Seagate Barracuda XT ST3 review: Seagate Barracuda XT ST3

If recently reviewed solid-state drives, such as the OCZ Vertex 3, are notable for their extreme speed and high cost per gigabyte, the Seagate Barracuda XT is distinguished by its extreme storage space and affordability. The drive offers up to 3TB, the largest hard drive currently available, at just around $240 or 8 cents per gigabyte, and its performance is excellent for a traditional platter-based hard drive. Supporting the latest SATA 6Gbps (SATA 3) standard, in our testing it was one of the fastest consumer-grade hard drives we've seen.

8.2

Seagate Barracuda XT ST3

$58 at Amazon

The Good

The <b>Seagate Barracuda XT</b> hard drive supports SATA 6Gbps and offers fast performance and a capacity of up to 3TB. The drive is quiet and affordable and its 3TB version supports Windows XP well.

The Bad

The Seagate Barracuda runs rather hot.

The Bottom Line

Storage-hungry users, especially tech-savvy ones, will find the Seagate Barracuda XT a great balance of storage space, backward compatibility, and speedy performance.

If you're looking for a quiet hard drive that offers top capacity, backward compatibility, and fast performance, at a price that won't break your bank, the Seagate Barracuda XT is the way to go. The drive works well as either the main or the secondary hard drive for a desktop, especially one with built-in support for SATA 3 and an EFI-based motherboard.

Design and features