FARID
2011/11/10, 13:41
Seagate Barracuda 3TB Review
(1TB Platters - ST3000DM001)
795
This past spring Seagate started shipping the 3TB Barracuda XT (review) which was a pretty solid offering. Seagate quickly followed up that release with an announcement that a new 3TB Barracuda would feature three 1TB platters instead of the five 600GB platters seen in the first version. Seagate's about a quarter late in delivering the new 1TB platter technology, but sometimes new technology is better late than never...especially when top line sequential read and write speeds top 190 MB/s, an improvement thanks to the new platters of 30%.
Seagate is the first to commercialize 1TB hard drive platters. While consumers may pine for 5TB drives based on the innovative platter, macro and practical issues have Seagate trying it out in the 3-platter Barracuda first. Conceptually though, it's not that far-fetched to start to think about the applications we'll likely see over the next several quarters. Seagate offers a 4TB hard drive through their branded products div***on, the 4TB GoFlex Desk has a five 800GB platter Barracuda hard drive inside. Swapping those out for 1TB platters is the next logical step in jumbo hard drive capacity...and a welcome option for NAS users and others who are limited by the number of terabytes they can get per drive bay.
Dealing with the drive in hand though, the 3TB Barracuda has a good deal going for it. Aside from the new platters, users are getting 7,200 RPM spindle speed, 64MB cache and several Seagate technologies like OptiCache, which makes the cache process more efficient, SmartAlign which helps legacy computers play nice with 4K sectors and DiscWizard which allows operating systems like Windows XP to take advantage of the full 3TB capacity.
Seagate Barracuda Specs 3TB
SATA 6Gb/s
Spindle Speed - 7,200 RPM
Average read - 156 MB/s
Max read - 210 MB/s
4096 bytes per sector
Six heads, three disks
Power - Operating 8.0W, Idle 5.4W, Standby .75W
OptiCache, AcuTrak and SmartAlign Technolgies
Design and Build
Seagate stays pretty consistent with their labeling and hard drive design scheme. The top cover includes the basic black on white sticker stuck on top of the vibration dampening plate on the top cover. The design hasn't changed much from the previous 3TB Barracuda XT, and it doesn't look much different from their enterprise-class Constellation ES series.
796
The bottom of the drive shows the "electronic facing inwards" circuit board layout that we have come to see from Western Digital and Seagate. This method puts the components right in contact with the metal body, helping to shed heat off sensitive parts.
797
The front of the keeps the same SATA power/data interface as the previous models, as well as the 4 pin jumper area.
798
The new 3TB Barracuda reports itself as a 512-logical, 4096-byte physical drive to the operating system. This is optimal for operating systems that can correctly work with newer 4K-drives, instead of forcing a legacy 512-byte physical size through emulation.
Disassembly
The circuit board on the 3TB Barracuda is held on with six small T6 Torx bits. Compared to the previous generation, the board itself is more compact. This saves a bit of space although the board is still too large to be shared with anything smaller than a 3.5-inch hard drive.
800
With the circuit board removed we find no vibration dampening layer of foam that was present in earlier models, although we do find a thermal pad attached to the drive controller. This helps draw heat away from the chip and into the body of the hard drive, acting as one large heatsink.
The board contains a 64MB Winbond W9751G6JB-25, an LSI/Seagate controller and a Texas Instruments SH6968B motor driver.
803
: Benchmarks resault
815812813814
(1TB Platters - ST3000DM001)
795
This past spring Seagate started shipping the 3TB Barracuda XT (review) which was a pretty solid offering. Seagate quickly followed up that release with an announcement that a new 3TB Barracuda would feature three 1TB platters instead of the five 600GB platters seen in the first version. Seagate's about a quarter late in delivering the new 1TB platter technology, but sometimes new technology is better late than never...especially when top line sequential read and write speeds top 190 MB/s, an improvement thanks to the new platters of 30%.
Seagate is the first to commercialize 1TB hard drive platters. While consumers may pine for 5TB drives based on the innovative platter, macro and practical issues have Seagate trying it out in the 3-platter Barracuda first. Conceptually though, it's not that far-fetched to start to think about the applications we'll likely see over the next several quarters. Seagate offers a 4TB hard drive through their branded products div***on, the 4TB GoFlex Desk has a five 800GB platter Barracuda hard drive inside. Swapping those out for 1TB platters is the next logical step in jumbo hard drive capacity...and a welcome option for NAS users and others who are limited by the number of terabytes they can get per drive bay.
Dealing with the drive in hand though, the 3TB Barracuda has a good deal going for it. Aside from the new platters, users are getting 7,200 RPM spindle speed, 64MB cache and several Seagate technologies like OptiCache, which makes the cache process more efficient, SmartAlign which helps legacy computers play nice with 4K sectors and DiscWizard which allows operating systems like Windows XP to take advantage of the full 3TB capacity.
Seagate Barracuda Specs 3TB
SATA 6Gb/s
Spindle Speed - 7,200 RPM
Average read - 156 MB/s
Max read - 210 MB/s
4096 bytes per sector
Six heads, three disks
Power - Operating 8.0W, Idle 5.4W, Standby .75W
OptiCache, AcuTrak and SmartAlign Technolgies
Design and Build
Seagate stays pretty consistent with their labeling and hard drive design scheme. The top cover includes the basic black on white sticker stuck on top of the vibration dampening plate on the top cover. The design hasn't changed much from the previous 3TB Barracuda XT, and it doesn't look much different from their enterprise-class Constellation ES series.
796
The bottom of the drive shows the "electronic facing inwards" circuit board layout that we have come to see from Western Digital and Seagate. This method puts the components right in contact with the metal body, helping to shed heat off sensitive parts.
797
The front of the keeps the same SATA power/data interface as the previous models, as well as the 4 pin jumper area.
798
The new 3TB Barracuda reports itself as a 512-logical, 4096-byte physical drive to the operating system. This is optimal for operating systems that can correctly work with newer 4K-drives, instead of forcing a legacy 512-byte physical size through emulation.
Disassembly
The circuit board on the 3TB Barracuda is held on with six small T6 Torx bits. Compared to the previous generation, the board itself is more compact. This saves a bit of space although the board is still too large to be shared with anything smaller than a 3.5-inch hard drive.
800
With the circuit board removed we find no vibration dampening layer of foam that was present in earlier models, although we do find a thermal pad attached to the drive controller. This helps draw heat away from the chip and into the body of the hard drive, acting as one large heatsink.
The board contains a 64MB Winbond W9751G6JB-25, an LSI/Seagate controller and a Texas Instruments SH6968B motor driver.
803
: Benchmarks resault
815812813814