Seagate Ironwolf vs Baracuda - 14TB disksFor the last few days we have been banging around the idea of large 14TB disks and we wanted to source the fastest, most reliable, least expensive disks possible.  We know the Seagate BaraCuda is targeted to desktops / workstations and the Seagate IronWolf is targeted at disk arrays, wanted to know the physical difference between these two.

When the IronWolf was released under Seagate’s new branding strategy a few years ago, the difference was both performance and sensors.  Specifically, the IronWolf was a little be slower than the BaraCuda but it had motion / impact sensors.  We found the IronW

olf 14TB to be about 10% less expensive than the BaraCuda 14TB which did not make much sense to us so we decided to check the detailed spec.

Unfortunately Seagate apparently does not want you to make comparisons between the disks because they use slightly different specification sheets for each one.  To get around this we spent an hour or so combining the two sheets into the spec’s you see below.

You can see that the BaraCuda 12TB and 14TB disks now have the same performance (transfer speed and latency) while on the older 10TB and 8TB models there is a tiny difference.

To summarize, the difference between the BaraCuda Pro and IronWolf Pro 14TB is:

  1. The IronWolf has some additional sensors
  2. The IronWolf is rated with a 20% increase in expected life (MTBF)
  3. The IronWolf and Baracuda use slightly different amounts of electricity
  4. The IronWolf CAN be used in a disk array, where as the BaraCuda is spec’d to be standalone (although we are fairly sure it would work fine in most arrays)
  5. The IronWolf is cheaper (at least in April 2019 – see screen shot of Amazon prices to the right).

This can all be summed up with, there appears to be no advantage to buying the Seagate BaraCuda Pro.  Just buy an IronWolf and be happy 🙂

If you want to check the specifications yourself, click HERE for the BaraCuda Pro spec sheet brochure and HERE for the IronWolf Pro spec sheet brochure.


Specifications BaraCuda 14TB Ironwolf 14TB BaraCuda 12TB Ironwolf 12TB
Standard Model Numbers ST14000DM001 ST14000NE0008 ST12000DM001 ST12000NE0007

Performance

Max. Sustained Transfer Rate OD (MB/s) 250MB/s 250MB/s 250MB/s 250MB/s
Average Latency (ms) 4.16 4.16 4.16 4.16
Spindle Speed (RPM) 7200 7200 7200 7200
SATA Transfer Rates Supported (Gb/s) 6.0/3.0/1.5 6.0/3.0/1.5 6.0/3.0/1.5 6.0/3.0/1.5
Interface Access Speed (Gb/s) SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s
Drive Bays Supported 1 Up to 16 Bays 1 Up to 16 Bays
1 Workload Rate Limit (TB/year) 300 300 300 300
Rotational Vibration (RV) Sensors No Yes No Yes
2 Hot-Plug Support No? Yes No? Yes
Cache (MB) 256 256 256 256

Reliability/Data Integrity

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours) 1000000 1200000 1000000 1200000
Non-recoverable Read Errors per Bits 1 per 10E15 1 per 10E15 1 per 10E15 1 per 10E15
Power-On Hours per Year (24×7) 8760 8760 8760 8760
Data Recovery and Rescue Services Yes Yes Yes Yes
Limited Warranty (years) 5 5 5 5

Power Management

Startup Current, Typical (12V, A) 2 2 2 2
Idle Power, Average (W) 6.9 5.3 6.9 5
Average Operating Power (W) 4.9 W 7.9W 4.9 W 7.8W
Standby Mode (W) 0.8/0.8 0.8 0.8/0.8 0.8

Environmental /Temperature

Operating (ambient, min) 0°C 5 0°C 5
Operating (drive case, max °C) 60 60 60 60
Nonoperating (ambient, min °C) -40 -40 -40 -40
Nonoperating (ambient, max °C) 70 70 70 70

