Seagate did not present the new SSD officially yet and nevertheless there is already the first information to the new M.2 SSD in the net. We have summarized this briefly.
Higher transfer rates and storage capacities
The new Seagate Barracuda Q5 is designed as a consumer SSD. It was designed as an upgrade for notebooks and desktop PCs. With PCIe and NVMe, it achieves higher transfer rates than the predecessor model Q1. It has a more compact form factor than the Q1, which was introduced in the middle of the year and had a 2.5-inch form factor. The new one comes with M.2-2280 and is also based on QLC NAND flash with four bits per memory cell. The newcomer uses PCIe 3.0 x4 and the NVMe protocol as an interface. The Q1 was limited to a slower SATA interface. In SLC mode, the Seagate Q5 can thus achieve significantly higher data transfer rates of up to 2,400 MB/s read and 1,800 MB/s write.
The Q1 is limited to a maximum of 550 MB/s. Even though the Barracuda Q5 is much more compact, it still tops it off in terms of storage capacity. It should be available with 500 GB, 1 TB or even 2 TB storage space. The predecessor Barracuda Q1 was only available with 480 GB or 960 GB usable memory. The Q1 is also clearly in the rear area with 119 TB, 274 TB and 531 TB in terms of write volume. The runtime of the SLC mode in the different models is not known yet. In terms of energy consumption, the Seagate Barracuda Q5 is very economical. If the SSD is in active mode and does its work, it needs 2.2 to 3.3 watts. In normal idle mode (Idle, PS3) it only comes to 23 to 27 mW. When in sleep mode (L1.2), it only needs 1.5 to 1.6 mW.
Availability and price
Since the new Seagate Barracuda Q5 has not yet been officially introduced, the exact availability and prices of the individual models are not yet known. Certain is the warranty period, which in this area is always three years. First dealers have already given their price estimate and see the 500 GB at about 85 Euro, the model with 1 TB at about 130 Euro and the 2 TB version at about 360 Euro. The Q5 also includes software tools for data migration and monitoring. The Rescue Data Recovery Service is also available for one year. The Q1 is available with 480 GB for just under 50 euros and with 960 GB for around 85 euros.
