD for your PS5 Expansion slot upgrade! Use the links in the table to find your SSD of choice at the best available price right now, for each capacity.

TOP 4 Recommended PS5 Storage Expansion Compatible SSDs
WD Black SN850	Seagate Firecuda 530	Samsung 980 Pro	SABRENT Rocket 4 Plus
POINTS: ★★★★★	POINTS: ★★★★	POINTS: ★★	POINTS: ★★★★
500GB – $169.99 1TB – $249.99 2TB – $549.99	500GB – $149.99 1TB – $239.99 2TB – $489.99 4TB – $949.99.	250GB – $69.99 500GB – $119.99 1TB – $199.99 2TB – $429.99	1TB – $200 2TB – $469.99 4TB – $999.99

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Choosing Between Buying a 2-Bay or 4 Bay NAS

For many users who decided to make the switch from subscription-based Cloud services and to their own private NAS server, it can be tricky to understand exactly what they need in terms of storage and power. Network-attached storage NAS has evolved rapidly over the years and now there is a tremendous range of solutions that vary in size and ability to choose from, often resulting in the most expensive servers not always being the most capable. One of the first hurdles that many users encounter when choosing their first NAS drive is choosing between a 2-bay NAS and 4-Bay. With the majority of NAS brands out there offering most standard solutions and across different hard drive scales, choosing between these different sized NAS is not as straightforward as one might think. So today I’m going to talk to you about the differences between each, which one is the best value, their advantages and hopefully help you decide which one best suits your storage needs. Let’s start.

2-Bay vs 4-Bay NAS – Storage, Expandability and Capacity

On the face of it, it seems pretty obvious that a 4-Bay NAS model with its increased storage bays will be the better storage option overall. How on earth can a NAS device that is 50% less in media bays possibly compete?!? Well, in recent years the largest available capacity in hard drives has massively increased and therefore the total potential terabytes available for each media bay has grown drastically. Yes, you could fully populate a four-Bay NAS with 4TB hard drives, but you could always just use a single 12TB hard drive at a lower price per TB in 2021 and regardless of whether you use RAID 0 or RAID1 with two disks, still have a huge capacity in a 2 Bay NAS. Additionally, these days a number of brands provide the same level of external enclosure expandability on both the 2-Bay and 4 Bay NAS systems (eg DS920+ / DS720+ and TS-253D / TS-453D), therefore 2-Bay NAS does not have the lower metaphorical glass ceiling that it once had in terms of additional storage down the line. Indeed, you can even expand a RAID 1 to a RAID 5 on a 2-bay but spreading it over both the NAS and expansion enclosure at once, to provide an excellent way to still increase the storage on your 2-Bay later on and not feel trapped within its dual media design architecture.

However, this is not quite as cut and dry as it appears. Despite the improvements in 2-Bay NAS architecture in recent years, there is always going to be one big day 1 advantage in the flexibility of 4 Bay NAS that 2-Bays cannot really match. That is that you do not necessarily need to fully populate a 4-bay on day one and many users go ahead with just putting two hard drives inside a 4-Bay NAS in a RAID 1 at the start. Not only does this give you exactly the same level of storage and performance that you would find in 2 Bay NAS, but it also allows you to add drives to this partially populated NAS and expand its storage pool from a RAID 1 to a RAID 5, increasing the total storage gradually throughout the lifespan of the system, WITHOUT buying a whole expansion chassis. This allows flexibility in how much storage you use now and how much you need to graduate to later at a minimal cost at the start. In summary, although 4 Bay NAS is still technically the better storage, flexibility and capacity option, a 2-Bay is not necessarily as inferior as it once was.

2-Bay vs 4-Bay NAS – Price and Value

This is an often underestimated factor in choosing between a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS system. Many people assume that a 4-Bay NAS costs more money to buy and even more money to populate. Although this is still technically true, it is hardly any more expensive to operate a 4-bay NAS 24×7 than a 2-bay. As far as actual day 1 costs go, notwithstanding the flexible storage installation mentioned in the previous subject, 4-Bay NAS systems allow you to use smaller capacity hard drives in order to match the same storage on larger hard drives. What this means is that a 4-ay NAS allows you to install four 4TB drives inside in a RAID5 and arrived at a lower price per terabyte than 2x 12TB drives. Depending on how you scale your storage and the number of drives you use, 2-Bay shares and 4-Bay NAS can retail at a similar price point and will differ only depending on the drive you choose and the RAID configuration you opt for.

Likewise, returning to the point of the cost of 4-bays as being more expensive than 2-bays, the newest generation NAS drives will often barely be more than $100-150 difference in their prices between 2 and 4 bays and are largely identical in CPU, Memory and ports in every other way. 4-Bays may seem like a bigger chunk of money (especially for those already feeling stretched on a prosumer 2-Bay) but if you are prepared to perhaps drop the capacity you have in mind 1-2TB  (i.e purchase 4TBs, not 6TBs)  to compensate this price difference, the result will be that your 4 Bay NAS can achieve much higher read and write speeds with more drives being accessed simultaneously, whilst also opening the door to dual-drive redundancy configurations (i.e RAID 6) and will ultimately provide a more responsive, higher performing and data safe NAS for all of your needs.

In summary, the savings available in choosing a two-bay over a four-bay can easily be countered in the grand scheme of things by scaling the capacity or architecture of the HDD you choose to put inside. The money saved in a 2 bay might well be money you need to spend a year or two down the line.

2-Bay vs 4-Bay NAS – Power, Performance and Speed

As mentioned, using 4 hard drives in a RAID 5 will likely provide better performance than two drives in a RAID 1 environment. This performance can be measured by traditional direct read and write activity between your client hardware and your NAS, or it can be measured by the performance of individual applications and services from within the network-attached storage drive itself (i.e the NAS software and services). When looking at buying your first NAS, many will overlook 2-Bay’s simply because of this performance boost available in the 4-Bay alternative models. However, enterprise-grade/Pro hard drives Seagate ironwolf Pro or EXOs) will often provide performance benefits in a RAID 1 environment that can surpass the use of standard hard drives in a RAID 5. Of course, Pro series drives cost $40-50 more per drive, but also have longer warranties, data recovery services, more onboard cache and faster rpm to increase that read and write speed, so you get more for your money ultimately. Additionally, if you plan on taking advantage of 10Gbe, either with a port already on your NAS or as an upgrade down the line via PCIe, then you are much, MUCH better off with a 4-Bay NAS, as a 2-Bay (even if populated with the latest generation SATA SSDs) cannot fully saturate 1,000MB/s.

