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Modifying the Seagate 1.5TB Hard Drive: Unleash the Hidden Performance Within

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Testing

Now that the set up is complete,

I ran benchmarks on the Barracuda 7200.11 across two different sizes: 819 GB and 300 GB. Both tests were extremely impressive and demonstrated performance marks which greatly surpassed any drive in its class. Without further adieu I present you the results.

Barracuda 7200.11 @ 300 GB Vs Velociraptor

Crystal Disk Mark 2.1

This particular software measures the speeds of random and sequential reads and writes across a section of the drive and outputs the average result. There is a total of 4 section consisting of 50 MB, 100 MB, 500 MB, and 1000 MB across which the program reads or writes.

CrystaDiskMark 2.1 50 MB Test
crystadiskmark-hddmod-300-50mb crystaldiskmark_50mb_tn

Barracuda 7200.11 @ 300 GB

Velociraptor

CrystaDiskMark 2.1 100 MB Test
crystadiskmark-hddmod-300-100mb crystaldiskmark_100mb_tn

Barracuda 7200.11 @ 300 GB

Velociraptor

CrystaDiskMark 2.1 500 MB Test
crystadiskmark-hddmod-300-500mb crystaldiskmark_500mb_tn

Barracuda 7200.11 @ 300 GB

Velociraptor

CrystaDiskMark 2.1 1000 MB Test
crystadiskmark-hddmod-300-1000mb crystaldiskmark_1000mb_tn

Barracuda 7200.11 @ 300 GB

Velociraptor

The Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 left the Velociraptor in the dust by outperforming it in essentially all the categories of comparison with the exception of the 4K random write. The reason why the Velociraptor is better than the Barracuda in this particular test is generally due to Velociraptor’s lower access times, however if you de fragment your drive or the data which you read or write is sequential (most of the time it is) then the Barracuda definitely wins this one.

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  • 100 Comments
  • Download Review in PDF

100 Comments... What's your say?

  1. It’s interesting to find how challenging the content side is for some

  2. Valuable thoughts and advices. I read your topic with great interest.

  3. Wow, what a lengthy and in depth article but full of useful information

  4. Will partitioning the HD and making the C drive the first partition with 300GB of space have the same effect – the increased speed – while letting you also set up partitions to use the rest of the drive for storage?

    • I was wondering the same thing. I would much rather partition my drive if that would yield similar results.

    • The is a no brainer, for the OS disk I always run HDTach and find where the transfer rate of a new disk starts to drop, and that is the OS partition and the rest is occasional access storage. My current partitions on a 1GB are OS 244GB, storage 687GB. For the same reason you can put your page file on a second disk in a hidden partition at the beginning of the disk for just the page file, so it will never get fragmented and it is on the fastest part of the disk.

  5. Hi, I have done this right now, but shortly after entering and confirming the LBA-number I noticed that text and picture number does NOT match (589080586 vs 586080586) I used 589080586 (which gave me 301.609GB) as its in the text… does this make any difference? Is the right number of LBA a really magic number or is it more like “around 300 GB”?

    thanks
    Martin

Trackbacks

  1. [...] at TechWare labs has a simple hack that turbo-charges a Barracuda 7200 1.5 TB drive for crazy fast [...]

  2. [...] Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB -> WD Velociraptor Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb MOD | TechwareLabs … transforms a $120 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB into a speed demon that outperforms a $230 [...]

  3. [...] can, and we show you how. You too can buy a half priced drive and get top end performance. LINK: Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb MOD | TechwareLabs Title: Hacking the Seagate 1.5TB Drive to turn it into a Velociraptor [...]

  4. [...] to take the large drive and downsize to the size of the Velociraptor? I decided to find out. Source Man I would try this if I had a Seagate ! __________________ [...]

  5. [...] & Reviews Asus EeeBox B204 System Review @ Tech-Reviews.co.uk Hacking the Seagate 1.5TB Drive to turn it into a … @ TechwareLabs.com Test: Corsair Voyager GT 128 GB @ Hardwareluxx.de AMD have yet to Comment on [...]

  6. [...] myself when windows 7 comes out, unless there's some decent cheap solid state drives out by then. http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ __________________ Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum. When you have their [...]

  7. [...] a Barracuda faster than a Velociraptor! Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb MOD | TechwareLabs "After you set the size less than the maximum capacity, the remaining space will be invisible [...]

  8. [...] the Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS outperforms the Velociraptor in almost all categories. … check out the article if you have the drive, don't mind losing a little bit of the capacity to gain a bit more speed. [...]

  9. [...] TechwareLabs presents Hacking the Seagate 1.5TB Drive to turn it into a Velociraptor Killer [...]

  10. [...] for all. Quite tempted to buy a pair and see how well it works in RAID 0. Read the article at Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb MOD | TechwareLabs __________________ Which Final Fantasy Character Are You? Final Fantasy [...]

  11. [...] to see how it fared…and well, see for yourself. More benchmarks and such at the source: Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb MOD | TechwareLabs __________________ Please help Trotter and save us from Mak's Wrath!Poizen22 – in all [...]

  12. [...] I told you there was a way to modify the 1.5TB Seagate to unleash the hidden beast within. . . Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb MOD | TechwareLabs __________________ RIG: Lian Li PC-P80, QX9770@???GHz, Maximus II Formula, HX620, 4×1GB RAM, [...]

  13. [...] that it could be better spent in other components of your system such as RAM of a Graphics card. http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ __________________ http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/sh/type/0/skugpezz.png Crossfire Perf with [...]

  14. [...] or write is sequential (most of the time it is) then the Barracuda definitely wins this one. http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/2/ __________________ http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/sh/type/0/skugpezz.png Crossfire Perf with [...]

  15. [...] habe ich einen Bericht bei TechwareLabs gefunden, wonach der Goliath schneller oder genauso schnell und billiger als die Velociraptor von Western [...]

  16. [...] insane reads & writes & then i'll just get one or two WD caviar blacks. Have a read here: http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ When you have some extra cash for a larger drive or two, really worth it IMO. [...]

  17. [...] about a comparation between WD Velociraptors and 1.5TB 7200.11 Seagate short stroked at 300 GB (http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/). The Seagate outperformed the VR in all the tests except access time (the VR are 10K RPM). But [...]

  18. [...] and get similar performance increase ? opinions suggestions, I'm open to them This is the link http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ of a comparison between a downsized Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11 and a Velociraptor. The Seagate is [...]

  19. [...] Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb MOD | TechwareLabs It's a mod that manually resizes the 1.5TB Seagate to 300. This in turn makes the drive perform better than a Raptor. [...]

  20. [...] This post was Twitted by lancefisher [...]

  21. [...] dont get raptors, shortstroke. http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ __________________ Need to Convert a video? use ffmpeg! Some stuff I made The Insane ARI [...]

  22. [...] HDs and short stroke. They have been shown to be faster than velociraptors when short-stroked roof: http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ __________________ Need to Convert a video? use ffmpeg! Some stuff I made The Insane ARI [...]

  23. [...] have been shown to be faster than velociraptors when short-stroked, not to mention you save $80 http://www.techwarelabs.com/seagate_1-5tb-mod/ __________________ Need to Convert a video? use ffmpeg! Some stuff I made The Insane ARI [...]

  24. [...] Otherwise, buy a good 7200 rpm SATA disk and go with it without problem. Ad example, if you do short stroking on a Seagate 7200.11 1.5GB drive, the results are very good. [...]

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