Seagate BarraCuda Fast SSD External Drive Test: Futuristic Data Storage

The manufacturer positions the new Seagate BarraCuda Fast SSD 1 TB as a high-speed external drive for work and play. Indeed, in the tests, he proved to be extremely nimble both in reading and writing data, but he also has a couple of other trump cards.

In the CHIP test lab, the new Seagate BarraCuda Fast SSD with a capacity of 1 TB, based on a SATA drive and a very reliable controller with data transfer via USB 3.1 using the new USB 3.2 Gen2 technology, visited the CHIP test laboratory. On the one hand, this provides the model with a low cost of a gigabyte of information compared to the NVMe data transfer bus, and on the other hand, perfect speed indicators. As a result, this disc demonstrates an excellent price/quality ratio. We tested this drive in synthetic benchmarks and real conditions, connecting it to a laptop as an external working SSD.

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It’s worth noting that modern solid-state drives are still expensive enough to replace HDDs completely. Nevertheless, if you use them as an external disk for transferring data and even as a “removable” workstation, they are comparable in performance to internal SSD disks, which is extremely valuable in operations with big data.

The disc comes in a compact box made of very thick cardboard, decorated in the Seagate style of the Barracuda line of discs – a black background with light green accents. In addition to the SSD itself, the kit includes two cables – USB 3.0 – USB Type-C and USB Type-C – USB Type-C. The second is useful if your laptop does not have free regular USB ports.

Gamer design

The Seagate BarraCuda Fast SSD is a nearly square, flat box, about the size of 2.5-inch drives. In the top cover design, an aluminum plate painted green along the perimeter, slightly raised above the base, attracts attention, and in its center is the manufacturer’s name in thin white letters. It all looks stylish and a little futuristic. The gaming element adds a green LED backlight line that lights up when the drive is connected to the PC.

The lower part of the case is made of plastic and does not stand out in anything remarkable. There is only a sticker with the media’s data, and no protective elements or rubber feet against slipping are provided. It is a pity that the set does not include at least a cloth case for carrying – the edges of the top plate are quite sharp and can scratch something in the purse. So, we recommend allocating a separate pocket for it.

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Speed ​​tests

We connected the BarraCuda Fast SSD test sample with a capacity of 1 TB to a laptop with an Intel Core i7 CPU and a SanDisk 220 GB SSD, and a Seagate 2 TB HDD installed in it as a system disk. Accordingly, practice tests for copying 15 GB of data were carried out from both disks. They have different read speeds.

But first, let’s tell you how the drive performed in synthetic tests. In the CristalDiskMark benchmark, the SSD showed very good results: the write speed of large files was 420 MB / s, and the read speed was 423 MB / s.

The AS SSD Benchmark showed slightly lower results: 420 and 413 MB / s for writing and reading, respectively. The same test also demonstrates the data access time: for read operations, it is 0.140 ms, and for writes – 0.152 ms, which can be considered a good result for an external drive in this price category.

But ATTO Benchmark surprised us with its outstanding performance – about 460 MB / s for reading and writing. None of the external SSDs we tested have ever demonstrated such high speeds.

In Windows 10, when copying approximately 15 GB of video files over 3 GB each from the internal HDD to a test external SSD drive, the data transfer rate reached 104 MB / s, but around the middle of the process, it sank to 93 MB / s.

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A more impressive result was obtained when copying the same video files from the internal SSD to the test external SSD – the data transfer speed reached 327 MB / s, which is comparable to the speeds on the SATA bus. Accordingly, no brakes with processing big data, such as graphic editors or video editing, should not arise when working directly from this disk.

By the way, the disk is formatted in the exFAT file system and is compatible with most mobile devices. But to work with smartphones on Android, in order to be able to write files to it (for example, upload photos while traveling), it is better to format it in FAT32.

Conclusion: Should you buy Seagate BarraCuda Fast SSD External Drive?

The external drive Seagate BarraCuda Fast SSD 1TB liked the pleasant case design, which is decorated with green LED-backlight, compact size, and high data processing speed. An important point is the stability of the data transfer parameters, despite the large volumes. The value for money at the time of the test for this SSD can be described as good, although its cost (about $148.99 for 1 TB version) certainly includes the prestige factor. Conveniently, the manufacturer has taken care of an additional USB-C cable and proprietary software, which provides for the functions of synchronizing files from different PCs and backing up.