This DeskStar features vibration safeguard, data security with bulk data encryption, and ability to run 24x7. The power usage isn't the best ofthe lot, but when users demand performance, this DeskStar won't let your file server down.

It topped with an average of 91.4 MBps in Everest's random write test. Random read performance was very close too, at an average speed of 91.6 MBps. We measured linear read and write tests at 96.2 and 96.5 MBps respectively. These numbers are about 20% faster than the drives placed third and fourth. In our real world simultaneous read-write test, it took only 825 seconds to complete the test.

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Creating an archive took 78 seconds, while extraction took 187 seconds, thus showing the best simultaneous read write performance of the lot.

Intra-partition file transfer speeds hovered around 38 MBps. The average access time clocks in at 12.82 ms.

Every time a drive powers on and off, it undergoes some wear and tear. Over a few years this strain can accumulate and be a potential cause for failure. In this case, the number of start-stop cycles is rated at 300,000 (not the best in this comparison, but still not a cause for worry as even this number is very high).