Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 Review

INTRODUCTION

With the emergence of Solid State Drives (SSD), the traditional mechanical drives seem to be facing a big challenge. However, do not count the mechanical drives out yet because compare to the measly storage capacity and the high pricing of the SSD, the mechanical drives still offers the best bang for the buck in terms of gigabit per dollar ratio. This is why you do not see hard drive manufacturers giving up on the mechanical drives completely and coming out with larger storage capacity drives still.

Despite the fact the mechanical drives have been steadily improving their performance over the last few years, they are still stuck at 7,200 RPM and have been for a very long time. Only a few enthusiasts’ drives are able to achieve 10,000 RPM and enterprise drivers are able to achieve the 15,000 RPM. So, how do the mechanical hard drives gain their performance? Easy, by pack larger density per platter. Over the last few years, we have seen the platter density jumps from 200GB all the way to 500GB.

As the platter density increases, hard drives are able to pack more data per disk and, as a result, the time for data retrieval is shorter due to less time that is needed to find the bits of data. Not only that, hard drives are able to perform faster. The larger areal density also allows hard drive manufactures to exceed the storage capacity of 1TB and now we are seeing HD manufactures breaking into 1.5TB and even 2TB. Seagate’s latest Barracuda 7200.12 is the company’s first hard drive that comes with 500 GB platter density.

Having larger areal density not only helps with the performance, it has added benefit of reducing noise levels and power consumption. By packing more data, hard drives require less platters, so the heat output is usually reduced as well.

Seagate’s last generation of hard drives, Barracuda 7200.11, suffers some bad publicity due to a bad firmware which renders hard drives not being detected in the system. Though Seagate has taken an active role releasing a firmware fix for the affected hard drives and they even offer data retrieval for customers who may have their hard drives not working, it still leaves some bad taste in the consumer’s mouth. Seagate is hoping that this latest drive can regain the company’s reputation.

As a turn of event, the Seagate Barracuda has changed its warranty from five years to three years on all  internal drives since 2009. Many of us really enjoy the five year warranty that was offered by Seagate back in 2005 but three years is nothing to complain about as it is still within the industry standard.

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.