Seagate's Barracuda 7200.12 HD packs 500GB per platter

Around 1.5 years ago, we were all sitting around in awe of the ultra-dense Barracuda 7200.10. Now, Seagate has doubled up on that gigabyte-per-platter milestone with the Barracuda 7200.12. As of this week, the desktop hard drive with the industry's highest areal density (329 Gigabits per square inch, for those curious) is shipping, as the firm's engineers have somehow figured out how to squeeze 500GB onto a single disk. The 3.5-inch 7,200RPM drive touts a SATA interface, a sustained data rate of up to 160MB/second and a burst speed of 3Gb/second. It's available as we speak in 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities, though there's no telling how much coin you'll be asked to lay down in order to take home the bragging rights.

[Via TG Daily]

[XenMaster4 @ Jan 6th 2009 6:25PM]

500GB version is $65 on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148377

[E71 @ Jan 6th 2009 7:47PM]

What's the point of this if they don't make full use of it to increase capacity beyond 1.5TB

Is there really THAT much of an advantage to go for these higher-capacity-per-platter drives instead of existing ones of the same overall capacity?

[Nihility @ Jan 7th 2009 1:11AM]

I'd say the 160MB/s sustained sounds like a good enough reason. Obviously you can expect a 4 platter 2 TB drive soon.

[Salsa Shark @ Jan 7th 2009 8:20PM]

One advantage is if a platter swap is needed. These Seagate drives (7200.10 and 7200.11) are very prone to seized spindles and the only way to fix them is to pull out the platters and put them in an another shell.

Many of the data recovery shops won't even try a 5-platter swap with the 7200.11 drives, but don't have any issue with a 2- or 3-platter transplant...

[Mike Mielke @ Jan 6th 2009 6:27PM]

watching these things grow before my eyes over the months/years is amazing and really shows how we are progressing

[Stereotype @ Jan 6th 2009 9:56PM]

I know right? I keep telling myself I should wait a bit longer so that I can get the best and newest product and then whoops, next day something new, better, cheaper comes out...so even tho its amazing to see how far we have progressed and how fast we are progressing, its annoying because those of us who don't have BMWs and all that cant afford to keep up.... :P

[Mugen Power @ Jan 7th 2009 10:44AM]

Actually, a lot of people who drive BMWs actually can't afford them. Just don't ask them about it...

[Phawx @ Jan 6th 2009 6:27PM]

Wow thats cheap for a 500GB. Though a 750GB version?

Shouldn't we only see a 500GB and 1TB version?

Also, if they use four platters shouldn't we see a 2TB HDD?

[ShadowMaker @ Jan 6th 2009 6:35PM]

I think they just put in half a platter.

[michas_pi @ Jan 6th 2009 6:50PM]

They slice a platter in half.

[James @ Jan 6th 2009 7:24PM]

The platters have two sides, 250gb to a side. To read both sides you need two heads; so if you make a 2-platter drive with only 3 heads (and don't coat the 4th surface magnetic either, to save money) you get 750gb. Nearly the same internal design as the 1tb version, so it's reasonable to manufacture too.

[Matthew C @ Jan 7th 2009 2:22AM]

Its probably possible - just like a 3 gigabyte flashdrive. YOu will simply never see one though - coz its not practical

[Platinum_Skeet @ Jan 6th 2009 6:28PM]

4 years from now


"New 5 Terabyte drive for $150.00"

[Matthew C @ Jan 7th 2009 2:24AM]

Almost thought it said 500gb 7200 disk for laptop. I would been pissed. I just installed a 320gig drive in my d820 because I wanted the extra speed boost. I would love an extra 180 gigs, but performance comes first.

[Matthew C @ Jan 7th 2009 2:25AM]

stupid comment system - I replied to the one below.

[Matthew C @ Jan 7th 2009 2:26AM]

Wow - this is really messed up tonight - I replied to the comment below

[Tmacfan4321 @ Jan 6th 2009 6:28PM]

Do this for a 2.5" Notebook HDD and I'll be amazed.

I'm waiting for the day that I can get something over 500GB for my laptop.

