Seagate releases several new hard rives. Two product ranges interest us particularly: the Momentus 5400.3 and Barracuda 7200.9.
The Momentus 5400.3 is the first hard drive officially announced using the perpendicular magnetic recording technology. This new drive will probably relaunch the density race. To begin with, Seagate releases a 160 GB 2â€1/2 drive, density reached with two 80 GB platters. Previous limit was 120 GB with two 60 GB platters.
Available in Ultra ATA/100 or SATA/150 NCQ, Momentus 5400.3 drives feature 8MB of cache and will be out in 40, 60, 80, 120 and 160 GB versions. Platters, of course, spin at 5,400 Rpm have 12.5 ms access time and 25 dBA noise level. This last figure corresponds to a single platter drive in rotation.
The 7200.9 doesn’t use yet the perpendicular recording technology, but it allows Seagate to reach out for Hitachi in terms of capacity with a 500 GB disc Also available in 40, 80, 120, 160, 200, 250, 300, 400 and 500 GB, it will include 2, 8 or 16 MB of cache depending on the version. The disc interface will be Ultra ATA/100 or SATA/300 NCQ. These 7,200 Rpm drives have 8.5 ms access time and 28 dBA noise level in rotation.
It is important to note that Seagate doesn’t give any indications on the density per platters. That leads us to believe that there are no improvements on this side. Compared to the 7200.8, improvements are 4 x 125 GB platters, 500 GB, the SATA/300 NCQ controller and 16 MB of cache.
Like all Seagate drive for a year now, these ones will of course have a 5 year warranty.
It is best however not to be in a rush. We remind you that it took six month between the Barracuda 7200.8 announcement and availability in shops… we have to hope that this delay will be shorter this time.
