Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB Hard Drive Review

Performance Summary: The Barracuda Green performed well, but is not a barn burner in light of higher-end 7200 RPM drives. After several benchmarks, it's clear that the drive performs step slower than the two 7200 RPM models we compared it to, the Barracuda XT and Western Digital's RE4. But we expected that. The real question lies in the comparison to the Barracuda Green's direct competition, WD's Caviar Green drive. Assuming you read test results and didn't skip to this conclusion, then you already know the answer. We averaged the scores across several tests and found the read speeds of both drives were similar, as Seagate's drive reached 124 MB/s and WD's hit 125 MB/s. On the other hand, the Barracuda Green held a significant advantage in write speed (109 MB/s vs 76 MB/s). Overall, it proved to be the superior drive in a head to head comparison to WD's 3TB Caviar Green. 

The cost of hard drives continues to fall. Currently priced at $119, the 2TB Barracuda Green faces stiff competition. There are several options for those looking to upgrade their storage solution at this particular price range. Within Seagate's own lineup, the previous generation Barracuda LP goes for only $79, while the XT can be purchased for $169. Western Digital offers up their 2TB Green drive for only $99 and the AV-GP drive at $119. The 2TB Caviar Black is sold at $169, just like the Barracuda XT. Hitachi actually offers a very competitive 2TB model with 64 MB cache and 7200 RPM spindle speed for only $119.

As the performance summary explained, the Barracuda Green performs about on par with WD's Caviar Green model with regard to reads, but Seagate's offering had much better write performance on average. However, the performance edge comes at a cost as the drive currently carries a $20 premium over its direct competitor. It will be interesting to see if Seagate eventually adjusts its asking price to become more competitive with the Caviar Green, but considering the Seagate drive's performance advantage a slight price premium can be justified. As of right now, consumers will have to decide if the performance advantage outweighs the cost. Nevertheless, if you're looking to upgrade your storage capacity with an affordable, low power, good performing hard drive, check out the Barracuda Green 2TB hard drive from Seagate.