Question regarding some Drives

[DanielMDA]

@seagate_surfer

 

Hey, so I was viewing some Drives for a purchase. I need a Steam Drive, so I was looking at these 5 drives:

WD Blue 2TB (its 5400 RPM)

WD Black 2TB (its 7200 RPM)

 

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 

Seagate Barracuda Pro 2TB

Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB

 

However, I have a question regarding the last 3, which are their RPM Speeds? Is the normal Barracuda 5400RPM or is it 7200? Same with the Pro, and whats the HDD RPM speed of the FireCuda? (Its never mentioned)

 

Thanks for your help.

[Lurick]

From what I can find on their website. The Barracuda alone is probably around 5400RPM, they call it " Multi-Tier Caching technology" though but I would imagine its about 5400RPM. The Pro version is 7200RPM and the FireCuda is a mix of SSD and HDD with a very small SSD cache for boosting frequently accessed files but 95% of the time they aren't worth it. I would go with the WD Black or Barracuda Pro, depending on whatever is cheaper.

[DanielMDA]

3 minutes ago, Lurick said:

From what I can find on their website. The Barracuda alone is probably around 5400RPM, they call it " Multi-Tier Caching technology" though but I would imagine its about 5400RPM. The Pro version is 7200RPM and the FireCuda is a mix of SSD and HDD with a very small SSD cache for boosting frequently accessed files but 95% of the time they aren't worth it. I would go with the WD Black or Barracuda Pro, depending on whatever is cheaper.

AFAIK the "Multi Tier Caching Technology" is for the FireCuda SSHD. Also, I ask because the 1TB Barracuda is 7200 RPM, so the 2TB might be 7200 RPM too. But then, what would be the point of the Barracuda Pro?

[Lurick]

5 minutes ago, DanielMDA said:

AFAIK the "Multi Tier Caching Technology" is for the FireCuda SSHD. Also, I ask because the 1TB Barracuda is 7200 RPM, so the 2TB might be 7200 RPM too. But then, what would be the point of the Barracuda Pro?

Hmmm, according to Seagate themselves it shows something different for the SSHD

 

https://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/hdd/barracuda/

(bottom of the page)

[DanielMDA]

6 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Hmmm, according to Seagate themselves it shows something different for the SSHD

 

https://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/hdd/barracuda/

(bottom of the page)

Well, this is confusing...

[seagate_surfer]

Hello DanielMDA,

 

There are different versions for the BarraCuda but to keep it simple all models RPM is 7200 except for the 2.5-Inch Models: 

2.5-Inch Models: Spindle Speed (RPM): 5400
3.5-Inch Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200
2.5-Inch Pro Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200
3.5-Inch Pro Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200

 

Same way for the FireCuda, the 2.5-Inch models RPM is 5400 and for the 3.5 is 7200:

2.5-Inch Models: Spindle Speed (RPM): 5400
3.5-Inch Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200

[DanielMDA]

2 minutes ago, seagate_surfer said:

Hello DanielMDA,

 

There are different versions for the BarraCuda but to keep it simple all models RPM is 7200 except for the 2.5-Inch Models: 

2.5-Inch Models: Spindle Speed (RPM): 5400
3.5-Inch Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200
2.5-Inch Pro Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200
3.5-Inch Pro Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200

 

Same way for the FireCuda, the 2.5-Inch models RPM is 5400 and for the 3.5 is 7200:

2.5-Inch Models: Spindle Speed (RPM): 5400
3.5-Inch Models Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200

Thank you very much! This helps me a LOT! You should really put this on your website. So, then, what would be better for me a Barracuda 2TB or a FireCuda 2TB? Also, does the FireCuda SSHD have that Multi Tier Caching Technology? And finally, what are the differences of the BArracuda and Barracuda Pro drives? They are both 7200 RPM, but only the normal Barracuda appears to have that "Multi Tier Caching Technology". Thank you very much.

[seagate_surfer]

Sure thing! I am preparing an answer to your question but I will reply in the forum instead of PM, I saw it was posted there too... I'll get back to you any time soon. 

[DanielMDA]

1 minute ago, seagate_surfer said:

Sure thing! I am preparing an answer to your question but I will reply in the forum, I saw it was posted there too... I'll get back to you any time soon. 

This is the forum

[seagate_surfer]

"Thank you very much! This helps me a LOT! You should really put this on your website."
Answer: I'll pass your suggestion to the team in charge of the website.

 

"So, then, what would be better for me a Barracuda 2TB or a FireCuda 2TB?"
Answer: The FireCuda because you want something that loads faster and the FireCuda is a hybrid hard drive that can help you on that department.

"Also, does the FireCuda SSHD have that Multi Tier Caching Technology?"
Answer: It doesn't seem to be needed because it is a SSHD, that means that the cache is managed by the small SSD inside the hard drive, I will get back to you tomorrow to expand more this answer...

 

"And finally, what are the differences of the Barracuda and Barracuda Pro drives? They are both 7200 RPM, but only the normal Barracuda appears to have that "Multi Tier Caching Technology". Thank you very much."

Answer: So, we have a whitepaper explaining the way "Multi-Tier Caching Technology™" works, in a few words HDDs have DRAM to cache operations for performance. The DRAM can hold data before actually flushing it to the underlying disk. Multi-Tier caching explains that the drive use multiple stages to cache the data, essentially a reserved section on the disk that will store data without fragmentation to optimize performance since sequential operations are much faster than randoms for an HDD. So the data first goes to DRAM, then to media cache, then finally gets moved to the final location of the disk. With a higher RPM the technology to enhance the cache memory is not as needed as in the drives with lower RPMs but I will get back to you tomorrow to post a little bit more about this.

 

Link to Multi-Tier whitepaper: https://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/product-content/barracuda-fam/barracuda-new/files/multi-tier-caching-technology-white-paper-2017.pdf

 

Also some other differences is that the Pro version can stay on for more hours and that translates into the ability to support a heavier workload limit, besides they include data recovery plans and 5 years warranty.   

 

Features 3.5-Inch Pro Models:
Power-On Hours per Year (24×7): 8760
Workload Rate Limit (TB/year): 300
Data Recovery and Rescue Services: Yes
Limited Warranty (years): 5
Link: https://www.seagate.com/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/barracuda-pro-12-tbDS1901-7-1707US-en_US.pdf

 

Features 3.5-Inch Models:
Power-On Hours per Year (24×7): 2400
Workload Rate Limit (TB/Year): 55
Limited Warranty (years) 2
Link: https://www.seagate.com/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/3-5-barracudaDS1900-10-1802US-en_US.pdf

[seagate_surfer]

So to catch up with what was left from yesterday, we talked to the team in charge of the website about the fact that the RPM is sometimes not reflected for some models, the suggestion was made and for the moment what we recommend you is to look for the data sheet of the device you are interested on to know what the RPM would be, 2.5 running at 5400 RPM could be accurate with some exceptions and same way with the 3.5 inches drives, they run at 7200 RPM with some exceptions.

Regarding the Multi Tier Caching Technology and the drives that include it, we will be working on this also and will come back to this post to expand the topic.

[seagate_surfer]

Hello again to everybody! I just wanted to update the topic of discussion we had a couple of weeks. We have added a column showing the RPM in our website hoping that this makes everything easier for everyone, thanks again and enjoy your weekend!