Finally, it is worth discussing that a large number of modern 4-Bay NAS systems in 2021/2022 arrived with dedicated SSD caching bays. These bays do not replace the existing SATA hard drives and are parallel media bays that allow you to install M2 NVMe SSD to improve the internal performance of your NAS by copying more frequently accessed files partially or fully onto the SSD to reduced access time to these more popular pieces of data. Although a handful of 2 Bay NAS systems have arrived on the market with support of dedicated SSD caching bays (Lockerstor 2 and DS720+), the feature is still more available on foUr Bay solutions and for many users that want to graduate the utility of their NAS from home to prosumer and inevitably into business use, the ability to upgrade internal performance in this way can often sway buyers to opt for a 4-bay NAS.

2-Bay vs 4-Bay NAS – Power Use, Noise and Deployment

Unsurprisingly, the bigger the NAS drive, the more power it will consume. When comparing like-for-like deployments in similar architecture on 2-Bay and 4-Bay NAS, the latter will always use a little bit more. This is the reason that you will generally find that the PSU on a 4-Bay NAS is always of a higher what rating. However overall, unless you are pushing the system particularly hard, the simple act of adding two more SATA hard drives will generally make a minuscule difference and is hardly a reason to compare these two overall – A PSU power rating is the MAXIMUM draw it can make, not the amount it will be using constantly! However, in terms of vibration generated when the system is in operation and the rise in assisted fan operation as usage increases, generates more heat which makes a noticeable impact on the ambient noise generated when you are running a 2-Bay vs a 4-Bay.

The power difference will still remain rather small as these are still quite small components but if you are especially sensitive to noise then the increased drive and fan-based sound will annoy you. Additionally, this increase in ambient noise generation scales accordingly if you use larger capacity drives or more enterprise-level hard drive builds. So therefore if you are looking at a 2-Bay NAS with bigger capacity hard drives, it will still generate a comparable level of ambient noise that a 4-Bay would when populated with standard class NAS media or smaller capacities. Now that brands like Seagate and WD have reshaped their respective portfolios for NAS hard drive media in a way that ALL large capacity hard drive (eg 10TB and above) are Pro class (i.e noisier), it makes the lines increasingly blurry between 2-Bay and 4-Bay NAS noise levels. Below is an example of the noise difference between a standard class and pro class drive noise generation in just a single drive. It may seem a tad irrelevant, but it’s important if you are a user looking to go for a smaller NAS with BIGGER drives:

WD Red NAS Hard Drive Noise Test	WD Red PRO NAS Hard Drive Noise Test

2-Bay vs 4-Bay NAS – Conclusion

So as you can see, the difference between a 2-Bay and a 4-Bay NAS is a great deal more than the number of available hard drives you can use. Each kind of NAS system can have its performance, capacity, ambient noise and power consumption scaled in a multitude of ways in order to facilitate the best possible network attached storage solution for you. Users on a tight budget might all too soon end up purchasing a 2 Bay NAS without realising that a 4-Bay has scalability that can save you money down the line. Likewise, users who like to invest a little bit more long term or prefer their NAS investment to be a little bit more spread over the lifespan of their product will tend to err towards a 4-Bay solution, without realising that a 2-Bay is still quite viable in the short term and modern scalability of NAS means taht a 2-Bay NAS is not quite the dead-end it once was! Below I have detailed some of the BEST examples of 2-Bay and 4-Bay NAS Synology, QNAP and Asustor that are great examples of margins between each tier has become spectacularly narrow.  If you are still unsure on how to proceed, be sure to take advantage of the free advice service here on NASComapres using the boxes at the bottom. We (me and Eddie the web guy!) answer every email and do it without profit in mind (i.e it’s absolutely free), so though it might take an extra day for us to reply, we will get back to you with recommendations on the best solution for you.

Synology DS720+ 2-Bay – $399+	Synology DS920+ 4-Bay – $559+
J4125 4-Core CPU – 2/6GB DDR4 – NVMe SSD – 2x1Gbe	J4125 4-Core CPU – 4/8GB DDR4 – NVMe SSD – 2x1Gbe
QNAP TS-253D 2-Bay – $389+	QNAP TS-453D 4-Bay – $549+
J4125 4-Core CPU – 4/8GB DDR4 – PCIe Slot – HDMI – 2×2.5Gbe	J4125 4-Core CPU – 4/8GB DDR4 – PCIe Slot – HDMI – 2×2.5Gbe
Asustor Lockerstor 2 2-Bay – $379+	Asustor Lockerstor 4 4-Bay – $499+
J4125 4-Core CPU – 4/8GB DDR4 – NVMe SSD – 2×2.5Gbe	J4125 4-Core CPU – 4/8GB DDR4 – NVMe SSD – 2×2.5Gbe

 

 

The HAS5300 Hard Drives – New SAS Media from Synology Revealed

Yes, that’s right. Synology has now released a range of SAS (12Gb) hard drives in the HAS5300 series. Last year, when Synology first revealed that they were going to start producing their own range of SATA hard drives for their Diskstation and Rackstation NAS servers, many were a little dubious. Fast forward to 2021 and the HAT5300 8TB, 12TB and 16TB drives are quite well established and aside from some early concerns about hardware locked compatibility and global hard drive shortages caused by Chia (GAH!), Synology’s move towards producing complete 1st part equipped solutions for business is progressing quite smoothly. However, the HAS5300 SAS series of hard drives has clearly been developed to address a glaring inconsistency in their series of devices released in 2020/2021 that featured BOTH SAS and SATA compatibility, but in some cases might have had more streamlined compatibility listings! The HAS5300 is a 7200RPM, SAS interface connected and 256/512MB cache equipped range of hard drives that, although rather similar to the HAT5300 range in terms of performance, durability and operational environment, still allow users looking at the XS and SA systems that are SAS ready to remain truly first-party in their components. So, what do these SAS hard drives have to offer? Are they much different to their SATA alternatives (as we are still talking HDD, not SSD) and should you consider them in your next Synology Solution in 2021/2022? Let’s take a look.

What Are The Specifications of the Synology HAS5300 SAS Hard Drives?

