Performance: 40 out of 40.
It may not exactly be in Solid State Drive fast, even SATA SSD fast, but this drive sets a new gold standard for 7200rpm hard drives. Peaks of 270MB/s read and write. Small file performance in the double digits, even a ton of capacity. When it comes to performance there is no weak link in the Exos X16 chain.
Technological Innovation: 20 out of 20
Unheard of levels of Performance. Peerless capacity. Amazing customizability. This drive really is the epitome of ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ when it comes to innovation… just expect to pay a slight price premium for the privilege.
Build Quality & Warranty: 19 out of 20
The only possible way Seagate could improve upon the build quality or warranty is totally remove the 550TB limitation and replace it with ‘unlimited’. That is about it. Everywhere else… the Seagate Exos X16 is the new gold standard upon which every other hard disk drive must be judged.
Value: 16 out of 20
“Value” really is the one area that the Seagate Exos X16 is going to be rather controversial. On the one hand if you need the best, it is the best… and yet does not come with all that large a price premium. By the same token if you really do not need all the advanced features it has to offer… well on the typically size RAID array you could conceivably opt for four of the X16s… or five lower priced models. That is the difference between having an on-line hot spare or not. As such, the value for the intended consumer is a perfect 20. For the typical enterprise buyer, it is a 12. IE decent but not outstanding. Only you can decide its value score based on your needs and requirements. To cover all the bases we are splitting the difference for the average value score.
Final Score: 95 out of 100
If you are looking for a new monster sized hard disk drive whose only compromise is in its asking price the Seagate Exos X16 16TB capacity hard drive is the drive you want. Its performance, its durability, and even its customization is nearly unmatched. As long as you can afford the slightly, but still reasonable all things considered, asking price it is the series want. For everyone else, stepping down a notch in Seagate’s line-up may be warranted, but even then the Exos X16’s siren call is going to be awfully hard to resist. So be warned. You will not want to stop with one or even eight of these bad boys. You will never be satisfied until every drive you own is replaced by them as they will make everything else seem inferior by comparison.
