it is cheaper per terabyte on the day and the drive is a desktop volume, where the recording difference will not surface.
you want conventional recording at 1TB from a current product line, since the small-capacity P300 models are the conventionally-recorded half of that range.
| ST1000DM014 | DT01ACA100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Model number | ST1000DM014 | DT01ACA100 |
| Capacity | 1TB | 1TB |
| Form factor | 3.5" | 3.5" |
| Recording technology | SMR | CMR |
| Rotational speed | 7200 RPM | 7200 RPM |
| Cache | 256 MB | 32 MB |
| Workload rate | 55 TB/yr | — |
| Warranty | 2 years | 2 years |
| Status | Current | Current |
Recording technology is highlighted because it is usually the actual differentiator, and each value comes from the manufacturer document linked on that model's page. A dash means the maker does not state that field. Prices are live and exclude out-of-stock listings.
Toshiba's P300 is one of the clearest cases of a family with two answers. The 1TB, 2TB and 3TB models use the DT01-A mechanism at 7200rpm and are conventionally recorded. The 4TB and 6TB models use the DT02 mechanism at 5400rpm, and Toshiba's own product overview for that series states drive-managed shingled recording.
At 1TB you are therefore getting the conventional half of the range, which makes this comparison favourable to Toshiba on the one specification that is documented as differing.
Against it, the current 1TB BarraCuda, the ST1000DM014, is shingled per Seagate's datasheet. The older conventionally-recorded ST1000DM010 is discontinued.
For a desktop drive holding games, media and archives, it means very little. Sequential writes and reads do not expose shingled recording, and both drives will do that job indistinguishably.
Shingled recording overlaps tracks to raise density, so modifying data under an existing track can force the tracks above it to be rewritten. That is invisible for sequential work and severe during a rebuild, which is hours of sustained writing with no idle time for the drive to reorganise.
The scenario where the difference bites is an array, and neither of these is a NAS drive by positioning. The P300 is a desktop line with a desktop duty cycle, as is BarraCuda. Being conventionally recorded removes one objection to array use; it does not make the P300 a NAS drive.
So the practical value of the P300's conventional recording at this capacity is optionality rather than immediate benefit: the drive can be repurposed into a low-stakes array later without the rebuild concern.
Toshiba's retail carton for the DT01ACA100 mechanism is the HDWD110, which is the SKU you will usually see on a shelf. It is the same drive with retail packaging.
Availability is the practical differentiator between these two in most markets: Seagate and WD dominate retail shelf space, and Toshiba's consumer drives are more variable in stock. Price per terabyte on the day should decide it, with the P300 as the tiebreaker if you want conventional recording.
As with every 1TB comparison, the bigger question is whether 1TB is the right size at all. It sits at the worst end of the cost-per-terabyte curve, and the next size up frequently costs little more.
The case against the P300 at this capacity is that its advantage is theoretical for most buyers. If the drive lives in a desktop for its whole life, conventional recording buys nothing observable, and paying more for it or accepting worse availability is paying for a scenario that will not occur. The case against the BarraCuda is that it forecloses that scenario permanently, a shingled drive is not a candidate for an array at any point in its life, and drives outlive the machines they were bought for more often than people plan for.
Yes. The 1TB, 2TB and 3TB P300 models use the DT01-A mechanism at 7200rpm and are conventionally recorded. The 4TB and 6TB models use the DT02 mechanism, which Toshiba's own documentation states is drive-managed shingled recording, so the family answer differs by capacity.
At 1TB it is conventionally recorded where the current BarraCuda is shingled, which is the only documented difference that matters. Both are desktop lines with desktop duty cycles. For desktop use the difference will not be visible; for a drive you might repurpose it is a real advantage.
Packaging. HDWD110 is the retail carton SKU for the DT01ACA100 mechanism. The drive inside is the same, and both resolve to the same recording technology on this site.
We do not publish reliability rankings for consumer drives, because the data that exists is fleet data from datacenter operators running enterprise models, and extrapolating it to a consumer drive of the same brand is a chain with an unknown link in the middle. Buy on documented specification and price.