Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB ST1000LM048 Hard Drive Review

Introduction

The Seagate BarraCuda 2.5″ 1 TB is a 7 mm tall laptop/SFF hard disk drive. Let’s test it and see if is it faster than other similar drives.
BarraCuda (now with a capital “C”) is a traditional family among Seagate hard disk drives, usually naming high-performance models. This 2.5 inches model (therefore, aimed on laptops and SFF desktop computers) has 5,400 rpm, 128 MiB cache, and SATA-600 interface. The family offers capacities from 500 Gb up to 5 TB, with the models up to 2 TB being 7 mm tall and the 3 TB and bigger models being 15 mm tall (note that this form factor will not fit most laptops, which support drives up to 9.5 mm tall).
It is good to remember that, while 2.5 inches drives were originally destinated to laptops, they are perfectly compatible with desktop computers, as long as your case have 2.5 inches bays (most modern cases have) or you use an adapter to install it at a 3.5 inches bay.
We tested the 2.5 inches 1 TB BarraCuda, code number ST1000LM048, against two other 2.5 inches, 1 TB hard disk drives: the Toshiba MQ01ABD100 and the Samsung ST1000LM024.
Figures 1 and 2 present the Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB ST1000LM048 hard disk drive, which has a two-year warranty.

Figure 1: the Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB ST1000LM048

Figure 2: the Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB ST1000LM048

In the table below, we will compare the basic specifications of these products.

* All prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.