In a market where Flash-based Solid State Drives are recording a growing popularity, Seagate Technology, one of the world's leading vendors of storage solutions, has announced its latest Barracuda hard drives, promising an increased storage capacity in a lower-power package. Simply dubbed Barracuda LP, the new drives are said to deliver up to 50 percent energy efficiency improvement, over standard hard drives. According to Seagate, the new drives, which are already shipping, have been designed to deliver the best power efficiency and performance in their class.

“Growing demand for power-efficient computing systems is not just a data center phenomenon as more builders of external storage devices, desktop PCs and home networking systems work to provide customers with products that combine power-efficiency with rock-solid performance,” said Joan Motsinger, Seagate vice president of Personal Systems Marketing and Strategy. “Seagate is pleased to deliver a new low-power product line in our Barracuda family that enables system builders and end users alike to attain a higher level of environmental friendliness while cutting costs.”

Seagate's new line of Barracuda LP (Low-Power) hard disk drives are designed in a 3.5-inch form factor and are available in capacities of 2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB. One of the main features of the new drives is the rotational speed at which their platters spin, namely 5900RPM, something that isn't likely to be available at other competitive drives. According to Seagate, the 5900RPM rotational speed comes as a balance between performance and energy saving, enabling customers to take advantage of as much as 2TB worth of storage in a low-power drive.

Seagate's new drive offers a great alternative to some of those storage-based devices, including external PC storage and multiple-drive home networking SOHO systems. Thanks to their lower-power requirements, users will take advantage of a less power-hungry system and won't be required to install high-performance fans to keep the system's internal temperature to a minimum. Unfortunately, Seagate hasn't released any details regarding the pricing of its new drives.