Seagate launches BarraCuda SSD targeting mainstream users

[Shawn Knight]

Facepalm: Seagate hasn't had much to do with the consumer SSD market and it's new BarraCuda drives aren't all that exciting. If nothing else, perhaps they'll inspire the company to strive for more with future offerings.

Seagate this week launched a new consumer-grade solid state drive that arrives just in time for Amazon’s Prime Day shopping event.

The Seagate BarraCuda SSD looks like your run-of-the-mill 2.5-inch, SATA 6Gb/s drive. Manufactured in capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB, the drive boasts maximum sequential read and write speeds of 540 MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively, and comes backed by a five-year limited warranty.

It’s unclear if performance will vary by model nor do we know what kind of NAND chips / controller the drives will utilize; Seagate wasn’t terribly forthcoming in its specs sheet. According to a press release republished on some tech sites, drives will feature a 1.8M hour MTBF, up to 1,092 TBW and up to 90K IOPS although these details couldn’t be independently confirmed on Seagate’s website.

The 250GB, 500GB and 1TB drives are already listed on Amazon priced at $74.99, $119.99 and $229.99, respectively, as part of Amazon’s early Prime Day festivities. Amazon’s mega shopping event returns on July 16 but the company has put a ton of items on sale in the lead-up, much like it does with pre-Black Friday deals.

If you’d prefer to wait for broader availability, that’ll reportedly happen in September.

Pricing and availability of Seagate’s 2TB drive remain unknown.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75395-seagate-launches-barracuda-ssd-targeting-mainstream-users.html

 

[EClyde]

I have had great success with Seagate.

 

[OutlawCecil]

I'm an IT guy and see failed Seagate drives ALL THE TIME. Avoid like the plague. They are always on sale too.

 

[EClyde]

I'm an IT guy and see failed Seagate drives ALL THE TIME. Avoid like the plague. They are always on sale too.

What does IT guy have to do with it?

 

[OutlawCecil]

What does IT guy have to do with it?

Um, I repair broken computers as part of my job. I am constantly replacing Seagate drives. I'd say that is very relevant.

 

[dob_1]

I am just a computer user responsible for a few machines. They all have Seagate Drives and I've never had a failure. Over the last 25 years I've replaced drives with larger ones as capacities and needs grew so I've discarded Seagate drives for that reason but I can just report over a dozen or so drives I've had 100% success with no reliability issues at all.

 

[VitalyT]

I have had great success with Seagate.

SSD prices are inflated artificially, and their manufacturing cost today is under 20% of the asking price. So, in reality, Seagate had a much greater success with you than you had with them

 

[EClyde]

Um, I repair broken computers as part of my job. I am constantly replacing Seagate drives. I'd say that is very relevant.

Well I repair computers too but I am not an IT guy. Being an IT guy doesn't mean anything beyond IT, so you know

 

[EClyde]

SSD prices are inflated artificially, and their manufacturing cost today is under 20% of the asking price. So, in reality, Seagate had a much greater success with you than you had with them

I don't have any Seagate SSD's that I paid for. Bigger

 

[ShadowDeath]

229.99 for a 1TB? Mushkin released their Triactor 1TB some time ago which now costs 179.99. Seagate is a little behind the times in prices.

 

[LeoLancaster]

I'm an IT guy and see failed Seagate drives ALL THE TIME. Avoid like the plague. They are always on sale too.

Seagate drives are extremely popular, it makes sense you’d see them often when repairing systems.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

I'm an IT guy and see failed Seagate drives ALL THE TIME. Avoid like the plague. They are always on sale too.

1) What other drives are you seeing fail and at what ratio to the failure rate of Seagate drives? Please don't say none. It may reduce your credibility.
2) Are you noting the date of manufacture on each failed product because mechanical moving parts do in fact have a finite lifetime. Knowing whether the drives are failing inside or outside the warranty (and how close or far) to the warranty expiration date of would be of more help to everyone.

I have purchased and used several Seagate hard drives with much success. But even if what you say is true, this article is about SSDs. Now that manufacturers are offering 5 year warranties on SSDs what's to worry about? That speaks volumes about the level of confidence the manufacturer has in the reliability and longevity of their product.

 

[LNCPapa]

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/hard-drive-test-data.html

This should be more useful for this argument

 

[TheBigFatClown]

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/hard-drive-test-data.html

This should be more useful for this argument

I took two numbers from the first column of the stats page and divided them.
The drive days / drive count to come up with a number approximately equal to 43 days as the average life span for each drive which makes me just scratch my head. I'm not really sure what we are to learn from some of these stats really.

The stats are interesting, no doubt, but I'm not really sure they're using them in the best manner. They really should think about adding more columns. The first of which I suggested above and that is whether or not a failed drive actually failed "in" or "out" of warranty on the day of death.

 

[Mamoon69]

I'm an IT guy and see failed Seagate drives ALL THE TIME. Avoid like the plague. They are always on sale too.

