Seagate this morning took the wraps off the Barracuda 7200.11, the company's first one-terabyte hard drive and one of the few to follow in the wake of Hitachi's 7K1000. In addition to reaching the current storage peak using only four platters versus five, the disk is the fastest high-capacity drive to date, the storage maker says. Sustained transfers hold out at 105MB/sec, making the single drive faster than some external RAID-striped drives. Power use is low at 8W idle, and combines with the four platters to cut down on the heat that damages drives in long-term use. A business version, the Barracuda ES.2, adds an SAS connector alongside Serial ATA as well as advanced power management tools.

Both drives are due to arrive in the summer, Seagate says. While the ES.2 will be marketed directly to companies, the 7200.11 will be available in pre-built PCs as well as a stand-alone drive, when it should sell for $400.