Consumer Storage

Barracuda XT: the fastest (and biggest) desktop drive on the planet

September 22, 2009 – 2:44 pm

barracuda-xtSeagate just announced the new-to-the-world Barracuda XT.  What’s special about it?

  • 6Gb/s SATA interface
  • 2 terabyte capacity
  • 64 MB cache

There’s lots of buzz out there on this drive today – check it out here and here and here.

Barracuda XT is the first drive to sport the SATA 3.0 interface that runs at up to 6 Gb/s.  The combination of this 2X faster interface, the Barracuda XT’s 64 MB cache and a SATA 6Gb/s motherboard and you are off to the races!

The drive is best suited for video editing, multi-media publishing and PC gaming applications.

Big, fast and reliable.  Now there’s a high-speed Barracuda alternative that goes above and beyond the mainstream Barracuda 7200 drive for situations where screaming speed and high capacity are on the wish list.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Desktop PC, Products | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

It’s not easy being green

September 18, 2009 – 11:00 am

Maximum PC: “Barracudas eat Caviar for breakfast”

max-pc

Seagate’s Barracuda LP drive bested Western Digital’s Caviar Green drive in both power and performance in the new issue of Maximum PC magazine.

The results of the head-to-head tests of the two 2 TB low-power drives:

  • Barracuda LP used less power than WD’s Green drive
  • Barracuda LP performed 20% faster (sustained data rate) than WD’s Green drive

So why doesn’t Seagate call it the Seagate Green drive?

There’s more to being “green” than just using less power.  Anyone can do that by slowing down a disk drive.

Seagate has applied its drive technology “smarts” to make drives more efficient, so that performance isn’t blindly sacrificed for energy savings.  All Seagate drives benefit from this technology.  In a way, you could say that all of Seagate’s disk drives are “green”.

The Barracuda LP is a poster child for this approach.  It spins at 5900 rpm – 9% faster than any other low-power 3.5″ drive – while still handily besting WD’s power draw in Maximum PC’s head-to-head test.

It takes more than a name to make a drive green.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Green, Products, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Seagate’s DockStar is the new PC – Personal Cloud

September 16, 2009 – 12:40 pm

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Cloud Computing is all the rage these days when it comes to data centers.  Seagate’s new innovation called DockStar gives everyone their own personal cloud.  Have all your digital stuff from multiple devices on in one “place”, easy to use and share.

The best part? It doesn’t require geek credentials to make it work.

This could be big.

Seagate’s giving away a FreeAgent Dockstar. Tweet or re-tweet #stxdockstar to get entered to win. More info here.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Backup, Products | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Seagate FreeAgent Theater + now showing in a living room near you

September 15, 2009 – 8:17 am

fa_theater_left_01_320x340Seagate just launched the sequel to Seagate FreeAgent Theater – Seagate FreeAgent Theater +.  Check out The Digital Den’s tour.  What’s not to like?

  • HDMI
  • 1080p
  • More photo & video formats
  • An Ethernet connection
  • More USB ports

It’s the simplest way for people to merge their digital content – ALL of their digital content – with their television.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Products | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

A video in your hand = several videos in a server

September 4, 2009 – 1:45 pm

mobiletv003This report from Knowledge Networks shows that 2/3rds of 18-35 year-0lds in the U.S. carry a video-enabled mobile device.  23% of them carry an Apple video iPod, up from just 5% in 2006.

All of these video-enabled content consumers aren’t watching videos today.  But their devices are ready for the inevitable shift in behavior that will drive more and more video snacking.

Video is the killer app of information over the next decade.  Broad adoption plus higher and higher resolution will create an avalanche of content that will require one heck of a lot of storage devices to make them available.

Where will it all sit? Mobile devices will use mostly flash.  PCs will use mostly disk, with a wee bit of SSD. And data centers that store, manage and serve up all of this content will be mostly disk.

The first two categories are the visible ‘tip of the iceberg’ in data.  Massive quantities of storage comprise the rest, quietly accumulating in datacenters to make it all possible.  And every video that’s served up on a cell phone requires several copies on servers in multiple locations.

That’s why enterprise drives of the “terabyte” variety like the Seagate Constellation family are getting more and more popular.  Even the highest performance drives like the Seagate Cheetah and Savvio drives are approaching theterabyte threshold.

Expect to see continuing, relentless growth in storage demand driven by the video consumption phenomenon.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Cloud Storage, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Back to school means much more than PCs

August 28, 2009 – 8:48 am

the-today-show-replica
Here’s an informative segment on back-to-school computing products from The Today Show.  This year’s options are about so much more than just a PC.
  • Wii educational ‘games for toddlers
  • Nintendo DSi for extra “3 R’s” lessons
  • XBox visual logic lessons for future programmers
  • Netbooks for tertiary family PCs
  • Seagate Replica for high school or college-bound laptop backups

The Replica is getting a lot of attention these days because it takes easy to the next level.  All you have to do is plug it in to a USB port.

An important way one can support college-bound kids is by backing up their stuff.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Backup, Notebook PC, Products, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

FreeAgent Xtreme: two terabyte bliss

August 13, 2009 – 10:26 am

fa_xtreme_right_01_320x340In case you hadn’t noticed, the new ”big” in disk drives is two terabytes. Doug Goldring at GearDiary took a close look at the new Seagate 2TB FreeAgent Xtreme drive. 

I’ll let Doug speak for himself:

“In the end, I was well beyond impressed.  The Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme lived up to all of my expectations – and plenty more.  It cut a sleek profile on my desk, it was faster than my other external drives, and it has more storage than I had ever imagined.  For me, there is really nothing more I can ask from a hard drive.”

Looks good, runs fast, the most storage space…what more could you ask for?  Besides four terabytes, that is.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Backup, Products, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Everything you wanted to know about USB 3.0, and then some

August 5, 2009 – 11:00 am

usb-3-0-superspeed1Ars Technica has documented the path that USB 3.0 has taken en route to becoming the next great consumer storage interface. 

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be glued to the page!

Maybe not.  But USB 3.0 is coming soon. Bone up now so you’re ready.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Desktop PC, Notebook PC, Trends | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Seagate is quietly first to 640 GB

June 26, 2009 – 7:47 am

fa-go-640-gb

Stephen Foskett is an observant guy.  Here are this thoughts on the new Seagate 640 GB FreeAgent Go portable drive – the first 2.5″ drive to surpass 500GB. 

A few of my observations:

  • FreeAgent Go has some serious momentum, with 28% more capacity and expanded docking features. 
  • Despite a rough year, Seagate is delivering on their commitment to be the first to market with key disk drive technology. 
  • It’s not always the noisiest companies that deliver the best products.

It’s an exciting time to be at Seagate!  I’m looking forward to seeing more results from our “less talk, more action” approach.

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Backup, Products | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Apple’s new iDatacenter

June 5, 2009 – 1:59 pm

appleAmazing how all those 8 gigabyte iPods add up.  Apple is building a $1 billion shiny new data center in North Carolina.

If a (mostly) music download business is driving the need for a $1 billion (mostly) storage infrastructure, what will the data center landscape look like when HD video is fully integrated into our lives?

Granted, Apple’s music business is the “been there, done that” piece.  Staking a claim on consumer’s digital footprint is what the data center arms race between Microsoft, Google, and now Apple is all about.

Looks like we’re going to need a few more disk drives…

Who is your brand of choice for your digital life?  Who do you think will be the Nike of data?

By Pete Steege | Also posted in Cloud Storage, Data Center, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

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