Seagate Desktop HDD 4TB Review: Big Capacity At 5900 RPM

Seagate's 4 TB Desktop HDD.15 Is Great For User Storage

Seagate’s new 3.5” Desktop HDD.15 ST4000DM000 changes things up a bit in the company's desktop hard drive family compared to its predecessor, the Barracuda 7200.14. Most notably, the spindle speed is down from 7200 to 5900 RPM. The Desktop HDD.15 is the first and only model in this line that operates at this lower speed.

The company is aiming its new drive at the same applications and usage scenarios as the previous generation's Barracuda disks: desktop and all-in-one PCs, home servers, gaming PCs, RAID arrays, external direct-attached storage devices (DAS), and network-attached storage appliances (NAS). You're of course free to use Seagate's Desktop HDD.15 in any of those environments, though our benchmarks show that it fares better in some applications than in others.

A slower spindle immediately casts some doubt on the Desktop HDD.15's viability as a system drive. And once we run our tests on the disk, the potential for less performance is confirmed as fact. The test results come back average at  best, particularly in transfer speeds and I/O throughput. Conversely, Seagate's Desktop HDD.15 shines when we look at surface temperatures and power consumption, both of which are low.

The Desktop HDD.15 is Seagate’s first desktop drive boasting a massive 4 TB capacity. When combine that big storage space with conservative thermals and efficiency-friendly power use, you get an ideal target for user data on the desktop. Hook it up next to a 128 or 256 GB SSD and enjoy the best of both worlds. It's also right at home in external direct-attached storage devices (DAS) and NAS appliances.

  • vinhn
    Would rather take 3TB @ 7200 over 4TB @ 5800, I'm sure people would agree with that.
    Reply
  • guru_urug
    Good Read.
    Noticed a small insignificant error in the "Drive Surface Temperature" chart. It lists the 4TB HDD.15 as a 7200rpm drive rather than a 5900rpm one.
    Reply
  • outlw6669
    Now that everyone has a full lineup of 4TB drives out, how about finally releasing something larger?
    Bring on the 2160p content!
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    the thing is this hard drive geared towards speed it's mostly geared towards data storage, which is why it's only 5800rpm, so you wouldn't get this obv if you want fast read and write times, that's what SSD's are for.
    Reply
  • Mike Friesen
    The one graph, about temperatures, said "higher is better" beneath it...
    Reply
  • masterjaw
    Great media storage drive for those with SSDs as boot drive which is what is currently on the trend right now.
    Reply
  • csf60
    To all the people who say performance is not important, I would like to remind them we don't have a 4 terabyte SSD yet, and until then, if I need 4TB I have to use a hard drive. And it better be a fast one or I will be sitting for ever in a loading screen in-game, opening big programs and loading 8GB of sample sounds to RAM when I work with music.

    For me this is a big mistake for Seagate. I always bought their drives because they were the fastest, but it seems they are now joining the WD green lineup. I'll probably have to go with hitachi now to have some decent speed.
    Reply
  • wavetrex
    I personally only care about price / gigabyte. Give me the ability to store more HD pron and I'm happy. Don't care if it dies...
    Reply
  • daglesj
    Would anyone use a 4TB drive as a system drive anyway? Short stoked to 200GB maybe but otherwise......? Reliability has never been a strong point with drives over 1TB IMO.

    I just see these big drives as a huge liability really, but folks will hoard their data.
    Reply
  • Larry Bob
    Unique name Seagate.
    Reply