Pros & Cons

- Huge capacity.
- Good price.
- Impressive areal density.
- Fast transfer speeds.
- Access time, overall performance a bit slower than the competition's.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB Specs

Disk Cache Size :	32 MB
Ports:	SATA
Rotation Speed:	7200 rpm
Storage Capacity (as Tested):	1500 GB
System Type:	Desktop
Type:	Internal

All Specs

Buying a little bit of extra storage is going to get tougher, soon. With drives like the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB selling for only $180 on the street—and that includes a 5-year warranty—you may have to settle for a lot of storage. As you'd expect, at that price you'll have to accept some compromises. My applications-based testing using PCMark Vantage showed a small performance deficit compared with the numbers I got from high-end drives. But the Barracuda's transfer speed is fast, and the drive held its own on Media center, Vista startup, and application-loading tests. It'll also save you a bundle. For example, the Western Digital RE3 drive (WD1002FBYS) we tested against holds just 1TB, yet costs about $200. If you're looking to extend your hard drive capacity, this is a seriously cost-effective choice.

For more on the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB, check out our sister site Extremetech.com

Final Thoughts

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB

4.5 Outstanding

The Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB drive is a touch slower than high-end drives but offers tremendous capacity at an affordable price.

About Our Expert

Loyd Case

loyd_case@ziffdavis.com

Loyd Case came to computing by way of physical chemistry. He began modestly on a DEC PDP-11 by learning the intricacies of the TROFF text formatter while working on his master's thesis. After a brief, painful stint as an analytical chemist, he took over a laboratory network at Lockheed in the early 80's and never looked back. His first "real" computer was an HP 1000 RTE-6/VM system.

In 1988, he figured out that building his own PC was vastly more interesting than buying off-the-shelf systems ad he ditched his aging Compaq portable. The Sony 3.5-inch floppy drive from his first homebrew rig is still running today. Since then, he's done some programming, been a systems engineer for Hewlett-Packard, worked in technical marketing in the workstation biz, and even dabbled in 3-D modeling and Web design during the Web's early years.

Loyd was also bitten by the writing bug at a very early age, and even has dim memories of reading his creative efforts to his third grade class. Later, he wrote for various user group magazines, culminating in a near-career ending incident at his employer when a humor-impaired senior manager took exception at one of his more flippant efforts. In 1994, Loyd took on the task of writing the first roundup of PC graphics cards for Computer Gaming World -- the first ever written specifically for computer gamers. A year later, Mike Weksler, then tech editor at Computer Gaming World, twisted his arm and forced him to start writing CGW's tech column. The gaming world -- and Loyd -- has never quite recovered despite repeated efforts to find a normal job. Now he's busy with the whole fatherhood thing, working hard to turn his two daughters into avid gamers. When he doesn't have his head buried inside a PC, he dabbles in downhill skiing, military history and home theater.

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Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB

The Bottom Line

Pros & Cons