Hard disks may be unglamorous and are widely assumed to be an endangered species, as solid-state technology asserts itself.
But in recognition of the fact that spinning disks coated in magnetic goop remains the dominant way to store data, SearchStorage ANZ has started to compile a listing of the enterprise disks on sale in Australia and New Zealand today.
In this, the first instalment, of this guide, we consider Seagate products.
We're starting with Seagate because Gartner's most recent analysis of the disk drive market, "Market Share: Granular Shipment Analysis, Hard Disk Drives, Worldwide, 1Q08-4Q08", places the company as runaway leader in the disk drive market with 63.8% of the market and revenue exceeding $US3 billion.
So ... what does Seagate have on offer?
We've listed their drives below. But if you'd like to access the data in an easier-to-manipulate formate, we've also popped it into a Google spreadsheet that you an access by clicking here.
Seagate's enterprise drives include the following models:
Form factor – 3.5inch
Capacity – 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, 1TB
Interface(s) – 500GB,750GB and 1TB - SATA 3Gb/s, 1.5Gb/s SAS 3Gb/s, 250GB - SATA 3Gb/s, 1.5Gb/s
RPM - 7200
Cache – SATA 32, SAS 16
Working power consumption – 250GB SATA 10.6, 500GB SATA 10.6 and SAS 12.5, 750GB AND 1TB SATA 11.6 and SAS 12.5
Idle power consumption – 250GB SATA 8.0, 500GB, 750GB and 1TB SATA 8.0 SAS 9.0
MTBF – 1.2 million
Medium - conventional
Intended role - High-capacity, business-critical Tier 2 enterprise drives
Form factor – 2.5 inch
Capacity – 146GB and 300GB
Interface(s) - SAS
RPM – 10K
Cache - 16
Working power consumption - Typical Op (amps) +12V/+5V - 300GB 0.35/0.39, 146GB 0.35/0.42
Idle power consumption – 300GB 3.2, 146GB 3.2
MTBF – N/A
Medium - conventional
Intended role - Lowest-power, high-capacity 2.5-inch drive for the enterprise
Form factor – 2.5 inch
Capacity – 73GB and 146GB
Interface(s) - SAS
RPM – 15K
Cache - 16
Working power consumption - Typical Op (amps) +12V/+5V – 73GB 0.34/0.42, 146GB 0.40/0.43
Idle power consumption – 73GB 3.7, 146GB 4.1
MTBF – N/A
Medium - conventional
Intended role - Highest-performing, greenest drive for enterprise storage systems
Form factor – 3.5inch
Capacity – 146GB, 300GB and 450GB
Interface(s) – SAS and fibre channel
RPM – 15K
Cache - 16
Working power consumption – 146GB SAS 14.4 FC 15.0, 300GB SAS 15.8 FC 16.1, 450GB SAS 17.3 FC 17.0
Idle power consumption – 146GB SAS 9.6 FC 9.7, 300GB SAS 11.1 FC 11.2, 450GB SAS 12.4 FC 12.0
MTBF – N/A
Medium - conventional
Intended role - Highest capacity and reliability in mission-critical storage
Form factor – 3.5 inch
Capacity – 300GB and 400GB
Interface(s) – SAS (FC also available, but no power consumption information listed)
RPM – 10,075
Cache - 16
Working power consumption – 300GB 11.8, 400GB 12.1
Idle power consumption – 300GB 7.6, 400GB 8.1
MTBF – 1.4 million
Medium - Conventional
Intended role - Optimum capacity at the lowest power consumption with superior 10K-RPM performance
Form factor – 250GB, 500GB and 1TB
Capacity – 3.5inch
Interface(s) – SATA 3Gb/s
RPM - 7200
Cache – 250GB 8, 500GB 16, 1TB 32
Working power consumption – 250GB 5.0, 500GB and 1TB 7.0
Idle power consumption (seek average and standby info available) – 250GB seek average 8.0, 500GB and 750GB seek average 10.4, standby time for all is 1.0.
MTBF – >1million/<1%
Medium - Conventional
Intended role - High-performance, high-capacity drives designed specifically for surveillance digital video recording