Environmental /Acoustics

Vibration, Nonoperating: 10Hz to 500Hz (Grms) 2.27 2.27 2.27 2.27
Environmental/Shock
Shock, Operating 2ms (Read/Write) (Gs) 70/40Gs 70/40Gs 70/40Gs 70/40Gs
Shock, Nonoperating, 1ms and 2ms (Gs) 250 250 250 250

Physical

Height (mm/in, max) 26.11 mm/1.028 in 26.11mm/1.028i n 26.11 mm/1.028 in 26.11mm/1.028i n
Width (mm/in, max) 101.85 mm/4.01 in 101.85mm/4.01i n 101.85 mm/4.01 in 101.85mm/4.01i n
Depth (mm/in, max) 146.99 mm/5.787 in 146.99mm/5.787in 146.99 mm/5.787 in 146.99mm/5.787in
Weight (lb/g) 690 g/1.521 lb 695g/1.532lb 690 g/1.521 lb 705g/1.55lb
Carton Unit Quantity 20 20 20 20
Cartons per Pallet / Cartons per Layer 14824 14824 14824 14824

 


Specifications BaraCuda 10TB IronWolf 10TB BaraCuda 8TB IronWolf 8TB
Standard Model Numbers ST10000DM001 ST10000NE0004 ST8000DM0004 ST8000NE0004

Performance

Max. Sustained Transfer Rate OD (MB/s) 220MB/s 214MB/s 220MB/s 214MB/s
Average Latency (ms) 4.16 4.16 4.16 4.16
Spindle Speed (RPM) 7200 7200 7200 7200
SATA Transfer Rates Supported (Gb/s) 6.0/3.0/1.5 6.0/3.0/1.5 6.0/3.0/1.5 6.0/3.0/1.5
Interface Access Speed (Gb/s) SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s
Drive Bays Supported 1 Up to 16 Bays 1 Up to 16 Bays
1 Workload Rate Limit (TB/year) 300 300 300 300
Rotational Vibration (RV) Sensors No Yes No Yes
2 Hot-Plug Support No Yes No Yes
Cache (MB) 256 256 256 256

Reliability /Data Integrity

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF, hours) 1000000 1200000 1000000 1200000
Non-recoverable Read Errors per Bits 1 per 10E15 1 per 10E15 1 per 10E15 1 per 10E15
Power-On Hours per Year (24×7) 8760 8760 8760 8760
Data Recovery and Rescue Services Yes Yes Yes Yes
Limited Warranty (years) 5 5 5 5

Power Management

Startup Current, Typical (12V, A) 2 2 1.8 2
Idle Power, Average (W) 6.9 5 6.8 4.4
Average Operating Power (W) 4.9 W 7.8W 4.4 W 7.4W
Standby Mode (W) 0.8/0.8 0.8 0.8/0.8 0.8

Environmental /Temperature

Operating (ambient, min) 0°C 5 0°C 5
Operating (drive case, max °C) 60 60 60 60
Nonoperating (ambient, min °C) -40 -40 -40 -40
Nonoperating (ambient, max °C) 70 70 70 70

Environmental /Acoustics

Vibration, Nonoperating: 10Hz to 500Hz (Grms) 2.27 2.27 2.27 2.27
Shock, Operating 2ms (Read/Write) (Gs) 70/40Gs 70/40Gs 70/40Gs 70/40Gs
Shock, Nonoperating, 1ms and 2ms (Gs) 250 250 250 250

Physical

Height (mm/in, max) 26.11 mm/1.028 in 26.11mm/1.028i n 26.11 mm/1.028 in 26.11mm/1.028i n
Width (mm/in, max) 101.85 mm/4.01 in 101.85mm/4.01i n 101.85 mm/4.01 in 101.85mm/4.01i n
Depth (mm/in, max) 146.99 mm/5.787 in 146.99mm/5.787in 146.99 mm/5.787 in 146.99mm/5.787in
Weight (lb/g) 690 g/1.521 lb 705g/1.55lb 650 g/1.433 lb 650g/1.433lb
Carton Unit Quantity 20 20 20 20
Cartons per Pallet / Cartons per Layer 14824 14824 14824 14824

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