AMD isn’t the only with new, “green” products up its sleeve for Earth Day. Seagate has just announced the Barracuda LP, a new 3.5″ Serial ATA hard drive that’s based on a similar formula as Western Digital’s Caviar Green: sub-7,200-RPM spindle speeds, low power consumption, low noise, and still-solid performance.
The Barracuda LP is launching in 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB variants, all of which carry 500GB platters and 32MB buffers. Whereas WD leaves an aura of mystery surrounding the Caviar Green’s actual spindle speeds, Seagate clearly says the ‘cuda LP’s platters revolve at 5,900RPM. According to Seagate, that’s fast enough for the new drive to outperform its Caviar Green rivals—yet slow enough for it to draw less power. (Seagate measured 3W at idle and 5.6W during seeks, compared to 3.7W at idle and 6W when seeking by WD’s count for the 2TB Caviar Green.)
As you’d expect, the Barracuda LPs are also supposed to be quiet. They’re rated for just 19dB at idle, and kicking off some file transfers should only raise the noise level to 20dB. Here, too, Seagate’s specs look slightly better on paper, since WD rates the 2TB Caviar Green for up to 29dBA during seeks.
Seagate’s new entry may have better specs, then, but you may also end up paying more for it. The storage firm quotes suggested retail prices of $118 for the 1TB Barracuda LP, $156 for the 1.5TB model, and $358 for the 2TB drive. By contrast, the 1TB Caviar Green is just under 100 bucks at Newegg, and the 2TB version costs $299.99.
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