Hows the Seagate Barracuda IV?

Sniper82

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
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I was looking at a 40gig version. Are these drives reliable and fast? I am more concerned on reliablity that speed though. Has anyone had any trouble with their Seagate before? Opinions needed.
 

TOCSYS

Senior member
Oct 22, 1999
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I have had all different brands of HDDs(IBM, WD, Maxtor, etc.)and I've had to return at least one from each company. I currently own 3 Segate Baracuda drives(III and IV)and they are awesome! Not only are they fast and reliable but they are quiet too. Especially the Baracuda IV. I would recomend them to anyone who is looking for a fast, reliable and quiet solution.
 

ku

Golden Member
Mar 11, 2001
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They're not "slow" but they are amazingly quiet. Quite reliable IMO. I copy a lot stuff from CD to hard drive and delete (maybe 3-4 gigs per day) and been using it for about 4-5 months. Works great for me ^^. I have the 80 gig btw.
 

ojai00

Diamond Member
Sep 29, 2001
3,291
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I have the 60GB version, and I've had no problems so far. It's extremely quiet, and considered very reliable.
 

RSMemphis

Golden Member
Oct 6, 2001
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I've never had problems with a Seagate drive before, and quite fancy them.

I just installed a 60 GB Barracuda IV and was amazed at how silent this drive is. It does get a little warmer than other 7200 drives, but it's okay to touch, so not too warm.

I have no reliability opinion about this particular drive yet, but Seagate in general has good HDs...
 

chansen

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I have the 40GB version. The only evidence I have that it's working is that the computer is running fine. I haven't heard the drive yet.
 

cbuchach

Golden Member
Nov 5, 2000
1,164
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81
I just got my 20GB Cuda IV today for as a replacement for my parent's computer. Still in the box, but all reviews have shown it to be one of the fastest drives out there and exceptionally quiet.
 

mellondust

Senior member
Nov 20, 2001
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I have always had maxtor hard drives in the past. I bought the 40 gig version a month ago based partly on reviews, but more so becuase it was in my price range. I have not had any problems at all with it and I really like it. I have not had it long enough to really judge the reliability of the drive, but it has great performance and quieter than my maxtor. I would now buy a seagate again before a maxtor drive.
 

LXi

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
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I would trust Seagate's reliability over the likes of IBM and WD, and the BarracudaIV is very quiet. But contrary to what the other owners are telling you, the Cuda4 is not a good performer, in fact, it's slower than most other hard drives in its class. There is a utility somewhere that you can download and trade-in some quietness for performance, but don't expect miracles to happen. If all you need is a reliable and virtually silent hard drive with respectable performance, then you should go right ahead with the BarracudaIV. Other wise, the Maxtor D740X would be a great alternative.
 

cuteybunny

Banned
May 23, 2001
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I would not buy seagate because I am disappointed how slow they are to come out with quiet harddrive,
maxtor has had this eons ago, no make that billion of years ago. Can you say that seagate are just catching up to the games? maxtor now has 120gig and 160gig. seagate 40, 60 and 80g only. why settle for a less reputable company who will always be a few years behind.
 

Ionizer86

Diamond Member
Jun 20, 2001
5,292
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Cuda4 is not a good performer, in fact, it's slower than most other hard drives in its class.

Here, we have some benches of the ATA133 new 40gb D740X from Maxtor verses the Seagate Barracuda IV 40gb. It seems that it really isn't slower than the Maxtor, but it is a few decibels quieter.
 

Huma

Golden Member
Oct 10, 1999
1,301
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<< I would not buy seagate because I am disappointed how slow they are to come out with quiet harddrive >>



except seagate's is quieter. I don't mind waiting if someone does it right.
 

LXi

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
7,987
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I would take Storagereview's words over GamePC's(the use of SiSoft Sandra should speak for itself), SR also has much better testing methods than GamePC. Here in the D740X review, the Maxtor beats Seagate in everything except transfer rates, keep in mind the Seagate numbers in this review has AAM(Automatic Acoustic Management) turned off, so it's not the same quiet BarracudaIV you're used to seeing.
 

Tazan007

Senior member
Dec 30, 2000
602
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**LXi**
I would beg to differ on that LXi. All the new Barracuda's now come with AAM disabled. This means all the people that are praising the drive for it's quietness are in fact running the drive with AAM off. From what I have read in reviews, AAM off and AAM on only differ by two decibels so that really isn't a big deal. Also, all the tests performed by Storagereview use NTFS on Win2k. I personally use Win98 with FAT32 and so their tests don't help me much. Another thing you should notice is that Storagereviews article dates back to October 2001. That is a fairly long time ago. Seagate may have perfected the firmware of the drive or tweaked it to give it better overall performance and I would trust GamePC's benchmarks since they are recent.

I rather value my hearing over loading into windows 1.2 seconds faster or loading the next Counterstrike map 2.3 seconds faster. From what I can see the Seagate has a good average read speed over the whole disk. It is actually higher then the Maxtor D740X's. Not to mention the D740X's is about 20 decibels louder then the Barracuda. The Seagate does get a couple degress celcius warmer then the maxtor but proper cooling should be used with any 7200 rpm disk solution.