When looking at the specifications of the Synology HAS5300, it needs to be highlighted that much like the HAT5300 series that came before, Synology is not manufacturing/constructing these drives in-house. The Synology HAS5300 drive is built on top of the Toshiba MG08 series. They have added their own Synology DSM specific firmware to keep the system media tailored to the enclosure they are inside, as well as allow supporting internal Firmware update functionality within the Synology Storage manager of DSM 6.2/7.0. Synology has worked with Toshiba on the HAT5300 series before, because of the high endurance workload rating (550TB per Year) on this series and the impressive 230-262MB/s performance benchmark they provide. That said, many users will leap onto the work SAS and think these are going to massively outperform SATA. However, we are still discussing mechanical hard drives here and though the interface allows an impressive 12 Gigabits per second, these drives are still going to comparable to mechanical enterprise hard drives. Why Synology didn’t focus more on SAS SSDs (or hurry up on a U.2 SSD Flashstation solution already) over these HDDs is a little puzzling. Nevertheless, they arrive in three capacities and each can be compared against the Toshiba model ID below:

HAS5300-8T = MG06SCA800E

HAS5300-12T = MG07SCA12TE

HAS5300-16T =MG08SCA16TE

Here is a full breakdown of the specifications of each Synology HAS5300 SAS Hard Drive:

Hardware Specifications		HAS5300-8T	HAS5300-12T	HAS5300-16T
Where to Buy
General	Capacity	8 TB	12 TB	16 TB
	Form Factor	3.5″	3.5″	3.5″
	Interface	SAS 12 Gb/s	SAS 12 Gb/s	SAS 12 Gb/s
	Sector Size	512e	512e	512e
Performance	Rotational Speed	7,200 rpm	7,200 rpm	7,200 rpm
	Interface Speed	12.0 Gb/s, 6.0 Gb/s, 3.0 Gb/s, 1.5 Gb/s	12.0 Gb/s, 6.0 Gb/s, 3.0 Gb/s, 1.5 Gb/s	12.0 Gb/s, 6.0 Gb/s, 3.0 Gb/s, 1.5 Gb/s
	Buffer Size	256 MiB	256 MiB	512 MiB
	Maximum Sustained Data Transfer Speed (Typ.)	230 MiB/s	242 MiB/s	262 MiB/s
Reliability	Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)	2.5 million hours	2.5 million hours	2.5 million hours
	Workload Rating	550 TB Transferred per Year	550 TB Transferred per Year	550 TB Transferred per Year
	Warranty	5 Years	5 Years	5 Years
Power Consumption	Supply Voltage	12 V (± 10%) / 5 V (+10/-7%)	12 V (± 10%) / 5 V (+10/-7%)	12 V (± 10%) / 5 V (+10/-7%)
	Active Idle (Typ.)	6.62 W	4.36 W	4.46 W
	Random Read / Write (4KB Q1) (Typ.)	9.87 W	7.80 W	8.12 W
Temperature	Operating	5°C to 60°C (41°F to 140°F)	5°C to 60°C (41°F to 140°F)	5°C to 60°C (41°F to 140°F)
	Non-operating	-40°C to 70°C (-40°F to 158°F)	-40°C to 70°C (-40°F to 158°F)	-40°C to 70°C (-40°F to 158°F)
Shock	Operating	686 m/s2 {70 G} (2 ms duration)	686 m/s2 {70 G} (2 ms duration)	686 m/s2 {70 G} (2 ms duration)
	Non-operating	2,450 m/s2 {250 G} (2 ms duration)	2,450 m/s2 {250 G} (2 ms duration)	2,450 m/s2 {250 G} (2 ms duration)
Vibration	Operating	7.35 m/s2 {0.75 G} (5 to 300Hz), 2.45 m/s2 {0.25 G} (300 to 500 Hz)	7.35 m/s2 {0.75 G} (5 to 300Hz), 2.45 m/s2 {0.25 G} (300 to 500 Hz)	7.35 m/s2 {0.75 G} (5 to 300Hz), 2.45 m/s2 {0.25 G} (300 to 500 Hz)
	Non-operating	29.4 m/s2 {3.0 G} (5 to 500 Hz)	29.4 m/s2 {3.0 G} (5 to 500 Hz)	29.4 m/s2 {3.0 G} (5 to 500 Hz)

 

What Are The Benefits Of The Synology HAS5300 SAS Hard Drives?

A heavy focus from Synology when you even casually glance at the specifications pages on the HAS5300 NAS HDDs is on sustained performance and durability. This is completely understandable, given that these drives are for their more enterprise-led systems that will likely be working hard 24×7 for their whole system life – so you would only want to install hard drive media that can maintain any promised performance highs CONSISTENTLY as they are accessed – regardless fo the NAS server hardware or RAID configuration. In their pages, Synology state that their HAS5300 drives run on firmware optimized for critical workloads that matter. They allow Synology systems to repair degraded RAID arrays up to 27% faster than similar-class and capacity drives

Another thing that Synology are keen to highlight in the HAS5300 series is that along with that enhanced durability of these data centre-class drives over similarly priced Pro series drives from WD/Seagate (550TB vs 180/300TB annual workload rating), these drives utilize Synology specific firmware onboard, which can only be a good thing. Not only does this mean that drives can be updated in their internal firmware CONSIDERABLY easier than other drives, thanks to be manageable in the DSM software GUI – but also that rather than the drive featuring NAS/Server parameters that need to be a fraction broader for different Windows and Linux server architecture, the HAS5300 are geared SPECIFICALLY for Synology NAS systems.

When Will The Synology HAS5300 SAS Hard Drives Be Released?

The Synology HAS5300 Hard drives for NAS are now officially released, but I can imagine that stock will not be fully available in any kind of bulk available quantity for a week to two. Regarding pricing, it does seem rather different depending on where you look, with the Synology HAS5300-8T being listed in some stores at around £298 ex.VAT and the HAS5300-16T being listed at around £556 ex.VAT. How this will translate into dollars and euros, as well as their availability will become clearer in the next few days.

 

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WD My Book NAS Devices Being Remotely Formatted

If you are reading this and you own a WD My Book or WD My Book Live Duo, then you might want to go check on it and maybe disconnect it from the internet for now. In the last 24+ hours, multiple users have reported that whilst trying to access their WD My Book NAS drive, they were barred entry with an ‘invalid password’ and mobile applications have ceased connectivity. Upon further investigation, they then find that their system has been completely formatted (ranging from directories, volumes and pools to in some cases everything) and all their data is now lost. This was originally raised over on the official WD Support blog here and not long after, multiple users at the same time have reported similar issues. Further examination of logs (once access to the system was possible) showed that remote access had been established to the system and a command to reset the system and storage be delivered. So what has happened? How did it happen and can the WD My Book Live data that people have lost be recovered?

