Introduction

The 7200.7 line brought us drives with capacities between 40GB to 200GB in PATA version as well as the native SATA (as opposed to bridged SATA solutions) versions with 1.5Gb/sec transfer rates and optional Native Command Queuing, and as you can guess from the name, 7200RPM spindle speeds throughout the entire line. After the 7200.7 series, Seagate decided to split the 7200.x family into two separate lines when introducing the 7200.8 series. The new model carried capacities in the 250GB to 400GB range, again, with both PATA and SATA interfaces, so the 7200.8 was a continuation to higher capacities.


Click to enlarge.

Today, Seagate officially announces the joining of the 7200.7 and 7200.8 drives with its 7200.9 line of hard disk drives. The new line ranges from 40GB to 500GB and has models with 2MB, 8MB, or a whopping 16MB buffer. The release of the 7200.9 product line announces the 9th generation of Seagate's 7200RPM desktop hard drives and they conform to the latest in SATA standards ("SATA 2.5"), including the 3Gb/sec transfer rates.

The 7200.9 line of hard disk drives brings an end to the separation of powers and is aimed at mid to high end desktop and gaming PCs, media PCs, and low end servers. This classification gives us a bit of insight at the pricing of these new drives, but we will look into the costs of Seagate's new line of mid-performance hard drives a bit later. Right now, we'd like to cover some information that we received during a technical briefing with Seagate's 7200.9 product marketing manager.

The 7200.9 Series
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  • ElFenix - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    "in their 400GB version drive at 133GB per square inch. "

    unless platers are 1/2 of a sq. inch per side, which i doubt, this statement is wrong.

    i'm still having trouble understanding why this isn't in news, rather than a front page article.
  • JarredWalton - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    It's not a review, it's an announcement of a new product which we feel many people will find interesting. If I were about ready to spend $100 on a 250GB drive, I'd sure like to know that Seagate has just released their 7200.9 series. This is an introduction to the technology, and an explanation about what has changed. The 16 MB cache models are certainly noteworthy, and all indicators are that the new drives will at worst match the old 7200.7/.8 Seagate models.

    Price is the only thing I would worry about. If the 250GB 7200.9 costs $150 vs. $100, I probably wouldn't bother. Right now, http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=seagate+160...">prices on the 160GB models are in favor of the new 7200.9. The remaining http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=7200.9">7200.9 drives in our RTPE may or may not be worth consideration. $380 for the 500GB is more than I'm willing to pay for a single drive.
  • cryptonomicon - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    argh forget it. i guess i just want to see the reviews perfect for the sake of keeping anandtech the best it can be, so even though a typo doesn't affect the real content of an article (but it still devalues it)
  • joex444 - Tuesday, October 11, 2005 - link

    This is true. If this was my first visit and I hadn't read articles here before, the typos really just make the author and the site appear ignorant. People in general, atleast ones that know the correct way, tend to stop reading things if they are written improperly; they just look like a child wrote it.
  • SpaceRanger - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    I wouldn't call it a review. Read more like a commercial for Seagate.
  • Xenoterranos - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    You know what. Anandtech has never posted any news that has ever been considered "out of touch". They're reviews are as unbiased as reviews can be without being written by cold, unfeeling machines. If Anadtech decided that these segate drives were good enough to give a free comercial too, then thats the best kind of marketing isn't it? I remember back in the day when a 40gig was huge, I called a local dealer and asked them for the cheapest 40gig they had. The guy said "We'll, that would be a Ninja [something], but I wouldn't recommened that unless you want to come back tomorrow and call in the warranty." Ok, that was a but off topic. Long live the Queen, free tibet, and all that jazz.
  • PuravSanghani - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    I would actually call this an article detailing Seagate's official introduction of the 7200.9 line. As far as purchasing these drives go, they have shipped in the last few weeks and are in stock at many places already.

    As we mentioned in the article, we will be providing benchmarks of the 500GB version of the 7200.9 within the next few weeks.

    Thanks,

    Purav Sanghani
  • ATWindsor - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    "The lowest amount of sound audible by human ears is 26 decibels, so the idle noise output is borderline inaudible to our ears"

    This seems to be taken from the info Seagate has published, unfotantly it is not correct. The db(p)-scale has it reference at the human hearing threshold. In other words, the human hearing threshold is 0 db. (although there obivously are individual differences, and background noise rarly is under 15 db).
  • PuravSanghani - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    Looking at the charts, we meant to say 2.5, 2.6, 2.8, and 3.2 bels. The numbers have been fixed to match the slides from Seagate.
  • ATWindsor - Monday, October 10, 2005 - link

    I see you also added "according to seagate" which is good.

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