Seagate 1TB Family of Drives ... Part 1 - 7200.11

INTRODUCTION

Last year Seagate launched a 750GB 1st Generation Perpendicular hard drive to the world. When released the Barracuda 750GB 7200.10 was the largest hard drive was the largest drive available, notice we say was. This 750GB drive at the time was only bettered in performance by the Western digital Raptors, which only held 20% of the Barracuda's capacity. So now with people storing more music, videos and in Scott's case games and game demos even larger drives have become necessary. Seagate seeing that need has seen fit to drop a 1TB hard drive on us. This new drive is 2nd Generation Perpendicular technology based and has its CACHE upgraded from 16MB to 32MB.

Today it is our pleasure at Bjorn3D to continue our reviews of the Seagate storage review saga. Because we were fortunate enough to receive both the Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200.11, aimed at the mainstream consumer market and the Seagate Barracuda 1TB ES.2, designed more for enterprise networking solutions; Scott and I will split this review into two separate parts. Part 1 will feature the Barracuda 7200.11 and Part 2 will concentrate on the Barracuda ES.2.

Seagate:  A Brief Overview

Seagate was founded in 1979 and was the first company to build 5.25-inch hard disc drives for the PC. And while it may have seemed like a minor milestone at the time, today this hard disc drive introduction is regarded as one event that helped fuel the PC revolution. Suddenly, people could access unprecedented amounts of information, which eventually gave rise to the Internet and other developments. And for nearly a quarter of a century, Seagate has been developing the technology and manufacturing the products that helped make it all happen.

25 years later, the world runs on information. Every time you access the Internet, use an ATM, watch TV, listen to digital music, enjoy a movie with computer-generated special effects, or use a consumer-electronics device, you access and share large amounts of digital information on disc drives -- the core of Seagate's business.

Seagate also has its sights set years into the future. From hand-held computers and web phones, to intelligent storage that knows what information you want and when you want it, to home networks that deliver entertainment, education and services on demand -- Seagate has the knowledge and resources to develop the technologies required for tomorrow. The company is committed to developing new solutions and technologies, pushing storage further than anyone could have imagined in 1979.

At the core of Seagate's success is its advanced development of hard disc drive products. Seagate is the market leader with products in 1-inch, 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factors in internal and external formats. In capacities ranging from 2.5 gigabytes to 750 gigabytes, this comprehensive line includes products for the price-sensitive desktop market, consumer electronics devices (hand-held to in-home audio/video), pocket and portable storage, notebook computers and enterprise-class network servers.