I couldn't agree more. I've seen too many failing Seagate hard drives compared to Western Digital. As a computer technician, I prefer W.D. for spinning hard drives... and as for SSDs; I would search somewhere else away from Seagate not because it is bad at SSDs but because there are too many brands have much expertise and become more reliable during the past few years.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

I couldn't agree more. I've seen too many failing Seagate hard drives compared to Western Digital. As a computer technician, I prefer W.D. for spinning hard drives... and as for SSDs; I would search somewhere else away from Seagate not because it is bad at SSDs but because there are too many brands have much expertise and become more reliable during the past few years.

The fact that you see more Seagate failures over WD just doesn't really tell us anything. As one poster has already mentioned, if Seagate drives are outselling Western Digital drives then that would explain the reason your seeing more failures of Seagate hard drives. And I'm making no claims as to which one is more popular, I simply don't know.

What's the ratio of PC's that have Seagate over WD drives in them that you work on? Not just failed drives. That would tell us something about the popularity of each.

I think the most valuable statistic we could ask for out of a hard drive is the power-on hours and total data in read/writes over it's lifetime. That would be most valuable to me. But I think the whole war over which one is better becomes moot as warranties improve into the 5-year range on SSDs. Unless your just someone who really makes a point of getting every penny out of your purchases.

From my very limited research on mechanical spinning hard disk drive warranties between the two companies, they seem pretty equal.

 

[Prosercunus]

I'm an IT guy and see failed Seagate drives ALL THE TIME. Avoid like the plague. They are always on sale too.

What does IT guy have to do with it?

Working in IT myself it kind of makes sense we would see more HDD usage than your average consumer. Although the vast majority of the drives we use are western digital I have also noticed Seagate as not very reliable several years ago. I have avoided the brand altogether for well over a decade so maybe they are better now or maybe they aren't. As long as Samsung SSD and WD are reliable that is what I will continue using personally and recommending professionally.

 

[Camikazi]

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/hard-drive-test-data.html

This should be more useful for this argument

All the newest one tells me is that Seagate drives are used in MUCH higher numbers by them and run for multiple millions of days combined and don't have the highest failure rate (aside from the 4TB model), seems reliable to me. If you were to look at their lifetime failure rate you would see that WD takes that spot with the 4TB Seagate being second BUT they have twice as many (the 4TB Seagates) and they have double the drive days as the other ones so are older and have been working longer.

 

[EClyde]

Lotta folk don't like Seagate and it is pretty much cause someone else doesn't

 

[PurpleYoda]

Amazon.co.uk has all models on preorder including the 2TB one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D7ZMLDR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KZtqBb8JGXBWZ

 

[Mister_K]

What does IT guy have to do with it?

Um, I repair broken computers as part of my job. I am constantly replacing Seagate drives. I'd say that is very relevant.

If 9/10 drives are Seagate, surely it makes sense that you will see more Seagate broken drives?

Law of Averages is probably playing a great part here.

 

[pcnthuziast]

Based on manufacturing costs these days, ssd's shouldn't be more than 100 bucks per tb. When I can get a 2tb for around 200, I'll finally get ssd storage, but for now I only use a small 1 for boot.

 

[OutlawCecil]

Well I repair computers too but I am not an IT guy. Being an IT guy doesn't mean anything beyond IT, so you know

I'll leave this here for you...

IT (information technology)
ˌinfərˈˌmāSHən tekˈnäləjē/
noun

1. the study or use of systems (especially computers and telecommunications) for storing, retrieving, and sending information.

People think IT is strictly computer communications/networking but it isn't. IT is anything related to computers. I specialize in removal of viruses and errors (BSODs) and I work for an IT company.

 

[OutlawCecil]

If 9/10 drives are Seagate, surely it makes sense that you will see more Seagate broken drives?

Law of Averages is probably playing a great part here.

very possible, but I also have been replacing these drives with all Western Digital drives and haven't gotten many returned. I also know Seagate drives are common, but there's no way they have 90% more of them out there than any other brand. You can also research stress tests and many Seagate models are on top for failure rates.

 

[OutlawCecil]

1) What other drives are you seeing fail and at what ratio to the failure rate of Seagate drives? Please don't say none. It may reduce your credibility.
2) Are you noting the date of manufacture on each failed product because mechanical moving parts do in fact have a finite lifetime. Knowing whether the drives are failing inside or outside the warranty (and how close or far) to the warranty expiration date of would be of more help to everyone.

I have purchased and used several Seagate hard drives with much success. But even if what you say is true, this article is about SSDs. Now that manufacturers are offering 5 year warranties on SSDs what's to worry about? That speaks volumes about the level of confidence the manufacturer has in the reliability and longevity of their product.

1. Typically you don't see hard drives unless they are needing removed and replaced. So honestly no, I cannot say every drive I get is or is not a Seagate. I only know as I remove them, tons are Seagates.
2. It's extremely rare the PCs are still under warranty. So yes, they lasted "long enough" but gotta love getting ooooooold IDE Maxtor PCs in for recycling where the hard drives are still in working order.