Today, we are writing our Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review, which focuses on the hard drive from Synology. We will look at everything related to the product, such as its design, functions, specifications, features, and performance.
Synology is a famous brand among various consumers for offering high-quality NAS products. The company also designed a high-performance HDD, particularly for Synology systems. Its features and reliability make it one of the best choices for enterprise storage.
This Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review will help determine if the hard drive is ideal for your needs. Also, it will show you if its quality and offerings justify the sky-high price tag.
But before we get into the detailed information about the product, let us check what is inside the package.
Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review – Design and Functionality
The hard drive that arrived for our Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review was the 16TB version. It sports a simple design used by most hard drives for the enterprise category. Despite that, it has an all-metallic case on both sides for protection, plus a paper label in front.
The HAT5300 is a creation of Toshiba, and its design takes reference from its MG enterprise HDD Series.
Various processes were necessary to increase the capacity of this hard drive without risking downgraded performance or durability. Toshiba products are durable and solid, thus, have become the known architecture of the company.
So, it utilised the Helium Seal technology to guarantee an enduring and robust product.
A few screws of the HAT5300 that hold its front protective plate have transparent covers. Any attempt to tamper with the product and its inner construction will result in potential data loss. It will also lead to a loss of warranty.
The HAT5300 utilises a standard SATA 6 GB/s interface with two connectors. One is for power, while the other is for data transfers.
On the rear portion of the HAT5300, it has an exposed PCB. It is usual on most hard drives that do not use dedicated enclosures that conceal the metal case.
One of the advantages we saw while writing our Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review relates to the Synology ecosystem. The company designed the HAT5300 and the whole HAT series to work within the ecosystem and around its NAS products.
The HAT5300 functions with regular desktop computers, which is excellent. However, its primary features offer the convenience of installing and operating effectively with a Synology NAS.
Since it is a hard drive designed to function and integrate with the NAS ecosystem, things will be more convenient. Simply put, the HAT5300 can get easily update its firmware.
Key Features of the Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive
It is always best to know what the product offers before purchasing since this will allow you to maximise its functions. So, we are discussing everything about its features in our Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review.
Enterprise Storage Drives for Synology Systems
The HAT5300 has tight integration with Synology hardware and DSM. The company designed this HDD for easy installation and operation with a Synology NAS.
Synology performed over 500,000 hours of in-house validation testing to guarantee the endurance of this HDD. Also, the 512MB cache and 7200 rpm of the HAT5300 can ensure uninterrupted data transfers.
Enterprise-grade Reliability
Synology introduced exclusive storage drives to ensure more reliable storage systems that are easier to maintain and support. As a result, you can use HDDs that offer better performance.
The company uses stringent in-house validation across its products. This testing method maximises the time spent on comprehensive stress tests. Plus, it offers a stronger value proposition vital for enterprise and business users.
Synology offers unrivalled performance and tighter DSM integration, thanks to its years of engineering efforts and industry knowledge. The HAT5300 is not only a hard drive. It is also a commitment of Synology to provide reliability and customer experience.
Consistent Performance Scaling of the Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive
With optimisations and testing, the HDDs under the HAT5300 series can offer up to 23% higher sustained sequential read speeds. It can deliver high performance in demanding environments with multiple users, making it ideal for enterprise use.
With firmware and software collaboration, the HAT5300 delivers enhanced performance. It can function excellently for large-scale video surveillance, enterprise file server environments, and multimedia post-production.
Rigorous Validation
Synology performs over 500,000 hours and can withstand the demands of enterprise environments, guaranteeing reliable performance. The company created a proprietary stress-testing procedure based on more than two decades of industry experience.
The HAT5300 received tests for more than 300,000 hours on every storage platform released by Synology since 2017. These intensive test cycles replicate data centre environments, ranging from simple rebooting operations to complex file copying. Synology performs stress-testing methods to see the response of the HDDs to non-ideal conditions, which show product faults.
Easy Firmware Updates with the Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive
With automatic updates via DSM, the HAT5300 HDDs always benefit from the newest upgrades. The system has fewer unknown variables, so Synology can provide better and faster customer support when there is an issue.
The secure integration with DSM brings firmware upgrades with operating system updates. It also allows for simple troubleshooting when it becomes necessary in the future. With simplified firmware updates, you will not need additional maintenance sessions.
Adequately Durable for 24/7 Environments
The HAT5300 has an MTTF rating of up to 2.5 million hours. It can also support up to 550TB worth of workload per year. Plus, it features persistent write cache technology to reduce data corruption in case of sudden power loss.