How Did WD My Book Live NAS Drives Get Accessed Remotely

The WD My Book Live and My Book Live Duo are designed for access via the network and internet and were amoung some of WD’s first products for traditional NAS use, not just a HDD-on-the-internet, but have a GUI and dedicated CPU handling RAID, backups tasks and general system management. Remote access is conducted by accessing the NAS, through a firewall and via the official WD My Cloud Live servers (included with the cost of the device). However this remote access is what was used to push a command to the WD My Book Live system, executing the system reset with the following showing in the logs of the system )(from user Sunpeak on the WD Forums here)

Jun 23 15:14:05 MyBookLive factoryRestore.sh: begin script:
Jun 23 15:14:05 MyBookLive shutdown[24582]: shutting down for system reboot
Jun 23 16:02:26 MyBookLive S15mountDataVolume.sh: begin script: start
Jun 23 16:02:29 MyBookLive _: pkg: wd-nas
Jun 23 16:02:30 MyBookLive _: pkg: networking-general
Jun 23 16:02:30 MyBookLive _: pkg: apache-php-webdav
Jun 23 16:02:31 MyBookLive _: pkg: date-time
Jun 23 16:02:31 MyBookLive _: pkg: alerts
Jun 23 16:02:31 MyBookLive logger: hostname=MyBookLive
Jun 23 16:02:32 MyBookLive _: pkg: admin-rest-api

Since this was originally raised yesterday, lots of users have followed reporting the same, clearly showing this is an orchestrated attack of WD My Book Live systems, with the additional sad note that there has been no ransom.txt or other ransomware style communication left – meaning this has been done with the pure intention to destroy people’s data! Pretty lousy stuff! Since then this has gained considerably traction on multiple websites and the details on the National Vulnerability database (click below) has been updated serval times:

 

How Has Western Digital Responded to the WD My Book Live Attack

The response from WD on this NAS attack has been remarkably swift, considerably faster than I have personally seen from other brands suffering similar circumstances in previous years, with official instruction and widespread notification on their platforms in considerably less than a day. WD Have stated on their Security Advisory pages:

WDC Tracking Number: WDC-21008
Product Line: WD My Book Live and WD My Book Live Duo
Published: June 24, 2021

Western Digital has determined that some My Book Live and My Book Live Duo devices are being compromised through exploitation of a remote command execution vulnerability. In some cases, this compromise has led to a factory reset that appears to erase all data on the device. The My Book Live and My Book Live Duo devices received its final firmware update in 2015. We understand that our customers’ data is very important. We are actively investigating the issue and will provide an updated advisory when we have more information.

Advisory Summary – At this time, we recommend you disconnect your My Book Live and My Book Live Duo from the Internet to protect your data on the device.

So, in short, WD believes this has been caused by the use of a remote command push to the WD My Book Live and WD My Book Duo Live NAS systems via an unpatched exploit on the system. They maintain that the issue is not caused from within their server-side, but are working on this right now to get to the bottom of it.

How Can A Vulnerability of the WD My Book Live Not Be Patching in a Firmware Update?

As previously mentioned, the WD My Book Live and My Book Live Duo were some of their earliest real NAS releases, as far back as 2010. Although these systems received numerous updates, the final update for this system was officially issued in 2015(see below)

Given the predicted life of hard drives, the lifespan of products and their broader commitment to customers, it is not unheard of that they would cease firmware updates on a product line after a given period of time (the same can be said of the majority of software-enabled hardware in our homes and business environment). However, this comes as little comfort to those data that has been deleted. Additionally, this is a vulnerability that was raised back in 2018 by ‘Wizcase’ and found on numerous ‘first generation’ NAS systems that were released in this period. At that time, WD responded to this officially with:

“The vulnerability report CVE-2018-18472 affects My Book Live devices originally introduced to the market between 2010 and 2012. These products have been discontinued since 2014 and are no longer covered under our device software support lifecycle. We encourage users who wish to continue operating these legacy products to configure their firewall to prevent remote access to these devices, and to take measures to ensure that only trusted devices on the local network have access to the device.”

Once again, there is a balance here that users need to keep in mind between reliance on the hardware purchased and the rigidity of a solution a considerable length of time since release, as well as the maintenance of backups in a robust data storage strategy. It will be interesting to see how WD respond to this situation as it unfolds.

Can The Lost Data on the WD My Book Live and My Book Live Duo Be Recovered?

As this has been a format conducted on the system as a whole, it makes the recovery of data on a Factory Reset/Wipred WD My Book Live very difficult! In previous cases of malware encryption or malicious data destruction, many users have taken advantage of the tremendously useful PhotoRec tool (previously featured in the QNAP Qlocker Recovery guides). PhotoRec is a file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks (as well as legacy storage media like CD-ROMs) and memory cards. PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media’s file system has been severely damaged or reformatted. However, this is by no means full proof and does require a little more technical knowledge than many might have (with interfacing with the NAS in a software-accessible way being the first major hurdle). Here is an example of a PhotoRec recovery guide, but we are hoping quite soon for a more WD My Book Live specific guide with surface shortly.

Is My WD My Cloud or Regular WD My Book Direct Attach Storage Device Affected?

At this time there are no reports of this affecting the current generations of WD My Cloud, WD My Cloud Pro, WD My Cloud EX2 or WD My Cloud Sentinel Systems (which have far more recent firmware updates). Likewise, this will not affect WD My Book systems lack network/ethernet connectivity, as this lack both the means of communication and the software interface to inject the malicious command remotely.

 

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

 

SEARCH IN THE BOX BELOW FOR NAS DEALS

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.   This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today’s video. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

SSD, Memory and Switch Bargains at Amazon this Prime Day 2021

Amazon Prime Day 2021 moves into Day 2 and more deals have arrived (alongside a little more stock of popular ones yesterday) and if you have been looking for the right time to buy network or storage upgrades on Amazon, then you would be hard pushed to find a better time than now. I have already discussed multiple NAS and Hard Drive deals that were available yesterday, but today I want to focus on the upgrades. The memory (predominantly from Crucial), next-gen M.2 NVMe SSDs (PCIe Gen 4×4 only – nothing older) and even added a few network switches for those who are making the jump from their ISP router and on to a better and more robust network environment in 2021. Take a look below.

Amazon Prime Day Deals – Crucial Memory Upgrades

If you have been looking at upgrading the memory in your NAS system, then you have likely considered Crucial. Some NAS brands are more particular than others about compatibility and support, so be check in advance about your NAS brand’s terms before proceeding with a RAM upgrade. There are 6 core deals right now on Amazon on DDR3 and DDR4 Memory and although some are better than others, they are all quite impressive price drops. Note, if you need guidance on the correct Memory for your needs, use one of the NAScompares Memory Upgrade Guides here.

