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Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS
$90.00
The Pros:Great value drive (large capacity, good performance at a good price ~$90). Perpendicular recording improves sustained transfer rates.
The Cons:Superceded by the 7200.11 drives with 2nd generation perpendicular recording. First drive had numerous errors - many bad sectors. Makes a lot of clicking sounds as it is reading data off the disk.
The Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS is a 320 GB hard drive with a 16 MB buffer and a SATA 3 GB /s interface. It is featured as the hard drive of choice in ExtremeTech's best bang for the buck PC.
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This drive makes use of the perpendicular recording found on all drives in the Barracuda 7200.10 family. This drive is an excellent value purchase coming in around $90 and effective bargain hunter can find it for $80 or less. At this price point you get a very large capacity drive that delivers excellent performance.
Perpendicular recording is a technology first introduced in the 7200.10 line and is succeeded by the second generation version found in the newer 7200.11 drives. Perpendicular recording aligns the bits vertically on the disk rather than horizontally, effectively squeezing more data in a smaller area. This means that hard drives made in such a way can increase their maximum capacity, as well as deliver increased sustained data throughput. The drive head can read more data in a small physical distance.
Figure: Bit orientations for longitudinal recording (above) and perpendicular recording (below). (via The Tech Report)
| Specifications |
320 GB |
| Model Number |
ST3320620AS |
| Interface |
SATA 3.0Gb/s |
| Cache |
16 MBytes |
| Capacity |
320 GB |
| Guaranteed Sectors |
625,142,448 |
| PHYSICAL |
|
| Height (max) |
26.1 mm (1.028 inches) |
| Width (max) |
101.6 mm (4.010 inches) |
| Length (max) |
146.99 mm (5.787 inches) |
| Weight (typical) |
635 grams (1.40 pounds) |
| PERFORMANCE |
|
| Spindle Speed |
7,200 rpm |
| Average latency |
4.16 msec |
| Random read seek time |
<8.5 msec |
| Random write seek time |
<10.0 msec |
| RELIABILITY |
|
| MTBF |
700,000 hours |
| Annual Failure Rate |
0.34 % |
| POWER |
|
| Maximum start current, DC |
2.80 amps |
User Reviews (3)
Pros & Cons
-
2
Great value drive (large capacity, good performance at a good price ~$90)
-
2
Perpendicular recording improves sustained transfer rates
-
2
Superceded by the 7200.11 drives with 2nd generation perpendicular recording
-
1
First drive had numerous errors - many bad sectors
-
1
Makes a lot of clicking sounds as it is reading data off the disk
-
1
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