[NEWS] - Barracuda 7200.7 review

[Handruin]

New Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 HDD Review

Latest SPCR author Dru reviews the new Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 drive by comparing it against a well known silent drive, namely the Seagate Barracuda IV, now some 18 months "old": A noise and performance contest between generations. Does one sweep both categories?

 

[Corvair]

Actually, I'm *personally* more interested in the upcoming Barracuda 5400.1 than the 7200 RPM series.

 

[double bit CRC error]

hmm.. sounds like an ideal drive for a htpc or other situation where noise and heat must be kept at a minimum... atleast if it carries on the tradidtions of the ATA Barracuda.

When are these going ot be realesed? shortly?

 

[yeti]

Actually a more recent review and to my opinion relevant is available at

http://ixbt.com/storage/seagate-barr7.shtml

while the one platter drives (2MB cache only though) are now available at several on-line stores here in the US (Techdepot through CDW).

 

[NRG = mc²]

Not very impressive drive. The older 'Cudas were slow but had the low noise that made them of some use. The new 'Cuda is neither fast nor very quiet. :-?

 

[blakerwry]

Not very impressive drive. The older 'Cudas were slow but had the low noise that made them of some use. The new 'Cuda is neither fast nor very quiet. :-?

Wasn't the 7200.7 supposed to be targeted towards OEMs? ...so it neither being the quietest drive ever or the fatest drive available has no real bearing...
An OEMs objective is to get a drive that is cost effective and stays under a threshold of noise and price.

I expected it to be faster... and I think we will see that it *is* faster once more tests have been done. However, it's not going to break any records... I think the noise level of this drive is acceptable for most users, it's probably comparable to other FDB drives that are currently available from other manufacturers.

 

[Corvair]

hmm.. sounds like an ideal drive for a htpc or other situation where noise and heat must be kept at a minimum... atleast if it carries on the tradidtions of the ATA Barracuda.

My possible use for the Barracuda 5400.1 is audio recording using an Alesis ADAT HD-24 recorder. It uses its own ultra-efficient file system which doesn't fragment or require the hard drive heads to thrash about even when performing the most screwed up multi-track editing one could force upon the unit as it records and/or plays high bit-rate 24-channel audio.

Ultimately, I need the quietest *affordable* 10 ~ 40 GB hard drives on the market, as I need to purchase 6, 7, or maybe 8 of them and place them in the narrow and -- thankfuly inexpensive -- Alesis ATA drive caddies.

By the way, the second drive bay can be used for either copying or recording, but only one drive works at a time. You can also use >137 GB ATA drives, but nobody yet makes an ATA drive with enough storage capacity to meet the 199 hour, 59 minute recording length limitation in the Alesis file system. If needed, one can FTP into the recorder over Ethernet to add or copy audio data, otherwise audio I/O is normally done through its 24-channel high-end analogue TRS (24 record + 24 playback) or its 3-each 8-channel ADAT Digital Optical connectors.

When are these going ot be realesed? shortly?

I had heard that both the 7200 and the 5400 Barracudas would come out at approximately the same time.