Seagate Ships 4 TB-class Hard Drives with 1 TB Per Platter Density

[btarunr]

Seagate reportedly began shipping the industry's first 4 TB-class hard drives with 1 TB per platter density. Slotted in the company's Barracuda 7200.15 series, the drive provides 4000 GB of unformatted space, backed by 7,200 RPM spindle-speed, 64 MB buffer, and SATA 6 Gb/s interface. The drive is said to provide sequential speeds as high as 146 MB/s, with the 6 Gb/s interface enhancing buffer-to-host burst speeds. When it reaches stores, the OEM trim (drive-only) can be purchased for as low as US $190, and the retail version (boxed, with cables and documentation), for $212. At these prices, Seagate is claiming the lowest price-per-GB for any internal storage device in the industry. The terabyte platter technology should also make it possible for Seagate to launch a 5-platter 5000 GB hard drive soon.



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[RejZoR]

If it will really cost just that much, it is indeed a very cheap storage solution. I paid like 230 EUR for my 2TB almost 3 years ago.

I just wonder when the hell Seagate plans to release hybrid desktop drives... they have them listed on their webpage but no info on the exact products. Just a general page of what it might be available someday...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

That. Is. Awesome! Took them long enough.

 

[Zakin]

"Seagate is claiming the lowest price-per-GB for any internal storage device in the industry"

Ironically enough, been able to get 3TB Seagates Barracudas for like 110 bucks for like three months now.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Same, but closer to $130-150 USD.

 

[Zakin]

Although thinking about it, the good thing about these is, the realistic market value of these after a few months should be closer to 160-170. Which would be good.

 

[KissSh0t]

4TB.... amazing...

I want 2 of these *______________*

 

[Drmark]

I have 6 of the Hitachi drives. Really nice with the 7200 RPM. Looking forward to the 5tb's.

 

[microtrash]

The drive is said to provide sequential speeds as high as 146 MB/s

Wait !!!
The seagate 3TB that is shipping right now can provide speeds up to 185MB/s...

So they are shipping slower, but bigger drive ? Did we hit a performance wall with mechanical HD ?
I want more capacity, but don't want less speed... please!

 

[LagunaX]

Probably will have to partition it also like the 3TB drives, the largest active partition for Windows is 2TB I think.

 

[tastegw]

@ $190, that's less than $50 per TB, great deal!

 

[newtekie1]

Seagate STBD4000400 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3....

$169 w/ PromoCode EMCYTZT3213

 

[repman244]

Wait !!!
The seagate 3TB that is shipping right now can provide speeds up to 185MB/s...

So they are shipping slower, but bigger drive ? Did we hit a performance wall with mechanical HD ?
I want more capacity, but don't want less speed... please!

Wait for benchmarks, it might be a typo on their end.

Probably will have to partition it also like the 3TB drives, the largest active partition for Windows is 2TB I think.

AFAIK if you use GPT instead of MBR you don't have to make any partitions (but it can't be used as an OS drive tho - but I don't know anyone who uses a 4 TB disk as his OS drive).

 

[de.das.dude]

will these last? 4tb is a lot of data.

 

[Jacez]

This is nice, but if you can do 1TB per platter, give us 5TB!

Or 3TB 2.5" drives..

 

[microtrash]

Wait for benchmarks, it might be a typo on their end.

Found my answer. Those are not 7200RPM disk, but 5900RPM one !! :shadedshu

http://theharddriveblog.blogspot.ca/2013/02/4tb-seagate-stbd4000400-desktop-hard.html

 

[Frick]

Found my answer. Those are not 7200RPM disk, but 5900RPM one !! :shadedshu

http://theharddriveblog.blogspot.ca/2013/02/4tb-seagate-stbd4000400-desktop-hard.html

Meh, it's clearly not meant to be a speed monster.

 

[WhiteLotus]

Meh, it's clearly not meant to be a speed monster.

Exactly it's a backup drive. Needed only when you have to transfer files not for every day use.

 

[repman244]

Found my answer. Those are not 7200RPM disk, but 5900RPM one !! :shadedshu

http://theharddriveblog.blogspot.ca/2013/02/4tb-seagate-stbd4000400-desktop-hard.html

Probably to keep the heat down, even triple platter 7200RPM drives can get really hot.

 

[SaltyFish]

Wait !!!
The seagate 3TB that is shipping right now can provide speeds up to 185MB/s...

So they are shipping slower, but bigger drive ? Did we hit a performance wall with mechanical HD ?
I want more capacity, but don't want less speed... please!

I'm guessing it's a bit slower than the older 3 TB drives due to the extra platter.

We have... sort of hit a performance wall with HDDs. 4 TB has been the maximum capacity for quite some time. Supposedly, this is due to a combination of mechanical limits (similar to the approaching CPU limit) and patent lockdown (manufacturers each have their own proprietary methods to get to the current platter sizes, but aren't willing to share to make potentially bigger platters). If I remember, Western Digital is planning 5 TB drives at the end of this year. There was also a TPU article about using helium to increase HDD capacity. I'd love to get a 2 TB hard drive on a single platter, but that's not going to happen soon.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Found my answer. Those are not 7200RPM disk, but 5900RPM one !! :shadedshu

http://theharddriveblog.blogspot.ca/2013/02/4tb-seagate-stbd4000400-desktop-hard.html

That explains it. I didn't believe you, I looked at what newtekie1 linked, and it doesn't give the speed anywhere. Highly suspicious and plausible that it is not 7200 RPM. I'll wait for 7200 RPM.

I'm guessing it's a bit slower than the older 3 TB drives due to the extra platter.

It should be faster with more platters and equal platter density, not slower. The platters act like an internal RAID0. It can read and write to all platters simultaneously. It should also get a nice performance bump going from 750 GB/platter to 1 TB/platter. I think it could hit 200 MB/s sequential.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Heh of course it doesn't list speed as it likely if not surely is 5900 and 4/5 people will be drooling over the capacity (and promo) and not even think about the rotation speed. That said, it doesn't really need to be faster for most applications and users, as pointed out already.

 

[newtekie1]

It should be faster with more platters and equal platter density, not slower. The platters act like an internal RAID0. It can read and write to all platters simultaneously. It should also get a nice performance bump going from 750 GB/platter to 1 TB/platter. I think it could hit 200 MB/s sequential.

That's probably why this drive still capable of providing reasonable speeds while running at 5900RPM.

For a data storage drive, I'd actually prefer the slower 5900RPM. Less heat, less power, and slow rotating drives tend to last longer in my experience.

 

[KissSh0t]

I have a WD10EARS.. and it is 5400RPM.. Very nice drive..

Large Drives like this are used for Storage, not as an OS drive.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

No reason not to use it for OS. 146 MB/s isn't as fast as other 7200 RPM 3 TB drives on the market but that's still a lot faster than drives even five years old.