— Amazon Prime Day 2021 22nd June – Crucial Memory Deals —

 

Amazon Prime Day Deals – PCIe Gen 4×4 NVMe M.2 SSDs

If you are looking for a new high-speed upgrade for your gaming rig, video editing workstation or potential modern console storage, then the following SSD are the ONLY deals this prime day that I have found that are ALL PCIe Gen 4×4 drives (with some peaking at 7,000MB/s). For those looking at M.2 NVMe SSDs this Amazon Prime Day 2021 for your PS5 Storage upgrade, do remember that this feature at the time of writing (June ’21) has not been enabled BUT the following NVMe SSDs are all PCIe Gen 4×4, which is the expected minimum for the Playstation 5 Storage Expansion upgrade slot. The deals below are by far the best I have seen for PCIe Gen 4×4 NVMe that I have seen this year and if you want to grab a bargain now, these below drives are the best that I have seen so far on Amazon. Take a look:

— Amazon Prime Day 2021 22nd June – PCIe Gen 4×4 NVMe M.2 SSD Deals —

 

Amazon Prime Day Deals – Network Switches

There comes a point when your existing wired network setup is just too full! Whether you have graduated away from your ISP router, or have been running a switch in your home/office for a while and increased time sent working from home has led to the inevitable conclusion that you need more network connections – upgrading your network switch is always beneficial and an easy upgrade indeed! Amazon Prime Day 2021 has revealed very few switches, both managed and unmanaged, but luckily I was able to spot the following 4 models that range in price, ability, connections and build quality. Take a look and see if any of these are the answer to expanding your network for the better in 2021.

— Amazon Prime Day 2021 22nd June – Network Switch Deals —

 

Haven’t Found the Right Deal for Yet?

If you are still looking for the right product this prime day, I recommend using our FULL List of Prime Day 2021 Deals on NASCompares (Updated Hourly) – https://nascompares.com/best-prime-day-deals/

Next, you can use the links below to highlight the best deals that have been spotted on Day 1 and Day 2 of Amazon Prime Day 2021:

DAY 1 Best Amazon Deals Seagate Ironwolf Pro 4TB $146.99, NOW $118.99 Synology DS920+ NAS – £113.59 (22%) Price Drop QNAP TS-451D2 NAS – £439.99 NOW £417.99 Synology RT2600ac Router, You Save: $48.00 (24%) WD Black SN850 PCIe4 NVMe SSD 40% Price Drop WD Blue HDD – You Save: $88.00 (48%) Synology MR2200ac Mesh Router £141.99 NOW £124.46 QNAP TS-230 NAS £179.99 NOW £159.99 Seagate Firecuda 520 NVMe PCIe 4×4 $31 off PNY XLR8 CS3040 4TB M.2 NVMe Gen4 x4 $160 OFF NETGEAR 8-Port Switch GS308E 38% Drop

DAY 2 Best Amazon Deals WD_BLACK 500GB SN850 NVMe $60 OFF Netgear GS305 Switch 38% OFF Sandisk 1TB Extreme Pro SDSSDE81-1T00-G25 48% OFF TP-Link Litewave 8 Port Switch LS1008G $14 Synology RT2600ac Router $48 OFF Reolink ONVIF IP Cameras (Multiple Deals) WD 5 TB My Passport USB Drive 28% OFF Crucial P2 CT250P2SSD8 250GB NVMe 36% OFF WD My Cloud WDBBCL0040JBK-EESN £67 OFF TP-Link Powerline Adapters (Multiple Deals) TP-Link 3xGigabit Powerline Adapter TL-WPA8631P KIT 31% OFF WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra 8TB 20% OFF Seagate 1TB External USB STKB1000404 +2Yr Recovery 27% off Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB PCIe 4×4 NVMe SSD 33% OFF

These links are affiliated by the amazon affiliate program (mentioned in the videos below for more info)

Alternatively, you can follow our YouTube channel that is highlighting the best deals available as they appear with regular videos

 

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

 

SEARCH IN THE BOX BELOW FOR NAS DEALS

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.   This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today’s video. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

 

Hard Drives Deals to Look Out for This Prime Day 2021 – Seagate & WD

Many people will be flocking to Amazon this Prime Day 2021 and a decent number of them are doing it so that they can finally upgrade their storage. Of all the components in a modern computer, few are as easy to upgrade and present as larger a benefit immediately as increasing the available hard drive or SSD space by installing a new drive or scaling up the existing RAID. From NAS users and home cinema builders to photo and video editors, lots of people will take advantage of Prime Day 2021 to buy some new hard drive media. Every year at this event we see plenty of hard drives from big brands like Seagate and WD receive impressive price cuts in this limited sale and today I want to highlight the best drives that I recommend for each user type and to help you find the best drives to buy in the Prime Day sale.

 

 

Seagate & WD Hard Drives to Watch this Prime Day 2021 – NAS

Network-attached storage is something that over the last 10 years has evolved dramatically from an incredibly niche topic and into something that most home and business users can easily obtain and operate. Thanks to storage techniques like RAID and cloud synchronisation, the appeal of NAS storage as an alternative/parallel service to Google Drive, Dropbox, etc is tremendously popular. Many users when it comes to upgrading the existing NAS storage will look at events like Prime Day 2021 to buy hard drives from Seagate and WD, beef up that RAID and ultimately make the system more futureproof. Below are the NAS hard drives I recommend that you look out for this Prime Day 2021.

Pro Tip – Remember, If you are looking for Hard Drives above 10/12TB, it is better to opt straight for the Pro class drive, as it will give you the best value and the best performance at this capacity, though it will make a little more noise.

Seagate Ironwolf & Ironwolf Pro 5400-7200RPM, 1TB-18TB, 64-512MB, Rescue Recovery Services Inc, 3-5yr Warranty	WD Red & Red Pro 5400-7200RPM, 1TB-18TB, 64-512MB, NASWare 3.0 Firmware, 3-5yr Warranty
20% off During Black Friday	20% off During Black Friday

Seagate & WD Hard Drives to Watch this Prime Day 2021 – Gamers and Editors

Upgrading the hard drive in your gaming or editing rig this Prime Day is DEFINITELY going to be a popular choice. Hard disk (and SSD) technology has evolved incredibly over the last two decades and now we have hard drives on the market (such as the Seagate EXOS or Western Digital Ultrastar) that are faster than first/second generation SSDs. Add to this with SAS technology, hybrid drives and the soon to be released Seagate Mach.2 Drive technology and there is tremendous scope for performance when upgrading your gaming PC or Video Editing computer. Steering slightly away from the enterprise-grade drives (which are rarely featured in Prime Day and Black Friday promotion events, due to their premium scale nature and current shortages in the HDD market) below I have detailed the best hard drives from Seagate and WD to look for in the Prime Day 2021 sale that is both realistically available right now AND will provide a performance boost in your system.

