The new Barracuda LP drive series come in 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB capacities and run at an industry-first 5900-rpm spindle speed. Most consumer-class 3.5-inch desktop drives spin at 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm.
Seagate said the middle-of-the-road spindle speed approach offers 25% less power than standard 5400 rpm, 3.5-inch desktop drives, and up to 50% less power than 7200-rpm drives. The new Barracuda LP drives use 3 watts of power while idle, and 5.6 watts when operating.
By comparison, Samsung's Eco-Green 5400-rpm desktop drives use 4 watts when idle and 5.5 watts when operating, and Western Digital's Caviar Green drives use 3 watts when idle and 5.72 watts when operating.
Seagate's new Barracuda drives are aimed at use in lower-power desktops PCs, and for external storage devices for personal users, as well as small offices or home offices. The drives come with a 32MB cache, have a sustained data sequential write rate of 84MB/sec, and an average seek time of 14 milliseconds.
The new drives come with SecureEraseSelf-Encryption firmware, PowerTrim and PowerChoice software, which monitors power use and moderates drive spin-up to conserve power.
The suggested retail price for the Barracuda LP drives are US$118 for the 1TB model, $156 for the 1.5TB and $358 for the 2TB drive.