For a nice while now ‘ancient’ spindle and platter-based storage has been all but ignored by most people. Some because Solid State Storage is all the rage, some because of their perceived lack of performance. Some just because few are as excited by the advancements that are being made in this rather mature field as we are. This is a shame because companies like Seagate are literally rewriting the rules of what is and is not possible via spindle and platter technology. Take todays focus, the Seagate BarraCuda Pro 12TB hard disk drive, for example.
Almost like clock-work Seagate has revamped and revised their BarraCuda Pro series to make it not only one of the most advanced consumer orientated drives available, but also one of the better value series available. This may sound… counter intuitive to say the least when talking about a single storage solution that commands an asking price of $460… but that is exactly what the 12TB Seagate BarraCuda Pro brings to the table.
As we have said in the past the term value is not based upon a single metric but the combination of all other metrics. First up is this asking price works out to a measly 3.8 cents per Gigabyte. Next is the performance. This ‘mere’ hard disk drive comes with sequential 250MB/s performance rating that is backstopped by surprisingly peppy smaller and random file performance – thanks to 256MB Multisegmented Cache Technology, and eight 1.5TB platters.
Beyond performance and price, the Seagate BarraCuda Pro’s asking price is further improved by the fact it comes with a five instead of three warranty which also comes with free Data Recovery Services. Equally impressive is it comes with a generous 300TB a year workload rating and is even rated for 24/7 usage. All told to get the same warranty, same capacity, and similar performance from Western Digital consumers have to look at their prosumer line or even their business orientated line-up. Yes, on paper the Seagate BarraCuda Pro has indeed a lot to offer.
The only real sticking point is that, like all mega capacity hard disk drives, it does cost a pretty penny. This does beg the question on whether or not all these perceived benefits do in fact translate to real-world tangible benefits. After all, there is a huge difference between perception and reality. So, let’s see what the 12TB ‘Cuda Pro really has to offer.
In that vein, and thanks to Seagate, in the coming pages we will not only show you what the 12TB offers over the 10TB BarraCuda Pro model, but will also show the RAID enthusiasts what this model has to offer. Then with both single and RAID numbers in hand we can help you make an informed decision on whether or not the 12TB BarraCuda Pro not only justifies its asking price… but if is indeed as good a value as it appears to be on first blush. That is indeed a lot of ground to cover so let’s dig in.
