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Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB

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Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB
 
90
---
Verdict:
Great storage space, and nice performance too.
By Justin Robinson
Apr 3, 2009 | 2 Comments
Tags: Seagate | Barracuda | 1.5TB | hard | drive | hdd

The bitey drive from Seagate with a lot of storage.

The first hard drive that Seagate ever made was called the ST506, which fit into two 5.25in bays, and held a grand total of 5MB storage. Back when it was released in 1980, it cost many hundreds of dollars ($US1500 to be exact), and was more space than the average user knew what to do with. With a speed of 3,600RPM and access time of 85ms, this wasn't exactly what you'd call a performance drive. Boy, how far hard drives have come.

With manufacturing technologies constantly improving, and materials becoming available to take advantage of these refined techniques, what used to take up a huge amount of room can now be compressed down into the standard form factor of 3.5in. With 1,500 gigabytes of storage space and a rotational speed of 7200RPM, this drive has an access time of 13.7ms, an average read speed of 117MB/s, and an average write speed of 107MB/s, making this quite a fast drive.

This drive managed to remain pretty quiet during testing, and did not get too warm under heavy accessing (though some airflow across it can never hurt for longevity's sake). You'll be able to fit a lot of games on this drive, and this should be plenty of room for even above-average space users. Just keep in mind that if you're going to be RAIDing a couple of these together that if something goes wrong, you can potentially lose three or more terabytes in one go, so make sure you take adequate precautions.

Seeing how far this tech has come in 29 years is incredible. We've gone from $US300/MB in 1980, to $0.0016/MB in 2009. Put another way, you're getting 6.2GB for every dollar you spend - that kind of value is amazing, and it's only going to get better. 

 
Product Info
Specs:
1500GB; 3.5in form factor; SATA 3Gb/s
Supplier:
Price when reviewed:
AUD$242
price check*
$136.40 ST31500341AS Seagate 3.5" Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB HDD, SATAII,
Tigers Direct (NSW)
$138.00 SeaGate 1.5TB 7200rpm SATA-2 NCQ 32meg Cache Barracuda 7200.11 Model: ST315...
GameDude Computers (QLD)
$138.95 Seagate 1.5tb Barracuda 7200.11 Sata 3gb/s St31500341as Hard Drive
Gizmomart (NSW)
$138.99 ==GOOD== Seagate 1.5TB SATA II 3Gb/s NCQ HDD Barracuda 7200rpm, 32MB Cache,...
Anypc (NSW)
$139.00 Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200RPM 32MB SATA 3Gbs
Centre Com (VIC)
$139.00 Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 3.5" SATA 32MB 7200RPM HDD
PCDIY (NSW, VIC)
*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC Powered by
 
This article appeared in the March, 2009 issue of Atomic.

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2 Comments
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
meniac
Apr 4, 2009 3:26 PM
I,ve got 2 of these :) They rock !!!

$229 at: netplus (http://www.netplus.com.au/products-listing.asp?code=HD4&group=Serial%20ATA%20Hard%20Drives)
nesquick
Apr 5, 2009 5:09 PM
Can anyone confirm if these are or aren't part of the group of seagate drives that have the random death problem?
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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 106 | November, 2009

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.
 
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