Pro Tip – Remember, you can always take advantage of RAID and combine multiple drives in a single storage array to considerably improve the performance

Seagate Firecuda, Barracuda & Barracuda Pro 5400-7200RPM, 1TB-18TB, 64-512MB, Rescue Recovery Services Inc, 3-5yr Warranty	WD Blue & WD Black  5400-7200RPM, 1TB-10TB, 64-512MB, 3-5yr Warranty
20% off During Black Friday	20% off During Black Friday

Seagate & WD Hard Drives to Watch this Prime Day 2021 – Surveillance

With the popularity of affordable home webcams, IP Cameras and smart security/surveillance tech being available, the ease and attainability of Surveillance/NVR hardware to most home/business users have similarly scaled. Every year at both Prime Day and Black Friday, we see many kinds of home IP Camera (baby monitor, outdoor, desk-based, etc) appear on sale and in order to take real advantage of this, you are going to need some storage media to store those recordings! This is especially true if you are planning on using a QNAP or Synology NAS and their Surveillance Station and QVR Pro NVR respective software. Surveillance hard drives are slightly different to NAS and standard class HDDs, as these are drives that are precisely designed to focus their architecture towards sustained write activity and considerably less read (eg a 95% writing and 5% read/access activity ratio). This is because Surveillance and NVR hard drives like Seagate Skyhawk and WD Purple will be used in systems that have multiple IP cameras in the network environment, often having their recordings being kept for days, weeks or months at a time – but only really being accessed occasionally to check alerts or maintenance. So having a drive that can maintain sustained write to that degree, whilst still maintaining the ability to read simultaneously when needed is VERY important. That is why if you are looking for a hard drive for a surveillance NAS or dedicated NVR this Prime Day 2021, you should look for the Seagate or WD drives below.

Pro Tip – If you are running larger RAID arrays than 8 bays OR are planning on implementing AI-assisted surveillance (i.e. people/thing recognition live), then using the Pro or AI targetted drives is HIGHLY recommended as these support the extra cache and optimized firmware priority sets needed

Seagate Skyhawk and Skyhawk AI 5400-7200RPM, 1TB-18TB, 64-512MB, Rescue Recovery Services Inc, 3-5yr Warranty	WD Purple and Purple Pro 5400-7200RPM, 1TB-18TB, 64-512MB, Pro for AI NVR Optimization, 3-5yr Warranty
20% off During Black Friday	20% off During Black Friday

Seagate & WD Hard Drives to Watch this Prime Day 2021 – Enterprise Media

Enterprise Hard Drive media (i.e hard drives that are designed for use in high-end business archiving and large/hyper-scale rackmount architecture) are rarely featured in the Amazon Prime Day sales and 2021 will likely be a little different. However, the popularity of the Chia cryptocurrency, the shift in available storage right now (as people bulk buy the high endurance media) has led to some eShops and pop up retailers changing their focus and I think you will see SOME select capacities appearing in the Prime Day 2021 sales – just do not expect these prices to be low, as they will likely just be the normal price compared against the current inflated ‘demand’ price hikes. Although there are several popular enterprise HDD media drive types in the market, the Seagate EXOs, WD Gold and Western Digital Ultrastar still massively dominate the market. Some of the smaller capacity enterprise (eg 2TB to 8TB) might appear in the Prime Day sales, but if/when they do, it will be fantastically brief. Take a look at the enterprise hard drives I recommend you watch out for this Prime Day 2021.

Pro Tip – Just because the Biggest 16/18TB drives might not be available/in the sales, does not mean the end of the world! Remember that you can always buy multiple smaller drives and in a RAID environment, you can often massively increase the Read and Write speeds, whilst saving a few £/$ too!

a

Seagate EXOS Series 7200RPM, 2TB-18TB, 64-512MB, 550TBW, SATA/SAS & Encryption ,5yr Warranty	WD Gold and Western Digital Ultrastar 7200RPM, 2TB-18TB, 64-512MB, 550TBW, SATA/SAS & Encryption ,5yr Warranty
20% off During Black Friday	20% off During Black Friday

Seagate & WD SSDs to Watch this Prime Day 2021 – NAS SSDs

Of course, even though today I wanted to focus on Hard Drives, it would be foolish not to highlight that many users are going to take advantage of price drops this Prime Day 2021 on SSDs to make the switch from their hard drive storage (on PC/Console/NAS/etc) and onto faster and more responsive solid-state drives. Although the benefits of SSDs inside most systems have been very well documented in the last decade, it is worth highlighting that the benefits of SSD inside a NAS system are less widely known. Seagate Ironwolf and WD Red/Black have been starting to appear in peoples Synology and QNAP NAS systems and this is likely going to increase this Prime Day. Why is that? Well SSD can be used in a NAS in three key ways. Firstly, as the main storage pool, which will dramatically increase the read/write of the RAID array and data access. Second, they can be used in Tiered storage, where the NAS drive will learn what data is most frequently accessed and move it to the SSD portion. Or in caching (the most popular) which keeps copies of the most frequently accessed data on the SSDs and constantly changes this data as needed as your NAS usage changes. NAS SSD caching is very popular and Synology and QNAP have made this as easy as possible, even including M.2 NVMe slots on their latest systems to facilitate this. Both Seagate and WD will feature numerous NVMe and SATA SSDs deals and below I have detailed the ones I recommend you look for this Prime Day 2021.

Pro Tip – Remember that even though an SSD has faster Read/Write performance, higher IOPS and will improve the responsiveness – these improvements arrive with a significant DROP in endurance and if you use NAS SSDs consistently and daily, the NAND inside will likely wear out much faster than if you used NAS hard drives. So if you are a business user, maybe consider NAS SSD for JUST caching or tiered storage, not as your primary NAS media this Prime Day

Seagate, Firecuda, Ironwolf 125, 510 & Ironwolf 520 3D TLC NAND, 500GB-4TB, SATA & NVMe, Rescue Recovery Inc, 1.0DWPD, 5yr War.	WD SA500 and WD Black 750 and 850 3D TLC NAND, 500GB-4TB, SATA & NVMe, 5yr War.
20% off During Black Friday	20% off During Black Friday

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Hot Tips when you Buy a NAS this Prime Day 2021

In order for you to get the very best NAS deals this prime day, here are some hot tips that I have personally used for the last few years to get the very best deals.

Amazon Warehouse Deals are 20% lower

For those that aren’t aware, Amazon has a whole section of their website that is dedicated to pre-owned and opened items. This includes both NAS, hard drives, SSD and more for your storage. During Amazon Prime day 2021, the discount on these broken-seal items will be increased by an additional 20% and for those looking for an insane bargain, this will be irresistible.

Another tip when buying NAS or Hard Drives from Amazon Warehouse is that although (as they are broken seal/used/returned items) they have a shorter warranty from Amazon, you will almost certainly be able to claim the FULL warranty coverage from Synology, QNAP, WD or Seagate. They just want your serial number and a receipt of purchase – this will not state the amazon reduced warranty.

