This article is more than 1 year old

Seagate puts out Barracuda Low Power Green

Eco-nomical

Seagate has quietly launched a green version of its Barracuda desktop drive, with three platters holding 1.5 or 2TB and spinning at a mere 5,900rpm.

There was going to be a Barracuda LP (Low Power) a while ago, but it has become the Barracuda Green. There are two versions on Seagate's website, ones with a 32MB cache and 3Gbit/s SATA interface and ones with a 64MB cache and 6Gbit/s interface. Both versions come with Advanced Formatting and in 1.5TB and 2TB capacity points, with an entry-level 1TB 3Gbit/s SATA interface one.

There are two areal density levels. The 3Gbit/s SATA drives have 341.5Gbit/in2 whereas the 6Gbit/s SATA ones have 422Gbit/in2. Seagate's spec sheets tell us the latter drives have six heads and three platters, meaning 666.7GB per platter.

The company doesn't say how many platters there on the 3gig SATA drives, but a look at the power draw suggests there are four as the 3-platter 6gig drives use significantly less power.

The 3gig SATA, 2TB drive has an average operating power use of 6.8watts, a startup draw of 2 Amps at 12 Volts, and an idle draw of 5.5watts. The 6gig 2TB drive is much better, operating with 3.8watts, starting up with 2 Amps at 12 Volts, and idling with 4.5watts.

These new Seagate drives spin a little faster than WD's near-equivalent Caviar Greens which rotate at 5,400rpm. They do however go up to 3TB in capacity, which might be thought more important than a ten per cent increase in spin speed by Seagate's Barracuda.

Seagate does have a 3TB FreeAgent GoFlex drive which uses, we think, an unannounced Barracuda or Constellation model. That could indicate a 3TB Barracuda Green might be coming around soon.

Amazon pricing has a 2TB, 6gig SATA Seagate Barracuda Green model available for $127 and the 1.5TB sibling at $99.00. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like