Additionally, Synology optimised the HAT5300 to handle demanding and high-volume workloads 24/7. It has a high sequential throughput to help maximise the clients that a system can support.
5-year Warranty of the Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive
Synology commits to providing quality and innovation in every product release. The HAT5300 has a 5-year warranty with technical support and hardware replacement, maximising your return on investment.
Specifications
In this section of our Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review, we listed the product specifications of the hard drive. These are essential to know if the product is ideal for your needs.
As mentioned earlier, our HAT5300 is the 16TB version. If you want to own one with a different capacity, you can choose from the following options. Aside from the 16TB version, the HAT5300 has 4TB, 8TB, 12TB, and 18TB.
HAT5300 has a SATA 3.5-inch form factor measuring 26.1 x 101.85 x 147mm (HxWxD) and weighs 770g. Its interface is a SATA 6 GB/s, has a 256 MiB buffer, and a rotational speed of 7200 rpm. Additionally, it has a sector size that measures 512e.
Based on how it works, the HAT5300 has an operating temperature that ranges from 5 to 60 degrees Celsius. Then, the operating voltage for this hard drive is 5V/12V (maximum).
MTTF (Meat Time to Failure) is 2.5 million hours, while the workload rating is 550TB transferred/year.
Lastly, Synology included a 5-year warranty on the product.
Hands-on with the Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive
To see how the hard drive performed, we tried using the hard drive for more than a week. This part of our review discusses its performance, our experience with it, and if it is a product worth recommending.
Before we get into detail, let us talk about the firmware for the hard drive. When installing the product to a compatible NAS, there is one feature that everyone will love. The custom firmware can update directly from the Synology DSM storage manager and GUI.
Generally, updating the hard drive firmware is not a new thing. However, it is rare to do a full drive firmware update with the NAS, especially from within its software. And the fact that there are no instances of shutting down makes it rare.
This kind of operation typical needs the NAS to be powered down and all its drives removed. It is necessary to update it with separate desktop PCs or docking stations.
That means executing this process quickly, safely, and conveniently using the Synology GUI will save time. Additionally, it will decrease external stress on the drives in multiple ways.
Similarly, the firmware is not the standard Toshiba Enterprise NAS HDD firmware. Instead, it is a tweaked software like the Synology NAS systems.
Of course, there are a few differences present. However, there are reasons why businesses benefit from having exclusive firmware designed for the device where it will get installed. We are not only speaking about a PC/NAS in general, alright?
Generally, most users do not consider the benefits they will receive from a greater degree of firmware update and control. It is also why most individuals do not even bother with the process, nor believe it is essential.
The HAT5300 performed excellently with sequential read/write speeds. Plus, it performed perfect on random 4K tests.
For the throughput performance, the HAT5300 performed consistently high. We recorded write scores that stayed high at about 843MB/s+ during our tests. Its read speed was high and was incredibly consistant.
During idle mode, the HAT5300 was quiet, bearly making any noise at all. This will be welcome if you are someone that likes to keep their NAS in the office or home.
Even when fully loaded, the HAT5300 was a quiet and cool-functioning drive. During our time with the hard drives we found that they can reach temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius on idle and 47 degrees Celsius on maximum output.
Moreover, we hardly heard file accessing noise. So, we can assure you that it is a quiet drive. Even if we have a number of these running in the NAS 24/7, it will perform quietly.
Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review Summary
The HAT5300 is an excellent enterprise hard drive that delivers the performance that Synology claims. It is also a well-built product that is sure to last for years.
We were impressed with the speed of this HDD while testing it for our Synology HAT5300 Hard Drive Review. Its read and write scores were quick, even when we transferred multiple large files.
Although other HDDs with the same price perform better than the HAT5300, they would not match its consistency. Also, the HAT5300 operates quietly and stays cool, even without an air conditioner. At full load, it creates some noise, but it is barely audible, making it even better for enterprise use.
Aside from the excellent performance, it has multiple additions to the firmware, making it even better. Plus, it offers unmatched endurance and a workload rating of 550TB per year.
Synology is impressive for achieving this rate within the price range of the hard drive.
The HAT5300 can also work out of the box in a NAS or a standard desktop system. But, of course, it shines and functions best with a Synology NAS. The company built and designed this hard drive for that purpose.
Overall, we highly recommend the HAT5300. It is a reliable enterprise hard drive for Synology systems. It is a perfect choice if you plan to use a NAS system using the Synology software.
The price is not for everyone, but it is worth purchasing. This high-performing HDD is sure to last in the long run. Plus, you can choose from 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18TB capacities.
To learn more about the HAT5300 Hard Drive, visit the official product page of Synology.
