Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM HD Review

Performance Summary: The Barracuda 3TB displayed a few splashes of read-speed brilliance and matched up decently with the other similarly-spec’d drives in our tests. Taken as a whole, the differences between the three best performers were relatively small, although the trio beat out the Western Digital drives in our tests.However, one of those three drives is an older-generation Seagate Barracuda XT; the current Barracuda XT line is being phased out and will be reborn as a series of hybrid drives, so if you want a standard Seagate HDD with these features, the newer Barracuda 3TB is the way to go.

Prices for hard drives are most definitely on the increase these days due to shortages, and that issue is expected to continue (though it may abate somewhat) through 2012. Costs for HDDs are also not especially consistent from vendor to vendor at the moment. However, we did find the Barracuda 3TB for $229 in multiple places, which is frankly a good deal right now for the performance and capacity the drive offers.

Another factor to consider when making a purchasing decision, especially with a device like a mechanical hard drive that could eventually fail, is the warranty. Seagate used to offer a lengthy 5-year warranty, but this Barracuda 3TB has just a 2-year warranty. (The Hitachi Deskstar 3TB we put up against it has a 3-year warranty.)

The bottom line, though, is that other than the 3TB Hitachi Deskstars, there just isn’t much competition for the Barracuda 3TB. For the features and performance you get with this drive at the current price, it just might be your best bet for a 3TB monster.

Solid performance Huge capacity Price (comparatively)	Short warranty Not clearly better than drives with similar specs