The other day we took a look at Western Digital's 2TB offering, it's only fair that we see what Seagate has to offer as well. Seagate offers both the Barracuda XT and Constellation drives in 2TB capacities. Today we will be taking a look at the Constellation. In the past we have reviewed a 2 1/2 inch Constellation drive, I'm curious what four times the capacity and a larger form factor has done to its performance.
Product Name: Seagate Constellation 2TB Hard Drive
Review Sample Provided by: Seagate
Review by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
Specifications
|
Capacities |
2TB, 1TB, 500GB |
|
Interface(s) |
6Gb/s SAS, SATA 3Gb/s |
|
Spindle Speed |
7200 RPM |
|
Power (SAS) |
8.0W typical idle, 12.2W operating, as low as 5.4W with PowerChoice™ option |
|
Power (SATA) |
7.0W typical idle, 11.2W operating, as low as 4.4W with PowerChoice option |
|
Mean Time Between Failures |
1.2 million hours at 24×7 |
|
Max. Sustained Transfer |
Rate150MB/s (SAS), 140MB/s (SATA) |
|
Cache |
Up to 64MB (2TB) |
Our Test Rig
Intel i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EXS8-UD4P Motherboard
Corsair 620 Power supply
1gb x 3 Triple channel A-Data Ram
Western Digital Velociraptor
Sparkle X265 Video Card
Cooler Master Storm Sniper Case
Windows 7
Performance
Just like the 2TB Caviar Black that we tested yesterday, I put the Constellation 2TB against some of the fastest drives on the market including the Caviar Black and a Crucial SSD. Using our i7 test rig I ran each hard drive test using HD Tach Pro, here are the results.
Surprisingly the Constellation outperformed even the Caviar Black 2TB in Maximum and Average performance. Of course the Constellation didn't perform very well in the Access Time test with only a score of 10.4 compared to the Caviar Black's 9.7. However the Constellation didn't outperform its 15K RPM brethren or the Crucial SSD, but the extra capacity makes up for it.
Overall
What if I told you that you could have Velociraptor level performance (and more) with almost seven times the capacity? Seagate's Constellation Hard Drive fits that bill to a T. It Outperforms the Velociraptor by almost 20mb/s on maximum read performance, and with 2TB of space it puts the 300GB capacity of the Velociraptor to shame. So, for once you can have your cake and eat it too. Of course the Enterprise class drives demand a premium price and this is no exception. With a price higher that the Caviar Black it's hard to call Seagate's Constellation drive a value. But what you do get is Enterprise quality, huge capacity, and good performance in a hard drive that would be perfect for your gaming rig or an Enterprise server.