**Cuteybunny**
I don't know what you are talking about. According to Storagereview, the D740X and the Barracuda IV both have 40gb/platter. The seagate came out much earlier then the Maxtor D740x. Seagate is always one of the leading companies in the storage area. Maxtor has been playing catch-up maybe until now. I am pretty sure Seagate will be introducing a new Barracuda series soon. Also, technology tends to go towards smaller, faster, and quieter things. It does not get louder. The Maxtor D740X is nowhere near the quietness the Barracuda. In fact, the quiet version of the Maxtor D740X series is no where close to being as quiet as the Barracuda. It's idle noise is equivalent to the Barracuda's seek noise. In fact, the Barracuda's seek noise is about two decibels lower from what I can see in the review I have read.

If I could, I would sell my Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 60 and the IBM 75GXP any day just so I could have the slower(slower seek but equal transfer rates), quieter Barracuda. I bet the Barracuda makes less noise then listening to you breath.

Good luck on your purchase ^Sniper^. I think it's well worth it.

-Hiral
 

Yonux

Member
Dec 18, 2001
90
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I?ve got the 30 gig 7200 Seagate Barracuda and it is quiet but not the fastest drive out there. I would recommend it though as I do enjoy the little to no noise it produces (or at least i cant hear it over my fans).

Yonux
 

KenAF

Senior member
Jan 6, 2002
684
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If you are looking for a high performance 40Gb drive, then there is no reason to consider either the Seagate or Maxtor. The new IBM 120GXP (available in a pricy 40Gb version) trashes both in regards to performance. Of course, as far as acoustics (low noise) goes, there is still nothing even close to the Seagate Baracuda IV. According to Storagereview's tests, the Maxtor produces 5dB more than the Seagate, which makes it virtually twice as loud (there is a doubling in noise with every 6dB increase).

Of course, if you want the absolute best ATA performance available, look no further than the 120Gb Western Digital WD1200JB (the version of the WD1200BB with an extra 8 megabytes of cache); unfortunately, at $250 from Googlegear, this drive isn't cheap. IMO, however, for the significant and noticeable performance gain you get over the Seagate and Maxtor, it is worth it. I could not tell any difference in moving from a 1540MHz Thunderbird to an Athlon XP @ 1840MHz in applications, but I noticed a massive difference in moving from the Seagate Baracuda IV to the Western Digital WD1000JB (which is slightly slower than the WD1200JB).
 

yngtm27

Member
Aug 3, 2001
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The Barracuda IVs are excellent fast drives. However if you're planning on a RAID setup don't use these drives as they are too fast to be handled by onboard or RAID cards. This problem occurs with many different motherboards as well as some RAID cards.
 

FOH

Senior member
Aug 18, 2000
359
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That is the first time I have heard about hard drives being too fast for onboard Raid. Anyone have more information on this?
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
3,005
126
Quite simply those drives are excellent. I have the 60 GB version and it's really fast and exceptionally quiet. Even under the heaviest disk activity the only way I can tell if it's doing anything is if I look at the LED.
 

Becks2k

Senior member
Oct 2, 2000
391
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" I would not buy seagate because I am disappointed how slow they are to come out with quiet harddrive,
maxtor has had this eons ago"

Maxtor?

I don't think maxtor has a drive under 30dba.... their 80gig is like 34/35 if i remember riight.. cudaIV = 24.

I'm disapointed no one else can come close to seagates acustics.

Yea the cudaIV isn't the fastest drive... but its fast enough (least for me). You'll find it alot easier to hear the noise difference than feel the performance difference.
 

Tazan007

Senior member
Dec 30, 2000
602
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It's not like the drive is slow. I get a score of 28052 in Sisoft Sandra 2002. That pretty good in my opinion.

-Hiral
 

herbage11

Senior member
Feb 10, 2002
707
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0
How about the Maxtor L series with fluid bearings? Anyone used/like those? Thought the bearings may make it both quieter and possibly more reliable also, but I am far from an expert on the subject. Let me know what you all think of it please. Newegg has them here is discription: MAXTOR EIDE HARD DRIVE MODEL # 6L060L3 60GB 7200RPM. QUIET DRIVE - "L" denotes Fluid Dynamic Bearing Motors.

thanks all :)
 

ssanches

Senior member
Feb 7, 2002
461
0
0
I've a 40GB version (ST340016A). It's exceptionally quiet. There's now way you'll know it's running unless you physically touch the HDD. IMO, the single platter cuda's are quieter than the double ones (<40GB) and they generate less heat. As for performance, it's got good sustained read speeds; HD Tach 2.61 reports >40MBps for the first 10 GB of media, which seems good enough. Also end transfer rates >23.5MBps
 

Bonger

Senior member
Apr 23, 2001
341
0
0
I have a 60 gig barracuda IV. It is by far the single quietest and lowest heat producing drive i have ever used. Definately a goof buy.