Does seagate have an equivalent to WD Black or is the barracuda the only choice for them? Also are SSHDs worth using?

[Bleedingyamato]

I would personally prefer to get a WD Black for my friend but in the interest of being open minded I thought I'd consider seagate but idk what kinds of HDDs they make or if they have one equal in performance and quality to a WD Black.

 

I should mention that I am looking for a 2TB 7200rpm HDD.

 

I feel I should ask: is seagate a reliable brand like WD?

 

I've had a few problems years ago with a couple seagate laptop HDDs so ever since I've only used WD.  

 

 

 

My other question is are SSHDs any good or not worth using?    Do they actually perform faster than a standard HDD in general or only in specific use cases?

 

 

[Sakkura]

Seagate and WD are comparable as brands.

 

SSHDs have a small cache, the most commonly used data is stored there and will be sped up dramatically. Everything else will be exactly like on a normal HDD. If you use it as a boot drive you can expect Windows to boot quickly, but not much difference beyond that.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Everyone will tell you Seagate sucks. Everyone will also tell you WD sucks. But nobody seems to tell you Hitachi or Toshiba sucks (but I'm sure that's changing). Point is, there's no HDD maker that sucks. Just people who got unlucky and would rather voice their complaints.

 

Anyway, Seagate's WD Black equivalent is the Barracuda line. Firecuda is the same, just as an SSHD. SSHD's are only useful if you find yourself accessing the same data often. It's basically a large amount of non-volatile cache on top of the normal cache. So for OSes and such, they're useful. For games, they're not as useful unless it happens to be the only game you play.

[Bleedingyamato]

1 minute ago, Sakkura said:

Seagate and WD are comparable as brands.

 

SSHDs have a small cache, the most commonly used data is stored there and will be sped up dramatically. Everything else will be exactly like on a normal HDD. If you use it as a boot drive you can expect Windows to boot quickly, but not much difference beyond that.

This would be for my friend for added storage for games, random files maybe, and possibly iTunes. 

 

So better to use a normal HDD?

[Sakkura]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Everyone will tell you Seagate sucks. Everyone will also tell you WD sucks. But nobody seems to tell you Hitachi or Toshiba sucks (but I'm sure that's changing).

Probably just because more people buy WD and Seagate, so more people run into issues with those.

1 minute ago, Bleedingyamato said:

This would be for my friend for added storage for games, random files maybe, and possibly iTunes. 

 

So better to use a normal HDD?

Well, cheaper and basically the same experience.

[Shoob]

Better get a normal hard drive. The BarraCuda drives are comparable to WD Black in terms of performance. The only benefit the WD Black drive has is the 5 year warranty. If the price difference only for extra warranty is worth it, it's up to you.

[Gikero]

I personally factor the warranty in to my purchases. I've taken apart hundreds of hard drives, and there is a big difference internally to your $45 1TB and your $100 1TB drive. I figure if a company is comfortable saying the drive SHOULD last at least 5 years, then that is a good indicator it is made with higher quality components. 

[Mooshi]

GF's rig has two 1TB WD Blue drives for mass storage while I decided to try the 2TB Firecuda in my personal rig. Not as fast as my SSD obviously, but it's definitely faster than WD Blue drives. 

 

The reason I didn't get WD black drives initially was I heard they were loud and not worth it over the blue drives. 

[Bleedingyamato]

4 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Everyone will tell you Seagate sucks. Everyone will also tell you WD sucks. But nobody seems to tell you Hitachi or Toshiba sucks (but I'm sure that's changing). Point is, there's no HDD maker that sucks. Just people who got unlucky and would rather voice their complaints.

 

Anyway, Seagate's WD Black equivalent is the Barracuda line. Firecuda is the same, just as an SSHD. SSHD's are only useful if you find yourself accessing the same data often. It's basically a large amount of non-volatile cache on top of the normal cache. So for OSes and such, they're useful. For games, they're not as useful unless it happens to be the only game you play.

But hitachi does suck.  lol

 

I had a HDD of their's die very quickly after getting it years ago.  Fastest HDD death I've ever seen.  

 

Ok.  It just occured to me to check Seagate's site and I found this:

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

 

It shows a Barracuda and a Barracuda Pro.  I'm able to see that the pro at last has a larger cache (not exactly sure what that does but I assume bigger is better) but while the pro specifically is stated to be 7200RPM the standard barracuda is silent about the spindle speed.  

 

Do do you know anything about the difference between the two versions of the barracuda?

 

 

 

10 minutes ago, Pandalf said:

Better get a normal hard drive. The BarraCuda drives are comparable to WD Black in terms of performance. The only benefit the WD Black drive has is the 5 year warranty. If the price difference only for extra warranty is worth it, it's up to you.

Ok.  I'd skip the SSHD since it apparently doesn't make a difference for most uses.  

 

6 minutes ago, Gikero said:

I personally factor the warranty in to my purchases. I've taken apart hundreds of hard drives, and there is a big difference internally to your $45 1TB and your $100 1TB drive. I figure if a company is comfortable saying the drive SHOULD last at least 5 years, then that is a good indicator it is made with higher quality components. 

There is a barracuda pro that does have a 5 year warranty if you look at the link I mentioned above.  So perhaps that drive is worth a look?

 

 

4 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

GF's rig has two 1TB WD Blue drives for mass storage while I decided to try the 2TB Firecuda in my personal rig. Not as fast as my SSD obviously, but it's definitely faster than WD Blue drives. 

 

The reason I didn't get WD black drives initially was I heard they were loud and not worth it over the blue drives. 

I'd be tempted to just use a couple 1TB WD Blues but I'm hoping to get an adapter and stick this drive in the 5.25 bay in my friend's desktop so I don't have to bother putting the HDD cage back in.  (I removed it when I build the desktop to make dealing with the PSU cables easier and I like that leaving it out makes the inside of the case more open for hopefully better airflow.  

 

Since theres only 1 5.25 inch bay I'm limited to a single HDD.  

 

 

I will admit I have heard my 4TB black in my main desktop but not all the time and I guess it doesn't bother me.  I can't hear it when I'm gaming so I'm happy enough I probably wouldn't have an issue buying another black HDD.  

 

But my friend might be annoyed by the noise so I figured I should at least consider seagate if they might be quieter.  

 

 

Anyway, you think a firecuda is worth a look?