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At long last Seagate has released a full production Serial ATA hard drive, the 120GB Barracuda Serial ATA V.
At first glance this is an update of the Barracuda IV ATA100 hard drive that sported 40GB per platter and a maximum capacity of 80GB.
Barracuda V is still a twin-platter model but can now have 60GB per platter, and is available in 80GB and 120GB forms. Average seek time has dropped from 9.5ms to 9ms, and the operating noise has increased marginally from 24 to 25dB.
Barracuda V is available in either an ATA100 version with a 2MB cache or this Serial ATA version with 8MB cache but the unique selling point is that Serial ATA interface.
The connecting cable is only 9mm wide, rather than the 40pin/80-wire ribbon cable we are used to, so you'll need a motherboard with a Serial ATA connection to use these new drives.
We tested the drive using a Gigabyte 7VAXP Ultra motherboard with an Athlon XP2700+ processor and 256MB PC2700 memory.
The Gigabyte has a Silicon Image 3112 Serial controller chip and a pair of Serial ATA connectors, so we could do back-to-back comparisons with a Fujitsu MPG3409AH. The Fujitsu scored 221 in Sysmark and the Seagate achieved 220, which we can class as identical scores.
That means this first-generation Serial ATA is as fast as one of the fastest IDE hard drives that we have ever tested - which gives us real hope for the future of the Barracuda series.
There is little incentive to change if you already have a fast hard drive, but make sure your next motherboard supports Serial ATA. In a year or so you'll be buying a drive much like this one.
Contact: Seagate 01628 890 366
www.seagate.com
Specs
- 3.5in form
- Serial ATA interface
- 8MB cache
- 120GB unformatted capacity (114GB formatted)
- 7,200rpm
See also:
All Hard Drive
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