Barracuda drives now all in one family

The company hopes that combining both PC and high-capacity 3.5-in. drives into the 7200.9 line will make it easier for system builders to choose storage.“An integrator is able to qualify and become familiar with one product family that will cover all their integration rather than try to become familiar and spend testing time and money to cover their needs,” explained James Knight, Seagate’s product marketing manager.
The biggest drive goes up to 500GB with a 3Gbit/second Serial ATA throughput.
The family comes in two versions:
-SATA drives range from 80GB to 500GB. Caches range from 8MB to 16MB depending on drive size;
-PATA drives 40GB to 500GB versions. Caches range from 2MB to 16MB depending on the size.
The drives are suitable for desktops, workstations and low-end servers.
The SATA drives are hot-swapable, hot-plugable and include an activity LCD.
Seagate also claims the family can take a blow of up to 63 times earth gravity when it’s on without suffering damage, although Knight said it would depend on the strength of the chassis it’s in.
The drives still carry a five-year warranty. Knight said there will be “introductory-type promotions” with the release of the drives, which will include interface bundles, but no price discounts.