The Seagate brand name is quite familiar to computer enthusiasts thanks to their hard drives' reputation for solid performance, reliability, and an unmatched 5-year warranty. With a new product available, I have a feeling this reputation may get even stronger.
Up for review this time around we have the new Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB Serial ATA Revision 2.5 hard drive. Not only does this drive sport a massive 500GB of storage capacity, but it also has impressive features like a 3 Gb/s transfer speed and 16MB of cache memory.
Features and Specifications:
The table below details the key features and specifications of the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB Serial ATA Revision 2.5 hard drive, as well as those of another drive of interest. The Hitachi Deskstar 7K500 500GB hard drive (tested at Bigbruin.com in July 2005) was the first drive to offer many of the features that this new Barracuda brings to the table. Both offer 500GB of storage, 16MB of cache memory, a 3 Gb/s interface, and support for NCQ. Browsing the table will detail the other similarilities and differences of these two monstrous hard drives...
| Manufacturer |
Seagate |
Hitachi |
| Model |
Barracuda 7200.9 - ST3500641AS |
Deskstar - HDS725050KLA360 |
| Interface |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
SATA 3 Gb/s |
| Capacity (GB) |
500 |
500 |
| Cache Memory (MB) |
16 |
16 |
| Rotational speed (RPM) |
7200 |
7200 |
| Transfer rate (max. Mbits/sec) |
800 |
817 |
| Sustained data rate (MB/sec) |
> |
64.8 - 31 (zone 0 - 29) |
| Average Seek (msec) |
11 |
8.5 |
| Error rate (non-recoverable) |
1 in 10E14 |
1 in 10E14 |
| Start/stops |
50,000 |
50,000 |
| Acoustic - Idle (Bels) |
2.8 |
3.1 |
| Power Requirement |
+5 VDC (+/- 5%), +12 VDC (+10%/-8%) |
+5 VDC (+/- 5%), +12 VDC (+10%/-8%) |
| Idle (W) |
6.9 |
9.6 |
| Height (mm) |
26.1 |
25.4 |
| Width (mm) |
101.6 |
101.6 |
| Depth (mm) |
146.99 |
146 |
| Weight (max. kg) |
0.69 |
0.70 |
| Ambient Operating Temperature |
0° to 60° C |
5° to 55° C |
| Shock (operating, 2ms) |
60G |
55G |
| Ambient Non-Operating Temperature |
-40° to 70° C |
-40° to 65° C |
| Shock (non-operating, 2ms) |
350G |
225G |
| Manufacturer's Warranty (years) |
5 |
3 |
Side-by-side, the two drives 'look' quite similar. I guess there is only so much you can do differently with a fairly standard device, but a few things do jump out at you. The Seagate drive is rated to operate at a lower noise level, has a broader range of operating temperatures, and can withstand more shock. All of these items indicate that the design is more robust, which could lead to a longer life. Speaking of longer life, there is also the matter of the manufacturer's warranty. The Hitachi drive comes with a respectable three year warranty, but as with all Seagate products, you have a five year warranty on the 500GB 7200.9 Barracuda.
|
|
