Seagate's Barracuda 7200.12 HD packs 500GB per platter
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 6th 2009 6:19PM
posted Jan 6th 2009 6:19PM
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]
500GB version is $65 on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148377
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?
I'd say the 160MB/s sustained sounds like a good enough reason. Obviously you can expect a 4 platter 2 TB drive soon.
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...
watching these things grow before my eyes over the months/years is amazing and really shows how we are progressing
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
Actually, a lot of people who drive BMWs actually can't afford them. Just don't ask them about it...
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?
I think they just put in half a platter.
They slice a platter in half.
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.
Its probably possible - just like a 3 gigabyte flashdrive. YOu will simply never see one though - coz its not practical
4 years from now
"New 5 Terabyte drive for $150.00"
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.
stupid comment system - I replied to the one below.
Wow - this is really messed up tonight - I replied to the comment below
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.
Stop dreaming and buy a 500gb WD disk (I did it for my Dell D830 laptop)
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...
I thought 2.5 + 2.5 = 5...
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.
The sizes will probably be:
500GB
1TB
1.5TB
2TB
Freaking cheap... only $65 for 500Gb
Wonder how they got up to 1.5TB with the 7200.11.
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.
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.
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.
Still only 16MB of cache? Not 32MB?
And how does the 750GB version work?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4nWy8pmIM4
Ooh, Barracuda!
haha had to swipe newegg's pic?
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.
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...
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.
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.
Yeah, super cheap! I'll wait till I see some 1TB drives and buy four and set up a nice custom RAID 5 setup. :)
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.
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