Seagate hits 1TB storage

Author: Brett Thomas
Published: 26th June 2007
Comments (15) Stumble
Speed, space, and stability - The new 7200.11 Barracuda drive has it all.

Speed, space, and stability - The new 7200.11 Barracuda drive has it all.

The recent push for greater storage capacity due to HD media has left many of us wondering when we'd see 1TB (Terabyte or 1000 Gigabytes) drives. Finally, Hitachi broke the silence with its offering, but we wondered who'd be next. Now, we know - Seagate has entered the building.

The press release was dropped on my desk earlier this morning from our friend at the company, and news has been floating around on the net since. The new 1TB drive is shipping from factories starting in the third quarter, 2007, so we should see them in stores well before the holiday season. You can expect it to be at an MSRP of $399.99 USD, which is well in line with other releases.

Seagate's new heavyweight is actually part of the latest eleventh generation of high-capacity Barracuda drives, dubbed 7200.11. The group is contains 500GB, 750GB and 1TB models, but it doesn't just stop at the size increase. A lot of technological improvements have gone into the drives, many of which will make it a top choice for those in need of some good storage.

The new drive does all of its storage on four platters instead of Hitachi's five platters. This may sound like no big deal, but is actually a very significant change. Less moving parts means less wear and tear on the drive, and thus a much better MTBF (mean time between failures). All of this is backed by a massive 32MB cache on a 7200RPM spindle.

Of course, don't let that 7200 number fool you - this drive may be the fastest non-SCSI drive out there. By managing to increase the density on the platters, Seagate has given the drive a bandwidth increase to a whopping 105MB/s. In comparison, Western Digital's popular Raptor 10,000RPM drives have maximum sustained transfer rates of 84MB/s. Could we be seeing the performance crown change hands, finally?

We'll have to withhold judgement on the throughput until we get some in our hot little hands, but it could well de-throne the champion while absolutely crushing it in storage space. If so, long live the king...

Tell us your thoughts about the accomplishment in our forums.
Quote DougEdey 26th June 2007, 10:19
To quote Jamie:
Quote:
Originally Posted by J says (09:59):

I've made a mess on my keyboard
Quote oasked 26th June 2007, 10:22
Bet it'll be expensive though. I've got one of the previous generation (7200.10) drives and its brilliant. :)
Quote BioSniper 26th June 2007, 10:28
Sounds good to me though the MSRP of $400 is a tad steep for all except those with deep pockets and enthusiasts, but I guess that's who they are aiming at anyway.

The only issue I see with this is that when the drive does fail its a bucket load of data to loose, I would certainly be wanting these in a RAID5 array and probably some chunky tape backup to go with it, if it weren't for the fact that tapes are so bleeding expensive :/
Quote crazyg1zm0 26th June 2007, 10:31
I am quite happy with the advances in teh size of the HDD but i just wish they could be more affordable to an average guy like me.
Quote mmorgue 26th June 2007, 10:39
A bit expensive but depends on how the usual US --> UK conversion goes. If it's £399 then not for me. But if they do it right and get it around £199/£210 then I could *almost* justify the spending, provided it does what it says on the tin.

Sounds tasty tho!
Quote Mister_Tad 26th June 2007, 10:48
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

Have you been waiting to see who's next after Hitachi's 1TB wonder? Seagate's 11th generation drive has not only just hit the same size, but it has done it with a host of other improvements as well.

Unless Samsung gets their T1 to market first, their upcoming 3 platter 1TB drive (yes, 334GB platters, ridiculous)
Quote DXR_13KE 26th June 2007, 11:12
then i will wait for Samsung :D
Quote Redbeaver 26th June 2007, 15:39
w000t.... Seagate!!! (never trusted Samsung anyway...even if they come up with a *better drive* im sticking wit Seagate) after waiting for so long after Hitachi :)

$399 is a good price for 1TB.... same as Hitachi. i wouldnt expect it to be lower at release. after a couple of reviews, i probably pick this one up. Currently running on 6 7200.9 and .10, not 1 failure.
Quote Da Dego 26th June 2007, 16:23
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redbeaver
w000t.... Seagate!!! (never trusted Samsung anyway...even if they come up with a *better drive* im sticking wit Seagate) after waiting for so long after Hitachi :)
I would have to agree here. There are VERY few things that I am fervently brand-loyal on, but hard drives are one of them. I have never, and I repeat: NEVER had a Seagate drive fail on me. In the meantime, I have been the US point of contact for the Western Digital RMAs that come from the Bit-tech office... ;) I'll be looking forward to dropping a couple of these in my media centre.
Quote devdevil85 26th June 2007, 17:17
Man that's a lot of open pasture. Bit-Torrent here I come!
Quote Spaceraver 26th June 2007, 19:46
Hmm, now all we need is a smaller size HDD, say 200 GB just for the OS. A 1 TB storage drive is nice.. But it needs raid.
Quote Hazardous 27th June 2007, 11:42
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redbeaver


w000t.... Seagate!!! (never trusted Samsung anyway...even if they come up with a *better drive* im sticking wit Seagate) after waiting for so long after Hitachi :)

Almost all my HDD's are Seagate (7200.10's) as well... but I recently took receipt of a new 750GB IBM/Hitachi for my new Intel [/'Dark Side' :D] build.
And the main reason for that choice, was the huge 32MB cache it has on board
Quote Paradigm Shifter 27th June 2007, 12:05
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redbeaver
w000t.... Seagate!!! (never trusted Samsung anyway...even if they come up with a *better drive* im sticking wit Seagate) after waiting for so long after Hitachi :)
I'll wait for the Samsung's myself. Got quite a few Samsung drives that run cooler and quieter than the WD and Seagate drives I own... and out of three Seagate drives I've had, two of them have died very quickly, and both were in totally different systems and environments - so I'm a little leery of them now.

It's a bit of a shame, actually... I've got limited space for HDDs in my case (P180B) and a couple of 1TB drives would suit me wonderfully. But I look at the price of the 500GB drives, and can get four of them for the same price as one 1TB (approximately)...
Quote The_Beast 28th June 2007, 01:46
I could never fill that up (I have dial-up)
Quote specialworks 11th July 2007, 16:40
With samsung's 1TB effort due out in August, I am similarly tempted to wait.
I have specified going on for 15-20 no. 250GB Spinpoints, and everything has been silky smooth and peaceful -- with no failures. Being late to market has its advantages for an Outfit like Samsung...

With you on the case capacity issue...
I think 3 drives will be a sensible maximum in *my* Antec P180 case [given my over-volting extravaganza inside]

PC

for specialworks

Workstation & Gaming Rig: Opteron 144 @ 2.8GHz|DFI LP nF4Del SLI|2GB G.Skill|eVGA 8800GTS 320MB OC|Spinpoint 250GB|Samsung 226BW 22"|X-Fi Xtreme Music
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.





Stats: 0.114 seconds