Neither PB Tech nor Seagate's official spec sheet let on that this drive is a SMR (shingled magnetoresistance) model which means writing performance is awful beyond a couple of Gb, particularly random writes. See:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Seagate/comments/foach9/i_feel_cheated_by_seagate_barracuda_2tb_2016_vs/
Drive does work but 2 stars for Seagate trying to hide this. Don't even think about trying to RAID this.
If write performance is important to you, consider the Western Digital Blue WD40EZRZ 4Tb instead, which is a PMR drive (like older hard drives). Both manufacturers are sneaking SMR drives into their lineup though without disclosin...view more Neither PB Tech nor Seagate's official spec sheet let on that this drive is a SMR (shingled magnetoresistance) model which means writing performance is awful beyond a couple of Gb, particularly random writes. See:
https://old.reddit.com/r/Seagate/comments/foach9/i_feel_cheated_by_seagate_barracuda_2tb_2016_vs/
Drive does work but 2 stars for Seagate trying to hide this. Don't even think about trying to RAID this.
If write performance is important to you, consider the Western Digital Blue WD40EZRZ 4Tb instead, which is a PMR drive (like older hard drives). Both manufacturers are sneaking SMR drives into their lineup though without disclosing them, even some WD RED drives now.

Currently using this as bulk storage for all my Steam games (plenty big enough so far), and it's definitely fast enough to play said games from. Currently using this as bulk storage for all my Steam games (plenty big enough so far), and it's definitely fast enough to play said games from.

Nice drive, really big capacity, and a good price. Remember, if you want a partition larger than 2TB then the partition must be initialized GPT instead of MBR. Nice drive, really big capacity, and a good price. Remember, if you want a partition larger than 2TB then the partition must be initialized GPT instead of MBR.

This is a reliable storage product, not for gaming systems, there are faster drives for that, but for reliable storage with many read write operations this drive is ideal. Your motherboard has to be able to address 4TB if you want to use the entire drive as one but you can partition and run the partitions in RAID on older systems. This drive is quieter than previous models and lower profile. Performance is good. Price for capacity is excellent at the time of purchase. This will change of course and may not apply when you read this a year from now. Since backup is essential buy 2 and maintain a back up to safeguard your data. This is a reliable storage product, not for gaming systems, there are faster drives for that, but for reliable storage with many read write operations this drive is ideal. Your motherboard has to be able to address 4TB if you want to use the entire drive as one but you can partition and run the partitions in RAID on older systems. This drive is quieter than previous models and lower profile. Performance is good. Price for capacity is excellent at the time of purchase. This will change of course and may not apply when you read this a year from now. Since backup is essential buy 2 and maintain a back up to safeguard your data.

Purchased 4 of these so far. Advertised speed is incorrect should be 5400 not 5900 other than that they work fine for storage of large files. Purchased 4 of these so far. Advertised speed is incorrect should be 5400 not 5900 other than that they work fine for storage of large files.

Value for money Value for money

If you are looking for high capacity storage at an affordable price then the 4TB Barracuda is a great choice, depending somewhat on your use case.
One thing rather glaringly omitted from the marketing material is that this is a SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing - SMR drives have been around since the early 2000s, back then they were marketed as archive drives. There's nothing wrong with the technology, and the significantly higher data density it enables has allowed manufacturers to hit low price points like with this model.
Technical details aside, this drive is great if you are a typical comp...view more If you are looking for high capacity storage at an affordable price then the 4TB Barracuda is a great choice, depending somewhat on your use case.
One thing rather glaringly omitted from the marketing material is that this is a SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drive. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing - SMR drives have been around since the early 2000s, back then they were marketed as archive drives. There's nothing wrong with the technology, and the significantly higher data density it enables has allowed manufacturers to hit low price points like with this model.
Technical details aside, this drive is great if you are a typical computer user with typical data storage needs: video, music, games, applications, documents etc. this drive is great for. In fact, provided you use case doesn't involve a crazy amount of random data writes this drive may even perform faster than non-SMR drives due to it's oversized cache (used to compensate for the downsides of SMR, I won't go into the technical details here but a quick Google will inform you if you're interested).
Really the only reason to explicitly avoid an SMR drive is if you are using planning on using it in a RAID (seriously, don't use one in a RAID) or using it for a write intensive application like running a database. They are sort of okay for use in a NAS depending on the use case, low random write rate like a media server is fine, as long as it isn't using RAID (can't stress that enough).
Bottom line: great drive for a great price, provided you fit the use cases which cover 95% of typical users.

Speeds are decent for a slower drive, but its a little louder than I would expect, but as it's just a media storage drive that's not an issue. Speeds are decent for a slower drive, but its a little louder than I would expect, but as it's just a media storage drive that's not an issue.

The product arrived swiftly and in good condition. A good solid drive to help increase your desktops storage capacity. Recommended! The product arrived swiftly and in good condition. A good solid drive to help increase your desktops storage capacity. Recommended!

Purchased four of these which are running on the StarTech PEXSAT34RH 4 Port PCIe SATA III Controller. These drives are being used as a soft raid on TrueNAS Core configured to RAIDZ2 using storage pools (6.82TB Total Storage at 5425rpm). Great purchase for those looking to make a cheap NAS system for home . Purchased four of these which are running on the StarTech PEXSAT34RH 4 Port PCIe SATA III Controller. These drives are being used as a soft raid on TrueNAS Core configured to RAIDZ2 using storage pools (6.82TB Total Storage at 5425rpm). Great purchase for those looking to make a cheap NAS system for home .

As for all HDD's not much to say besides it's working great. I wouldn't recommend using 4TB unless you're a streamer or content creator as it's a lot. And not needed for daily use. Gaming on the other hand, yes.. but 4tb is enough but.. a bit too much so if I were you I would put more money towards something else, if you're building a gaming pc, or even a regular PC. Take my advice and put that money somewhere better! As for all HDD's not much to say besides it's working great. I wouldn't recommend using 4TB unless you're a streamer or content creator as it's a lot. And not needed for daily use. Gaming on the other hand, yes.. but 4tb is enough but.. a bit too much so if I were you I would put more money towards something else, if you're building a gaming pc, or even a regular PC. Take my advice and put that money somewhere better!

By: ItsGpx 11/08/20

I bought two to add to my pc storage works well I bought two to add to my pc storage works well