14 DAY TRIAL // Seagate's Barracuda brand is one of the longest-running HDD names on the storage market, but Seagate is ready to move on and leave that name behind, as a symbol and relic of history.
The company will replace it with the much more straightforwardly named Desktop HDD brand, which covers the 250 GB – 4 TB range.
That means that there are, or there will be, Desktop HDDs with capacities of 250 GB, 320 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB.
Seagate has actually introduced the first Desktop HDD line already, called Desktop HDD 15, which includes all the above versions.
The 4 TB drive is particularly noteworthy, because it uses platters with 1 TB storage each, not something easy to achieve.
The drive has a rotary speed of 7,200 RPM (rotations per minute) and a cache memory of 64 MB.
Everything boils down to a transfer speed of up to 160 MB/s while working over SATA 6.0 Gbps connections (SATA III).
Oddly enough, Seagate has only launched the 4 TB drive in the Middle East and hasn't posted the press release on its website. We had to look for it here instead.
A data sheet (PDF) for the Seagate Desktop line has mentioned it as well, but even that lacks availability information and pricing.
On the other hand, Seagate did see fit to mention in its announcement that it had reached the 2-billion shipment mark, with the second billion achieved during the past four years alone.
The new Desktop HDD 15 and the discarding of the Barracuda line might be its way of welcoming a new age, so to speak.
Seagate shouldn't take too long to release the newcomer in the US, Europe, Japan and the rest of the World. According to The Register, a spokesperson has confirmed that “the drive is being announced.”