Seagate BarraCuda 120 SSD 1 TB

[W1zzard]

In our Seagate BarraCuda 120 review we'll take a look at synthetic and real-life performance of this 2.5" SATA SSD. According to our test results, the drive is among the fastest you can buy in this form factor, and write sustainability is pretty much perfect, there is no TLC write hole.

Show full review

 

[trparky]

I don't know, the $115 price tag really isn't that bad if the drive is decent. It comes down to what you're willing to pay. I don't mind a higher price (just not too high) if it's a good product.

 

[roberto888]

I don't know, the $115 price tag really isn't that bad if the drive is decent. It comes down to what you're willing to pay. I don't mind a higher price (just not too high) if it's a good product.

Thing is, you get NVME for that price.

 

[kiriakost]

I am still confirming the reliability of Western Digital Raptors 75Gb 10K RPM.
And they seem not loosing any capacity after 76000 hours of operation.

 

[trparky]

Thing is, you get NVME for that price.

Can you give an example of a SATA drive of the same capacity and performance that's lower in price?

Because if we go by the drives listed on this store's web site (Microcenter), most of the similar SSDs are around the same price.

 

[roberto888]

Can you give an example of a SATA drive of the same capacity and performance that's lower in price?

Because if we go by the drives listed on this store's web site (Microcenter), most of the similar SSDs are around the same price.

My point is, that NVME is pretty much the same price, for far better performance, not that there are cheaper drives that are the same capacity.

 

[trparky]

My point is, that NVME is pretty much the same price, for far better performance, not that there are cheaper drives that are the same capacity.

Oh yes, I'm not denying that. However, like our most esteemed host @W1zzard said during his review...

For me, SATA is still very relevant because these drives are an excellent choice for scenarios that don't benefit a lot from higher transfer rates—like games and many applications. It's also much easier to upgrade your SATA storage because today's motherboards have plenty of SATA ports, but only few M.2 NVMe slots.

I'd have to agree with @W1zzard here.

I have one NVMe SSD in my system, that SSD I use for the base OS and any of my most used programs. Everything else goes on my second SATA SSD where I don't care if it's not as fast as the NVMe SSD, just as long as it's faster than a spinning rust drive.

 

[roberto888]

Oh yes, I'm not denying that. However, like our most esteemed host @W1zzard said during his review...

I'd have to agree with @W1zzard here.

I have one NVMe SSD in my system, that SSD I use for the base OS and any of my most used programs. Everything else goes on my second SATA SSD where I don't care if it's not as fast as the NVMe SSD, just as long as it's faster than a spinning rust drive.

Fair point, however I do prefer not having to bother with the cables and a cleaner build, but I guess to each their own.

 

[trparky]

Fair point, however I do prefer not having to bother with the cables and a cleaner build, but I guess to each their own.

I agree. However, most motherboards only come with one or two (if you're lucky) NVMe m.2 slots. Past that point, what are you to do? You can't add more unless you go ahead and get one of those NVMe m.2 riser cards.

 

[Xzibit]

Also you'd have to have a recent Motherboard for that. They are a lot more older systems out an about that don't have it.

 

[ironwolf]

"Love" it when people are already putting 2.5" SSDs in the grave and tossing dirt on them. There are still a LOT of laptops out there with no M.2 slots... Desktop boards with no M.2 slots...

 

[Mescalamba]

Its probably good upgrade for ppl that dont or cant have nvme. Like me.

 

[trparky]

"Love" it when people are already putting 2.5" SSDs in the grave and tossing dirt on them.

Elitism.

 

[newtekie1]

Also you'd have to have a recent Motherboard for that. They are a lot more older systems out an about that don't have it.

And even on the modern mainstream boards, using more than one M.2 usually results in something being sacrificed. It might be the 2nd M.2 only running at x2(granted still faster than SATA), or certain PCI-E slots being disabled, or some SATA ports being disabled, etc.

But I also thing you could go grab a cheaper 1TB SSD of Amazon(Inland Professional) and really not tell the difference between that and this Seagate.

 

[timta2]

Also you'd have to have a recent Motherboard for that. They are a lot more older systems out an about that don't have it.

PCIe adapters work wonders and if your motherboard has no NVMe support, the Clover bootloader does.

 

[trparky]

And even on the modern mainstream boards, using more than one M.2 usually results in something being sacrificed. It might be the 2nd M.2 only running at x2(granted still faster than SATA), or certain PCI-E slots being disabled, or some SATA ports being disabled, etc.

Thanks Intel.

 

[newtekie1]

Thanks Intel.

AMD isn't really better.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

this is a decent drive to keep games but a great scratch disk for content creation.

 

[dont whant to set it"']

@W1zzard
Could the product specifications include another line containing the released to market date of the reviewed in question and per product?

 

[W1zzard]

@W1zzard
Could the product specifications include another line containing the released to market date of the reviewed in question and per product?

I'm not even sure how to get that date. Maybe "announced", but there's often a significant lag between announcement and market availability

Seagate and I started discussing this review back in February, lots of delays everywhere, also on my side. Everybody wants to send SSDs for review, working them off in sequence

 

[newtekie1]

I'm not even sure how to get that date. Maybe "announced", but there's often a significant lag between announcement and market availability

I know Newegg usually has a "Date First Available" listed in the specs sections of their products. But that's not 100% accurate.

 

[trparky]

AMD isn't really better.

At least AMD isn't nearly as stingy with the PCI Express lanes as Intel is.

 

[Scour]

Still like SATA, works in all my Notebooks and in most of my PCs

A question about reviews: Will be made full capacity write tests in the future? I saw TLC-drives which uses 1/3 of the capacity as SLC-cache and after that the write speed droped down to <50MB/s.

And I´m one of the less customers which write much data in a row

 

[newtekie1]

At least AMD isn't nearly as stingy with the PCI Express lanes as Intel is.

Yeah, they nearly are. In the end, its like 2 extra PCI-E lanes on X570 compared to Z490.

 

[W1zzard]

Will be made full capacity write tests in the future?

Yeah in the future I will fill to 80% used capacity