wolrah posted:

It's just a firmware thing. The access patterns of a DVR or similar are different from those of most home users, so the firmware can be designed in a way that's optimized for that use, sacrificing performance in other areas.

In terms of physical hardware, the "DVR Edition" or whatever drives are identical to their standard use counterparts. They're just software-optimized to perform well with at least two "simultaneous" writes and one read going at any given time.