The Seagate Backup Plus 5TB USB Hard Disk: A Test of Speed and Performance

I have recently taken delivery of a Seagate Backup Plus 5TB USB hard disk, and I am excited to put it through its paces. For comparison, I also have a 2TB version of the same drive, which I have been using for some time now. As I unpacked the new drive, I noticed that it is significantly thicker than the 2TB version, despite having an impressive 5TB of storage capacity.

As I began to examine the drive further, I decided to add a pop of color to my workspace with a bold red case. The Racing Red color may seem like a frivolous choice, but as I later discovered, it's not just about aesthetics - it's also about speed. In the world of USB hard disks, speed is everything, and the right cable can make all the difference.

For this test, I used a Blackmagic Disk Speed Test with a 1GB loaded onto each drive. I ran the test five times, taking note of both peak performance and average speeds for read and write operations. To ensure that my MacBook Pro received the full benefit of the drive's capabilities, I also connected it to the computer via a USB Type-A to Type-C adapter.

As I waited for the results, I couldn't help but think about why I had initially assumed that the 5TB drive would be slower than its smaller counterpart. Was it just because I expected bigger drives to weigh more? While this assumption may have been rooted in reality - larger hard disks are indeed heavier - I was eager to see how the Seagate Backup Plus 5TB performed in practice.

Once the results were in, I was pleased to find that the 5TB drive not only outperformed its smaller sibling but also exceeded my expectations. The peak read speed for the new drive came in at an impressive 142.6 MB/s, with a corresponding average read speed of 139.4 MB/s. Meanwhile, the 2TB version delivered slightly lower speeds - 126.1 MB/s for peak reads and 123.8 MB/s for averages.

Interestingly, the results were largely unaffected by the type of cable used to connect the drive to my MacBook Pro. While I suspected that a high-speed USB-C connection might yield better performance, the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test revealed no significant difference between the Type-A to Type-B USB 3.0 and Type-C cables.

So what can we use our Seagate Backup Plus 5TB USB hard disks for? As it turns out, they are capable of handling 4K video editing in either 25 or 30 frames per second. While I wouldn't recommend pushing these drives too far - their performance may begin to degrade at high frame rates and resolutions - for general data storage and transfer, the 5TB drive is a solid choice.

