Seagate intros low-power Barracuda LP drives
updated 09:25 am EDT, Wed April 22, 2009
Seagate Barracuda LP
Seagate on Wednesday seized on the eco-friendly trend with the launch of its Barracuda LP (Low Power) hard drives. The disks have the same capacities as regular desktop drives, up to 2TB, but throttle the rotation speed back from 7,200RPM to 5,900RPM. This and other optimizations help cut the active power use by as much as half versus regular drives. The company also aggressively claims that the LP series uses about 25 percent less power than competing hard drives.
The storage is meant both for home and work uses. Seagate envisions it as useful for energy-efficient PCs or home storage servers, where drive speed isn't as important, or in workplace servers that depend less on frequent disk access.
Models come in capacities of 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB, though every model uses SATA II and has the same 32MB of cache to help offset the drop in rotation speed. Seagate hasn't outlined pricing for any of the Barracuda LP drives but says they should be available today.