[Parisian @ Jan 6th 2009 6:39PM]

Stop dreaming and buy a 500gb WD disk (I did it for my Dell D830 laptop)

[Fanfoot @ Jan 6th 2009 8:36PM]

I gave up and bought one of these...

http://www.addonics.com/products/enclosures/AE25RDESU.asp

Won't solve your internal drive problem, but for an external allows you to go up to 1TB in a "relatively" small form factor and weight, certainly smaller than a 3.5" external drive.

But yeah, I'm waiting patiently for that 640GB/750GB 2.5" next step too...

[cloud858rk @ Jan 6th 2009 8:49PM]

I thought 2.5 + 2.5 = 5...

[Tmacfan4321 @ Jan 7th 2009 9:58PM]

I don't really feel like getting a 500GB HDD right now because I upgraded to a 320GB hard drive last summer. Kinda useless to be spending $100 every year for a little bit more space each year.

[sr @ Jan 6th 2009 6:32PM]

Wonder how they got up to 1.5TB with the 7200.11.

[bosscrab @ Jan 6th 2009 6:35PM]

Wow I wonder if these will crash as fast at the 7200.11 that I had did. What a disaster. Can't wait until this medium is dead forever.

[sr @ Jan 6th 2009 6:52PM]

Yeah the 1TB ones were not a problem, but I heard the 1.5TB versions were a nightmare. Yes magnetic disk is something that has to go, but for 1TB+ applications I'm afraid we'll be stuck with them for a while yet.

[Shaka @ Jan 6th 2009 7:10PM]

I too had a 1.5TB and I went through 3 of them. Seagate even cut its warranties down to 3 years all across the board. I dont see alot of promise in the future for these drives with such a low life expectancy. I still have nightmares about all the priceless data I lost.

[Towncivilian @ Jan 6th 2009 6:40PM]

Still only 16MB of cache? Not 32MB?

And how does the 750GB version work?

[bangladeshiluv @ Jan 6th 2009 6:42PM]

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[gonintendo @ Jan 6th 2009 6:47PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4nWy8pmIM4
Ooh, Barracuda!

[slackercow @ Jan 6th 2009 7:00PM]

haha had to swipe newegg's pic?

[kal326 @ Jan 6th 2009 7:06PM]

Well this could explain the fire sale prices on the older 1TB and the 1.5TB. I almost bought two 1TB Seagates for 109 a piece today. Figure I'll wait a bit longer and see if these come out at decent prices or depress the old stocks price a bit more.

[ReinFire @ Jan 6th 2009 7:26PM]

Not sure where the comments about the warranty being cut to 3 years came from. I just checked (NewEgg) and they are still 5 years for Seagate drives (and I did check the 1.5 TB drives as well...).

I purchased two 1.5 TB Seagates and have been using them a lot (filled already) and they have worked great, no freeze-ups, etc. That problem was fixed for the newer drives and if you have one of the older drives you can get a firmware update to resolve it...

[brian @ Jan 6th 2009 7:38PM]

I hope these are more reliable than the 1TB 7200.11 drives, those things drop like flies sure they are covered under warranty but its still a hassle.

[Matt @ Jan 6th 2009 7:51PM]

I am guessing they will be less reliable because the higher data density requires higher precision, but falling prices put pressure on the manufacturer to use cheaper components.

They should be faster than older drives, though.

[tester3000 @ Jan 6th 2009 8:44PM]

The sizes will probably be:
500GB
1TB
1.5TB
2TB

Freaking cheap... only $65 for 500Gb

[Maverick-DBZ- @ Jan 7th 2009 6:54AM]

Yeah, super cheap! I'll wait till I see some 1TB drives and buy four and set up a nice custom RAID 5 setup. :)

[Jonathan Sundy @ Jan 7th 2009 9:24AM]

Can anyone place an educated guess on what a 2TB version might run? I'm seeing 1.5TB disks down around $100 on sale so I'm hoping the new high end disk price is less than $200 (where it used to be what $300 for the highest capacity drives?).

How does this compare performance wise to recent 7200rpm drives? That sounds ridiculously fast for sustained read.

[va jj @ Jan 8th 2009 1:35PM]

it doesnt make sense that they didnt put 32megs of cash on this thing. single platter and if you're transfering large files and with sustained transfer that this rate its able to utilize all 32megs of cache.

watch, seagate gonna one up us and put out the 32meg version when we all bought the 16meg version lol