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Seagate Barracuda 3TB (ST3000DM001) Review – The New Improved and Faster Version

If you’re craving huge disk space and the fastest hard drive at the same time the new Seagate 3TB external hard drive perfectly suits your needs.   

After the success of Barracuda XT 3TB that gives us a solid performance, the new improved version is more superior. This drive is packed with a huge 3TB capacity, disk space is not a problem anymore.   

Aside from its speed, this is the world’s first 1TB disk per platter drive in the form of ST3000DM001.  

Denser and Faster

  Seagate sticks in a 3TB disk space with this new version but, it has the advantage of a denser platter. Having 1TB in contrast with a 600GB in the older XT drive, the new one is reduced to only 3-platter instead of using a 5-platter drive.  

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  Although they already launched the 4TB drive if we take a look inside of it, they still contain a 5-disk drive same as the XT but, having an 800GB per platter. With this kind of technology, Seagate has to offer, a 5TB drive is expected to be out sooner.  

Fewer disks mean meander, less bulky, and low power consumption. Likewise, denser drives always have the advantage of quicker seeking time due to the lesser distance the read/write heads will travel.   

As a result, a faster performance can be expected. Besides a denser platter, it spins at 7,200rpm that runs in a SATA 6GB/s interface. In addition to that is a 64MB cache is included to handle the most frequent access data.  

Better Features

  Seagate has introduced several state-of-the-art features such as the Smart Align that helps older computers be compatible with 4K sectors, the Optic ache makes the cache processor more effective.   

The thing that I like here is the inclusion of the Disc Wizard, this makes it possible for a 32-bit OS such as Windows XP to its full usage. Likewise, older computers that don’t support more than 2TB drives will take advantage of it.

Faster Than the Previous Model  

Seagate has listed a read speed of 210MB/s, from here on you can notice a vast increase over its predecessor with the only 149MB/s in a 5-platter design drive.   

The 1TB disk model has 61MB/s faster on paper but, is it achievable in its actual performance? Let’s find out.  

Using an IOMeter for a 2MB sequential transfer speed to test its performance, the results are far better than the older model but, it doesn’t hit the written specs. It measures 164.96MB/s and 165.17MB/s in reading/write while the 5-platter disk recorded at 146.78MB/s and 145.5MB/s respectively.  

On the Random Transfer Speed test, keeping a 2MB data transfer in the IOMeter the new version is still on the lead with 70.4MB/s for reading and 57.4MB/s in write while the previous version has an average of only 54MB/s.  

Another aspect to consider that affects the drive performance is the inner and outer parts of the platter. We have to take note that the new Barracuda 3TB has a highly dense drive at 1TB per platter, therefore we’re expecting a faster transfer speed here.   

It reaches a maximum speed close to 200MB/s which is nearly at 210MB/s specified in their specs. This is a very strong lead over the older version that records at only 149MB/s.  

Low Power Consumption

  Anyone who’s looking to save power on a high-capacity drive can depend on the new Seagate Barracuda 3TB. By introducing a fewer disk on the drive it provides a less current draw to start a 3-platter compare to a 5-platter design.   

The drive has a power draw from 7.96W to 8.5W during heavy read/write tasks, this is close to its listed value of 8W during operations and 5.4W during idle. This is also true during startup, it requires only 19W as opposed to 23W for a 5-platter drive.  

Conclusion

  The new Seagate Barracuda 3TB delivers a strong lead over the previous version, this is due to its highly dense platter. This drive took all the advantage from speed, lightness, and less power consumption.   

However, not in terms of capacity but a quick jump over its performance is extremely significant. This is definitely good news for consumers who are looking for high-capacity and speed demon drive.  

With this kind of advanced technology, this earns the fastest 7,200rpm drive on the market today. The price it offers is highly competitive and a 5-year bonus warranty upon purchase making it easy to recommend and definitely an enthusiast-level drive.   

What else can we ask for the best 3TB hard drive?

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