In my experience, using an external SSD (solid-state drive) like the Samsung T5 would provide faster performance for editing and transferring files. I have been using these drives as working drives in conjunction with my USB hard disks, which serves me well for backing up important data.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI've just taken delivery of a Seagate backup plus five terabyte USB hard disk and I already have a two terabyte version now I know what you're thinking which one is faster let's find out let's open it up and see what we've got small drive massive storage that's what it says on the side actually five terabytes is massive storage it's almost inconceivable to think of having a USB two and a half inch drive with five terabytes of space on it so the first thing I noticed is that the five terabyte version is a lot thicker than the two terabyte version and this time I've gone for a rather pleasing red color because of course racing red is faster that's a faster color isn't it so in the box we have a USB type a to type the three point naught cable which I'm going to be using on my macbook pro obviously I'm gonna have to use a USB type a to type C adapter for the test and what I thought I'd do is I'd run black magic disk speed test with a one gigabyte loaded and I'll run it five times and I'll take the peak performance for both read and write and I'll take the average performance over those five runs as well to test the speed of the drive so I'll do that with the older two terabyte version and also my new five terabyte version and we'll see if there's any difference now this doesn't really make any sense but in my head I'm thinking that a bigger drive will always be slower than a smaller drive I don't know why I think that way I don't have any particular reason other than you know bigger heavier equals slower and maybe that's the way my mind is thinking so I saw the look and we'll see if there is a difference so the results are in the two terabyte drive scored a peak of a hundred and twenty six point one megabytes per second on right and one hundred and twenty three point one megabytes per second on read the average across the five runs was a hundred and twenty three point zero six on right and one hundred and twenty two point seven eight on read pretty much what you'd expect for an external USB hard disk I guess the five terabyte drive now that scored a peak of a hundred and forty two point six on right and one hundred and forty one point eight on read in its average one hundred and thirty nine point four six and a hundred and thirty nine point four four so the answer is a bigger drive is faster with a caveat to that and that is of course the two terabyte drive I'm using has been around for a few years and I've been using it so it's probably degrading in its performance anyway it certainly isn't the case that the bigger drive is slower like I might have thought now when doing the test I'm doing this test on a MacBook Pro so I'm having to use a dongle of course Thank You Apple and I was using the type a to type B USB 3.0 cable but I also have a type C to type B USB cable I know what you're thinking you're thinking is that gonna be faster no no it's not so if you think you're gonna get a performance upgrade by buying one of these cables then sorry you're going to be disappointed however this is much better than having to carry around a an adapter with you all the time and Amazon sell these really cheaply so well worth investing in those so with this kind of performance what are you going to be able to use your USB hard disks for well the five terabyte version certainly scored high enough to be able to edit 4k content in either 25 or 30 frames per second but I wouldn't advise it I think you're right on the limit of the hard drives performance and you're probably gonna have a miserable experience if on the other hand you're editing footage in HD you should be able to edit at 50 frames or 60 frames per second in pro res 42 on one of these drives now as you might be able to edit video with these drives I personally wouldn't recommend it I would go with an external SSD I like to use these Samsung t5 drives as working drives and then I'll back up onto these external drives that gives me a good portable solution so I hope you found this video useful and if you did please consider hitting the subscribe button I'll see you again soonI've just taken delivery of a Seagate backup plus five terabyte USB hard disk and I already have a two terabyte version now I know what you're thinking which one is faster let's find out let's open it up and see what we've got small drive massive storage that's what it says on the side actually five terabytes is massive storage it's almost inconceivable to think of having a USB two and a half inch drive with five terabytes of space on it so the first thing I noticed is that the five terabyte version is a lot thicker than the two terabyte version and this time I've gone for a rather pleasing red color because of course racing red is faster that's a faster color isn't it so in the box we have a USB type a to type the three point naught cable which I'm going to be using on my macbook pro obviously I'm gonna have to use a USB type a to type C adapter for the test and what I thought I'd do is I'd run black magic disk speed test with a one gigabyte loaded and I'll run it five times and I'll take the peak performance for both read and write and I'll take the average performance over those five runs as well to test the speed of the drive so I'll do that with the older two terabyte version and also my new five terabyte version and we'll see if there's any difference now this doesn't really make any sense but in my head I'm thinking that a bigger drive will always be slower than a smaller drive I don't know why I think that way I don't have any particular reason other than you know bigger heavier equals slower and maybe that's the way my mind is thinking so I saw the look and we'll see if there is a difference so the results are in the two terabyte drive scored a peak of a hundred and twenty six point one megabytes per second on right and one hundred and twenty three point one megabytes per second on read the average across the five runs was a hundred and twenty three point zero six on right and one hundred and twenty two point seven eight on read pretty much what you'd expect for an external USB hard disk I guess the five terabyte drive now that scored a peak of a hundred and forty two point six on right and one hundred and forty one point eight on read in its average one hundred and thirty nine point four six and a hundred and thirty nine point four four so the answer is a bigger drive is faster with a caveat to that and that is of course the two terabyte drive I'm using has been around for a few years and I've been using it so it's probably degrading in its performance anyway it certainly isn't the case that the bigger drive is slower like I might have thought now when doing the test I'm doing this test on a MacBook Pro so I'm having to use a dongle of course Thank You Apple and I was using the type a to type B USB 3.0 cable but I also have a type C to type B USB cable I know what you're thinking you're thinking is that gonna be faster no no it's not so if you think you're gonna get a performance upgrade by buying one of these cables then sorry you're going to be disappointed however this is much better than having to carry around a an adapter with you all the time and Amazon sell these really cheaply so well worth investing in those so with this kind of performance what are you going to be able to use your USB hard disks for well the five terabyte version certainly scored high enough to be able to edit 4k content in either 25 or 30 frames per second but I wouldn't advise it I think you're right on the limit of the hard drives performance and you're probably gonna have a miserable experience if on the other hand you're editing footage in HD you should be able to edit at 50 frames or 60 frames per second in pro res 42 on one of these drives now as you might be able to edit video with these drives I personally wouldn't recommend it I would go with an external SSD I like to use these Samsung t5 drives as working drives and then I'll back up onto these external drives that gives me a good portable solution so I hope you found this video useful and if you did please consider hitting the subscribe button I'll see you again soon\n"