The big news in the 12th iteration of Seagate’s Barracuda 7200RPM drives is the platters, each weighing in at 500GB.  With the larger drives, you also get 32MB of cache which should help you use up a bit more of the bandwidth on the eSATA connection.  The Tech Report found that the extra cache was most helpful in reading, this drive was looking more like a VelociRaptor than a Barracuda in those tests.  When writing or coping, the drive was not nearly as impressive and fell more into the middle of the pack.  The firmware issues seem to have been cleared up for anyone who might be worried about picking up one of these drives, though the 3 year warranty could use some fixing.

“Seagate’s Barracuda 7200.12 hits the terabyte mark using just two 500GB platters—and it spins them at a full 7,200 RPM. Join us to see whether this combination of a high areal density and fast spindle speed makes the latest ‘cuda a capable all-around performer.”

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