Seagate Barracuda Pro 12TB: Speedy, Spacious Proof That The Hard Drive Isn't Dead

With 250MBps transfers and 12TB of space, there’s plenty to love.

- Jon L. Jacobi

Seagate’s Barracuda Pro 12TB reminds us why at least some hard drives can remain relevant despite the swift encroachment of SSDs. Until we reviewed its predecessor the Barracuda Pro 10TB (go.pcworld.com/bp10) last year and tasted its 250MBps read performance, we hadn’t given hard drives much thought for a while. To be blunt, year after year of 120MBps - 150MBps transfer rates had became boring in a world of blindingly fast SSDs—even with the steady and enormous increases in capacity.

The Barracuda Pro 12TB reviewed here is just a hair faster than the 10TB version, but the additional 2TB of capacity is truly a fantastic thing. We can remember $800 4GB hard drives, so color us intrigued to see just how far Seagate and the industry can take things.

SPECS AND DESIGN

The Barracuda Pro 12TB is a 7,200 rpm, 3.5-inch hard drive with 256MB of onboard cache. It employs a SATA 6Gbps interface, uses PMR (Parallel Magnetic Recording), is filled with helium for less drag, and is said to draw 7.8 watts—a relatively small amount of juice for a hard drive.