Are Seagate Barracudas good drives?

[shuasgusdfal]

I am looking at getting 4 Seagate Barracuda 3Tb drives to run RAID 1 and I have researched it a bit but cant seem to find a definitive answer of whether Seagate is a reliable brand or not, I don't want to drop $600 on drives that will just fail on me. Could you please help with your experiences and expertise? I just want some information about Seagate, thanks

 

[phil22]

In my experience WD is a more reliable brand than Seagate - I have no hesitation in saying that.

 

[bl00dyMurd3r]

In my experience WD is a more reliable brand than Seagate - I have no hesitation in saying that.

This. Not to mention in my experience western digital drives run MUCH cooler. (And heat plays a large role in hard drive reliability

Seagates are fine on their own merit, but I would definitely choose western digital

 

[apache_lives]

Seagate is ok, but i like prefer Western Digital drives also.

+1 heat - a much overlooked thing, they dont need over the top crazy cooling but they last longer (on average) if there roughly the same temprature as your hands/fingers (~38ºc).

Just remember for data/reliability all brands should be treated the same - the more important your data is the more often you should back it up and the more copys you should have etc.

 

[stickmansam]

I have been using seagate drives for quite a while and have good impression of them (skipped the horrid generations of 10/11)

I generally find that with the latest generation of drives, the 7200.14, the seagates have been a lot cooler and their speed is generally as fast as if not faster than the wd drives

My seagate 2tb runs at about 35c peaking at 37 usually

Seagate also generally is cheaper

I persoanlly know people running 5 3tb seagates in raid5 and they haven been happy

 

[shuasgusdfal]

I have been using seagate drives for quite a while and have good impression of them (skipped the horrid generations of 10/11)

I generally find that with the latest generation of drives, the 7200.14, the seagates have been a lot cooler and their speed is generally as fast as if not faster than the wd drives

My seagate 2tb runs at about 35c peaking at 37 usually

Seagate also generally is cheaper

I persoanlly know people running 5 3tb seagates in raid5 and they haven been happy

I actually just looked up that specific drive and it has 3 out of 5 rating on newegg, many people saying they ordered multiple and all died...

 

[jossrik]

Any drive is bound to fail eventually. WD Black are guaranteed for 5 years, Reds are I think three years, but Reds are for 24/7 operation. You can get the Seagates much cheaper with I believe up to a two year guarantee. I like the Seagate cause of the price difference, I paid 89 for my 2Tb, and I like it a lot, way more space than my old 1Tb drive. That being said, all three of my 1Tb drives failed, 1 Hitachi, 1 Seagate, and 1 F1 Spinpoint (which at the time were supposed to be about the best bang for the buck)

If your RAID is redundant so if a drive fails you can replace it, Seagate is a good choice cause of the price, if you can afford paying double for it, the WD Blacks can't be beat, Reds, somewhere in the middle.

 

[stickmansam]

Well I have used 3 of the seagates 2tb for about 5 months and I have a friend with 5 of the 3 tb's without issues

In my opinion it really depends on the random luck if your drives fail or not and that the manufacturer doesn't really matter

Here is the 2tb version i assume you are talking about
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

But you can also see the box version (with the same had drive inside) has a better rating (smaller number of ratings but should scale up to the same)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148910

There are no caviar blue drives only this black one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136792


PCpartpicker score
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st2000dm001 [seagate = 3.7]
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd2002faex [wd-black = 3.9]

If you do want data redundancy it is better to grab 2 seagate ones and raid 1 them
It is unlikely both drives will fail and combined you get a safer experience and even if one does fail outside of warranty, you still have the other as a backup while if the black fails, you will get a new drive but all your data will be lost

newegg prices
Raid 5 seagate = 3 x 105 = 315 ( cheaper and more space due to raid 5)
Raid 1 wd black = 2 x 190 = 380 (less space but gain warranty)

Raid 1 wd black non newegg = 2 x 160 = 320 (similar price, less space but longer warranty)

In terms of the WB Blues, they have a similar failure rate to the seagates
Only the blacks have a lower failure rate
Also the WD drives are not as good in RAID to to controller limitations (afaik)

[i can't find any caviar blue 2tb/3tb anywhere]

Review of the seagte/wd 1 tb drives ( not sure who the author is so look to the numbers rather than conclusions)
http://www.tomshardware.com/us/sponsored/Seagate-Barracuda-Desktop-HDD-194_3

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2997/seagate-barracuda-720014-2tb-hard-disk-review-extremely-fast-7200-rpm-hard-drive