CONCLUSION

   Having just recently reviewed the latest Enterprise Capacity V4 6TB SATA III drives by Seagate (6-12Gb/s SAS model review coming soon) which are simply put the fastest mechanical drives to date is reason enough for both us and you to think that the Surveillance HDD 3TB is just an average model but that's not really the case here. You see up until roughly 2 years ago the then flagship mechanical drives (Constellation ES.2/Ultrastar 7K3000) performed roughly on par with the Surveillance HDD 3TB so just 2 years later having such high performance levels in a drive aimed for such use is not a small thing especially when we're talking about one that has a rotational speed of just 5900RPM. Of course with wide use of Full HD 1080p IP cameras such performance levels are expected nowadays although the debut of 4k models may change that sooner rather than later. Temperatures and noise levels are two more good surprises although i have to admit that i didn't expect the Desktop SSHD model to be just 1 degree hotter at use (just an quick observation).

   Although the Surveillance HDD 3TB is aimed for 24/7 use with NVR/DVR devices it's not really enterprise grade material and thus right from the get go we expected a very tempting price tag and it seems we were right since it currently retails for just USD132.35 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 140Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). It really seems that the Surveillance HDD by Seagate is the ideal drive for use with NVR/DVR devices since it combines high performance levels with low electricity requirements, low temperatures and low noise levels. True unless we test one inside such a device for a long time we can't know how durable the drive is (we plan on doing so however) but leaving that aside the Surveillance HDD 3TB has everything needed to get our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Very Good Performance (For Such A Drive)
- Idle3 Spin Control Technology (Power Save)
- Power Consumption (8W During Operation)
- Temperatures/Noise Levels
- 3 Years Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- None