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Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB
| Caractéristiques | |||
| Capacity | 2 TB | ||
| Cache | 64 MB | ||
| Rotation Speed | 7200 | ||
| Size | 3.5 inches | ||
| Standard | SATA-3 6 Gbps | ||
Vincent Lheur
Translator: Catherine Barraclough
Test date: November 26, 2010
Translator: Catherine Barraclough
Test date: November 26, 2010
Getting the Right XT
Seagate currently only makes the Barracuda XT with a 2 TB storage capacity. You're therefore not likely to get mixed up when placing your order, unless you happen to stumble upon the Momentus XT—a drive that couldn't be more different from the Barracuda!
The 2 TB Barracuda XT is basically Seagate's equivalent to the Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Black. Let's see how it compares to WD's five-star hard drive.
This hard drive is part of Seagate's high-end and high-performance XT range, and to make sure it doesn't disappoint, the 2 TB Barracuda XT has a 6 Gbps SATA-3 interface, a spin speed of 7200 rpm and 64 MB of cache memory.
This hard drive is part of Seagate's high-end and high-performance XT range, and to make sure it doesn't disappoint, the 2 TB Barracuda XT has a 6 Gbps SATA-3 interface, a spin speed of 7200 rpm and 64 MB of cache memory.
Pure Performance
Remember that unlike the hard drive's overall score, the rating here is based on a comparison been all the drives we've tested, including SSDs. This can help explain surprisingly low scores.
The CrystalDiskMark test gives results that place the Barracuda XT neck and neck with its WD rival. However, it doesn't do quite so well at writing medium-sized files:
The CrystalDiskMark test gives results that place the Barracuda XT neck and neck with its WD rival. However, it doesn't do quite so well at writing medium-sized files:
The results of the AS-SSD test confirm those seen with CrystalDiskMark:
The access time test—also carried out with AS-SSD—shows the Barracuda XT lagging behind the Caviar Black, which is the second-fastest hard drive we've tested in this field (just after the unbeatable WD VelociRaptor 600 GB):
Practical Performance
The PCMark Vantage test confirms the previous findings. The drive performs very well but is still out-done by certain star models:
The Barracuda XT got a score of 5388 while the Caviar Black managed 5702.
Our more practical tests showed that the differences in performance between the Barracuda XT and the Caviar Black aren't always that noticeable in reality, and they certainly depend on the type of program used:
Pluses
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Good performances
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Huge storage capacity
Minuses
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Write performances a little disappointing
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Gets a bit hotter than the average drive
Although its write speeds aren't quite as good as the WD Caviar Black, the Barracuda XT is still a very good hard drive. It will, however, need to come down in price before it makes a serious and attractive alternative to the WD.