Amazon Warehouse for different countries can be found below:

 

Amazon Warehouse USA

Amazon Warehouse UK

Amazon Warehouse Germany

Latest Deals Update and Notifications

If you want to make sure you see the LATEST prime day deals for NAS (as new ones are added every hour) then I would recommend checking the official Amazon Prime page regularly. It will also include the very latest Lightning Deals too

US Amazon – Amazon Prime Day Page

UK Amazon – Amazon Prime Day Page

Amazon Prime for FREE

The prices listed on Amazon for NAS during the Prime Day event are only available to Prime members. If you are not a member, don’t worry, as you can use the 30-Day free trial to sign up for a Prime, or just pay for 1 month of Prime as a student and get it at 50% off. Then after you finish your purchase, you can cancel your subscription. The other bonus of this is that you will qualify for fast, next day delivery for free. I would recommend however that you do not cancel your subscription until you have received your order and tested your item.

As then you will still be able to take advantage of the fast and free return policy extended to Prime members. This is especially useful when buying NAS Hard Drives and you are worried about broken drives!

Improved Delivery on your NAS Prime Day Deal

It is a well-known fact that Amazon Prime membership includes free next day delivery and Amazon has even upped the stakes by stating that they will be providing the fastest-ever Prime Day delivery of just 14 minutes between the cart and the courier, last year we saw and heard numerous examples of delivery issues with prime day deals, adding 2-3 days on supposed next-day shipping.

If any of your Amazon Prime delivery dates are not the 24 hours turn around that they promise, then definitely complain to Amazon after you receive your goods (not before) as they will almost certainly have a deluge of customer enquiries after prime day 2021 and  in an effort to conclude the matter, you might get an additional discount, a gift vouchers or more. Currently, the trending ‘gesture of goodwill’ gift is a free month of Prime membership.

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

 

SEARCH IN THE BOX BELOW FOR NAS DEALS

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at Amazon US and Amazon UK on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below. Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. [contact-form-7] Terms and Conditions Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.   This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today’s video. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

 

How Noisy Are Seagate, WD and Synology Hard Drives?

If you have ever been in close proximity to any modern large capacity hard drive, you will be well aware that despite their attractive high capacity, that they generate a fair amount of ambient noise. Hard drives have changed substantially over the last decade or more and in order for them to facilitate the high speeds and high consistent performance that end-users demand, a great deal of work has gone into the internal mechanics of the modern hard drive. Whenever I recommend a NAS solution to Prosumer and Business users, I always make a point to highlight that the more industrial the data storage setup, the more noise the drives will make. It isn’t just the capacity either, with some brands having dedicated in-house hardware techniques on their product lines resulting in the same capacity on different HDD brands sounding noticeably different. Over the last year, I have conducted numerous sound tests on the most popular hard drives used in NAS and below I have detailed all of them. So if you are on the verge of buying a network-attached storage device and are slightly worried about how much noise these systems will generate because of those mechanical hard drives, this is definitely the article for you.

Hard Drive Noise – Why Should You Care?

It is a valid question, as most hardware in the world seemingly makes some kind of noise, from the light electric hum of a light bulb to the internal combustion of a car. Why is noise on a hard drive any more/less important? Here are the most common concerns of a noisy hard drive:

My Hard Drive Sounds Broken, But Is It?

This is the most common reason for many to query the noise of a hard drive. Particularly in a larger capacity and therefore more expensive drives, when installed, many users hear unusually high-pitched whurs of the disc or remarkably abrupt clicks. In fact, a lot of the most recent 16TB and 18TB hard drives on the market sound not unlike a broken hard drive sometimes, as the industrial internal hardware flicks between actions internally on the fly. Many users worry that the new expensive hard drive or larger RAID array is broken on day one because of noises like these. Here is an example of a Healthy 3.5″ Seagate Hard Drive at 8TB:

 

and HERE is an UNHEALTHY WD 3.5″ Hard Drive:

As you can tell, if you know what to listen for, they suddenly become very distinct.

Video & Photo Editors Care About Hard Drive Noise

If you are editing photos and video on a NAS over the likes of thunderbolt or sometimes in a direct 10Gbe environment, then you will be all too familiar with the irritation of noisy hard drives. This extends to more than just NAS drives and RAID, as it also applies to those of you that use particularly large external DAS hard drives from the likes of LaCie (who uses Seagate HDDs) and GTech (who use WD and UltraStar). If you want to edit photo or video in this way, then you are going to be in close proximity to the data storage enclosure. Unless you are using pretty good noise-cancelling headphones to edit your work, the spins, hums, whurs and clunk noises will be a constant irritation that only amplifies as your storage enclosure grows too. 

 

A Noisy NAS and/or Hard Drives Ruining Your Media Enjoyment

Finally, there is the effect of noisy HDD populated storage enclosures like NAS or DAS whilst watching your own personal multimedia at home. Most help users have a NAS directly connected to the router at home (being far too small a network hardware environment to justify a network switch purchase). However, those same people when having the internet service provider hardware installed in their home likely have the router in the same room as their sofas and a big TV (as it will be connected to their TiVo box, media streamer, Smart TV, etc). Those same users who want to access media from their NAS and watch it on the big screen will suddenly be disturbed during the heavier plot moments of their favourite show by what sounds like a hard drive having a fit in the corner of the room. This can be especially galling as most users who buy a NAS for home media will want to ‘futureproof’ their storage capacity up and then buy even larger hard drives to make sure the system lasts as long as possible as their collection grows, therefore the noise generated will be suitably increased as well.

So, as you can see there are plenty of reasons why the noise generated from as little as a single hard drive to an entire RAID enabled configuration is worth getting worried about. So let’s talk about each of the brands, their hard drives and how much noise each one makes. Each Drive mentioned below includes a video demonstrating which includes the noise of each HDD spinning up, performing a consistent right action and performing a consistent read action. I have also included a decibel metre and include typical megabytes per second performance for each action. Tests were performed using an external Sabrent USB 3.2 Gen 1 silent dock, with a microphone at no less than 30cm. For sensitivity reasons and in order to better distinguish the drive noise from any potential ambient noise, the db(A) Meter includes a -10 dbA difference. Let’s take a look/listen at how each drive sounds and performs below:

WD Red NAS Hard Drives – Quiet but SMR & Low Capacity

1-6TB, 5400RPM, 64-128MB Cache, 180TBW, 3yr Warranty $50-180   

Almost certainly the drive that most people have used over the last few years in their NAS, the WD Red hard drive series is one of the quietest drives on the market for NAS. Aside from the concerns of SMR and CMR disparities on this more affordable series, this is advised for quieter but consistent/steady home use. However, if you are looking for a dedicated PMR/CMR drive in a larger capacity, you may wish to skip this.

