HARD DRIVES

The Fastest 3TB Internal Hard Drive – Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB Review

Enthusiast and gamers are always on the look for the fastest drive they can get, as well as having huge capacity. If you’re one of them, it’s time for you to know the Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB. This is the best internal hard drive you can get, without worrying problems with compatibility issues concerning more than 2.2TB drives with your old OS.

In today’s computer world, software’s, games, HD movies and other file formats increases the demands for greater storage. The best solution to this is to have a huge disk space for those files. A 3TB hard drive will perfectly fit the bill, because it’s the biggest size available on the market up to date. But, what makes the Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB the fastest internal hard drive? Let’s find out why.

What Is It In the New Seagate Barracuda 3TB XT?

Hungry for space Enthusiasts are consistently searching for the biggest hard drive of today. 3TB drives are currently dominating the market after it has beaten the 2TB mark. With the release of Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB, it offers a 50% additional space to fill in more room for your important files. The Barracuda XT series is a fast drive that spins at 7,200rpm. It provides a 64MB of cache memory with the latest 6GB/s interface. Seagate took all these advantage that contributes to its faster data transfer.

As we all know that, previous XT versions with the 2TB makes a big statement on how well this drives performs. With the Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB version, it shows off more improvements over the later versions. This is perfect if you’re planning to use it as your primary drive, compare with the high priced SSD and yet small in size.

The Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB uses a 5 platter disk, making it 600GB each with 10 read/write heads. Despite of using 5 platters, it consumes relatively low power during idle and heavy operations. Seagate have listed a 7.37 Watts at idle conditions and 9.23 Watts during read/writes operations and only 0.55 Watts at stand by.      

Specs

Spindle Speed (RPM) – 7200

Interface – SATA III

Cache – 64MB

Max Sustained Data Rate – 149MB/s

Average Latency – 4.16 ms

Random read seek time – 8.5ms

Random write seek time – 9.5ms

I/O data transfer rate – 600MB/s

Heads/Disks – 10/5

Bytes per Sector – 512

Load/Unload Cycles – 300K

Annualized Failure Rate (AFR) – 0.34%

Mean Time Between Failures (hours) – 750,000

Limited Warranty – 5 years

Startup Current +12 Peak (A, ±10%) – 2.0A (24W)

Standby – 0.55W

Operating Average – 9.23W

Idle – 7.37W

Acoustics (Idle Volume) – 28 Db

Acoustics (Seek Volume) – 32 Db

Disc Size – 3.5 inch

Seagate’s Solution To Issues With 3TB Hard Drive

Most 3TB hard drive today are facing issues, various manufacturers have their own solution for this. But, the question is, what would be the best solution that suits you. We have problems concerning this with the OS issues. Windows XP users and some 32-bit Operating System doesn’t support those drives with more than 2.2TB drives because, 32-bit is 2^32 which is only equivalent to 2.19TB addressable memory. This makes it impossible for us to use a 3TB hard drive; in most cases they can’t recognize it at all.

Western Digital approach this issue by providing an additional hardware that serves as HBA (Host Bus Adapter) in their 3TB drives in Caviar Green. On the other hand, Hitachi Deskstar 3TB leaves it to the consumer without providing any software and hardware thus requires a newer motherboard with a 64-bit OS that will support the 3TB drives. Seagate approaches it differently, by providing software driver which they called “DiscWizard”.   

The DiscWizard includes the updated version of their previous tried and tested software support, with the intel’s 10.1 Rapid Storage Technology driver package, it allows compatible chipset to support hard drives with more than 2.2TB. The Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB causes the delay of its release maybe because they waiting for the intel’s driver pack. But whatever it is, they have done a great job for becoming the first one who releases the most convenient way solution for these issues.

If you’re using a newer version of motherboard that has a UEFI BIOS and the 64-bit Windows 7 Operating System, you don’t have problems with drive more than 2.2TB because, they fully support it. If not, the Seagate DiscWizard comes to the rescue. 

With the upgraded version of DiscWizard, if you still want to stick with Windows XP using the old MBR, this is definitely good news for you. This will also install driver that allows your hard drive to become bootable. In the partition table, you will notice a 2048GB usable space and the remaining 768GB will appear as a second drive. Although, you can’t use the single drive in one partition, you can do as many partitions as you can and the entire 3TB disk space are useable.

Testing the Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB

Various test was perform to see how well the Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB. This drive will compete against the older Barracuda XT 2TB, Western Digital 2TB Black and Western Digital 3TB Green.

The first test will be the loading time for Windows Vista, lower is better because it has the shortest time to boot from the OS. The Seagate XT 3TB finished at 58 seconds and tie up with WD Black 2TB. The Seagate XT 2TB ends up with 60 seconds and lastly the WD Green 3TB at 81 seconds.

The next test is the CS5 loading time, we all know that the CS5 is slow loading programs and this would be a great test for these drives. The Seagate XT 3TB finished it first for only 31 seconds, followed by WD Black 2TB with 32 seconds, third is Seagate XT 2TB at 33 seconds, last is WD Green 3TB at 46 seconds.

The next test is the read speed which is measured in MB per second; the higher value means a faster drive. The Seagate XT 3TB tops the score at 122.9MB/s, followed by WD Black 2TB at 115.5 MB/s, third is Seagate XT 2TB at 115.4, and last is the WD Green 3TB at 98.3MB /s.

The last test would be a write speed, also measured in MB/s, again higher score is better. The Seagate XT 3TB tops the score at 72MB/s, followed by WD Black 2TB at 68.5MB/s, and third is the Seagate XT 2TB at 61.3 MB /s and lastly the WD Green 3TB at 54.1 MB /s.

Test results shows that the Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB rules these entire test. Great improvement compare with the previous XT 2TB version. Although, very close with the Western Digital Black 2TB, but still those small margin really matters. The WD Caviar Green 3TB with the same capacity lags behind, this is because of its slower speed at only 5400rpm, in any given case there’s no way he can compete with these fast drives.   

Conclusion

The Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB proves it to be the fastest and the biggest hard drive at the same time. We all know about Seagate’s legacy and the flagship behind its name is definitely solid. A big improvement over the previous XT 2TB is worth a jump to upgrade with this beast. It also offers the best solution for today’s issues concerning with more than 2.2TB drives using a DiscWizard, without the need for additional hardware even if you’re still using the old Windows XP OS.

Seagate offers a 5 year warranty for this drive in contrast with other brands with only 3 year warranty. Seagate lowers its prices since the day it was first released, due to its growing number of competition. Consumers will be happy for this because it is becoming more affordable to everyone. The good thing is, it clearly dominates the position as being the fastest hard drive up to date. Read the complete Seagate Barracuda XT 3TB Review and discover theTop 3 Best 3TB Hard Drive for 2011.

About the Author

Discover the 10 things you should know in finding the best hard drive and learn more reviews of the Best Hard Drive here. 

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