As time goes by you expect technology to make progress, but sometimes technology can progress so quickly that it leaves consumers trying to play catch-up. Normally we see such items as video cards and CPUs making great technological leaps and bounds, but you can now add hard drives to that list. Sure, hard drives are always getting bigger but when was the last time you saw hard drives add another 500 gigabytes of storage in less than a year? Not to mention the data transfer speeds of hard drives have increased significantly.

It was just November of 2007 when we received our first Barracuda 7200.11 with 1 Terabyte of storage space, and here we are just one year later and the 1.5TB or 1500 Gigabyte Barracudas are here! Sure, that may only be a 50% increase, but we are talking a full 500 gigs of space increase on the same drive. Amazing...

Today we received our samples which are model numbers ST31500341AS. Being that the 1.5TB drive is in the same family of our last 1TB 7200.11, the specs appear to be identical. However, that may not hold true in the performance department. With nearly a full year gone by, has the Barracuda 7200.11 gotten any faster? Let's test this puppy and see for ourselves. 

Key Advantages

Just a few years ago the thought of having 1 Terabyte of storage gave me goosebumps. Now computers with 1TB of storage is expected in a enthusiast's or gamer's system. Massive storage has its advantages. You can download the ENTIRE internet or store all the books in the Library of Congress. Okay, maybe you can't hold that much, but it's worth a shot! Seagate states the key advantages are:

• Delivers 1.5-TB capacity
• Ships with the industry's most reliable and proven perpendicular magnetic recording technology
• Delivers high performance
  • 120 MB/s sustained data rate
  • 32-MB cache buffer
• Environmentally friendly
  • Idles at only 8.0 watts, enabling customers to build low-power systems
  • Meets strict RoHS environmental requirements
• Leverages best combination of technology (areal density, PMR) and proven components for volume availability
• Ships with an industry-leading 5-year limited warranty

Best-Fit Applications

• Gamer PCs
• High-end PCs
• Mainstream PCs
• Workstations
• Desktop RAID
• USB/FireWire/eSATA personal external storage

7200.11 Specifications