+ Affordable Price Tag

+ Low Noise and Power Consumption in 24×7 Use

+ Good base level of Capacities Available

– Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR)

– Performance is fairly average in the smaller capacities

 

Seagate Ironwolf NAS Hard Drives – Little Noise, Good Capacity, Data Recovery

1-12TB, 5900-7200RPM, 64-256MB Cache, 180TBW, 3yr Warranty, Rescue Data Recovery Services Included $50-480  

The quietest hard drive for NAS in the Seagate portfolio, only fractionally noisier than WD Red (though 10-14TB are noticeably louder), these arrive in larger capacities and are all CMR/PMR. They are also the best price per terabyte of any drive in this list.

+ Excellent Price Point

+ Rescue Data Recovery Services

+ Seagate Ironwolf Health Management

+ ONLY CMR/PMR Drives in their NAS Range

– Max Drive Capacity is 12TB

 

WD Red Plus NAS Hard Drives – Quiet in Smaller Capacities, All CMR/PMR

1-14TB, 5400/7200RPM, 64-512MB Cache, 180TBW, 3yr Warranty, WD Red Plus 1-14TB (CMR) $50-400  

The WD Red plus series is is the CMR/PMR alternative to standard WD Red DM-SMR drives. Still a very quiet drive, it also arrives in larger capacities. Although it is is a fraction more expensive than the standard Seagate Ironwolf.

+ Affordable Price Tag

+ All WD Red Plus are CMR/PMR

+ Low Noise and Power Consumption in 24×7 Use

+ Good base level of Capacities Available

– Noise is Higher in Larger Capacities

 

Seagate Ironwolf Pro NAS Hard Drives – Fast But VERY Clicky When in Operation

4-18TB, 7200RPM, 256MB Cache, 300 TBW, 5yr Warranty, Rescue Data Recovery Services Included $80-560  

Seagate Ironwolf Pro hard drives are designed for larger storage arrays, are available all the way up to 18TB (and soon HAMR 20TB drives) and unfortunately, it is at this point where hard drives start to get noticeably noisier. They arrive with free Data Recovery Services much like the standard version, but due to their more industrial design and larger storage capacities, this is a noticeably noisier hard drive. This is especially noticeable at spin-up

+ Excellent Price Point vs Ironwolf NON-Pro in the Portfolio

+ Rescue Data Recovery Services

+ Seagate Ironwolf Health Management

+ ONLY CMR/PMR Drives in their NAS Range

– Smallest Drive Capacity is 4TB

– Noticable Boot Up Noise

 

WD Red Pro NAS Hard Drives – Noisiest WD Red Drive but also the Fastest and Largest

2-18TB, 7200RPM, 128-512MB Cache, 300TBW, 5yr Warranty $99-600  

Much like the Seagate NAS Pro drive, WD Red Pro is there industrial hard drive that is available in a larger storage capacity than any other WD Red drive, is a few degrees quieter in general operation than the Ironwolf Pro (still loud though), but is also noticeably more expensive as you look at greater HDD capacities in the range. Still, it’s a very good, reliable and rugged drive.

+ Top Tier NAS Drive Performance

+ 300TB/Y Workload

+ Build for up to 24-Bay Servers

– Certainly Noiser than non-Pro equivalents

– More Expensive than the Seagate Pro Option

 

Synology HAT5300 NAS Hard Drives – Loud, but a Data Center Drive at a Pro Price

8-16TB, 7200RPM, 256/512MB Cache, 550TBW, 5yr Warranty, Synology System ONLY, Firmware Control on Synology DSM $250-450  

Synology has its own range of first-party hard drives in the HAT5300 series, which although equally as noisy as most other industrial hard drives, benefits from numerous Synology brand extras like easy firmware updates and 550TBW, well as arriving with a price tag that is comparable to WD Red Pro and Seagate Ironwolf Pro drives, despite its data centre class build. A good drive but definitely at the noisier end of the spectrum.

+ Enterprise Drives at a PRO class Price

+ 550TBW on ALL Capacities

+ Drive Firmware can be Updated from within the Synology DSM GUI

– Using them in not Synology NAS Hardware is not Supported

– Performance is a pinch lower than WD Red Pro (5-15MB/s)

 

Western Digital Ultrastar Data Centre Hard Drives – Highest Performance, but Cover Your Ears!

1-18TB, 7200RPM, 256-512MB Cache, 550TBW, 5yr Warranty, FIPS and SED Options, SATA, SAS and U.2 NVMe SSD Options $70-550  

The Western Digital Ultrastar data centre class hard drive is easily the noisiest of all the drives that are mentioned today. They have the biggest capacity, the largest range of interfaces and encryption methods supported, but definitely are the noisiest drive on this list and are not advised for use in close proximity. This is truly a data center class drive and designed specifically for use in a rack cabinet, far away!

+ Consistently High Performance

+ Well Establish HDD Drive and Brand

+ Numerous Interfaces, in-Drive Encryption Systems and Choices

– DEFINITELY one of the most confusing product ranges

– Noticeably Noisy at boot

 

Seagate EXOS Data Center Hard Drives – Big, Loud but Surprisingly Affordable

1-18TB, 72000RPM, 256-512MB Cache, SAS & SATA Options, 550 TBW, 5yr Warranty, $80-460   

The EXOS series is the Seagate data centre class drive and is certainly a noisy one at that. Not really designed for close proximity, much like the Ultrastar class, it arrives with numerous interface options in SATA and SAS, as well as numerous encryption methods supported. Though not quite as noisy as the ultra star series, they are still quite high on decimals when in use but are a degree lower in price than Ultrastar and Ironwolf Pro.

+ Huge Range of Architecture Options (FIPS, Military Encryp, 4KN, SED, SAS and more)

+ Constantly Evolving (Mach 2 versions, x14, x16 & x18 etc)

+ Comparatively Lower in Price vs Ultrastar

– Range Can Be Confusing

– Noisy!

 

And there you have it, a breakdown of the current popular hard drives on the market, the noise they make and whether they provide a good noisy vs price vs capacity balance. If you need still need help choosing the right storage media, feel free to take advantage of the COMPLETELY FREE and NO REGISTRATION NEEDED advice section below. Sorry to put that last bit in capital letters and in bold, but I really do offer this service at no charge and people just like these things clear! This is a free service manned by myself (with a little help along the way) and if you can just let me know the storage requires below, your budget (no necessary, but allows me to scale it a bit to your needs and not destroy your budget) and I will get in touch as soon as you can.

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