Earlier this month, Seagate announced a 4-platter 1TB HDD, which they had begun manufacturing and shipping. While it was quickly surpassed as the most dense desktop HDD by a Samsung release just a few days later, it had a few notable improvements such as having less platters than other competitors and using PMR technology.
Now, Seagate has issued a press release regarding these units. The units are the same announced a few weeks ago, but now they have made pricing and availability known. There will be at least two units, including the Barracuda 7200.11 as the standard unit and the Barracuda "ES.2" as a low-power alternative for energy-conscious applications:
Seagate's new PowerTrim( technology is integrated into the Barracuda ES.2 and dynamically manages drive power consumption at all levels of activity. With PowerTrim(, the Barracuda ES.2 addresses the IT dilemma facing energy-constrained data centers by delivering a 20% reduction in overall drive power consumption and a best-in-class 55% reduction in watts-per-gigabyte.
The price point for these units begins at $400 for the 7200.11. The ES.2 will probably be more expensive, though it isn't mentioned in the release. Both units are scheduled to be shipped in volume in the third quarter of this year. Seagate may not have the lead in data density, but I am curious to see how PMR performs on such large disks compared to standard disks.