The New Seagate 7200.12 500GB (ST3500410AS) mini review

[mr47]

I recently bought the new Seagate 12 series 500GB single platter hard disk.
I would describe it as a slim, lower power consuming, VFM Drive, runs cool and strangely comes with a 3 year warranty whereas all my previous drives had 5 years.

I replaced my 7200.10 250GB with this as my OS drive. Acronis did a fantastic job cloning the partitions.


Specs




This drive scored a ~110MB/s Average read rate and 222MB/s Burst rate on HD Tach.






Using FastCopy vr1.92, 13GB Transferred in 126.14 seconds at an average Transfer rate of 106.13MB/s.
I'd say thats pretty good for a drive that costs INR 2950 ($60.68), though it sells 64.99 at NewEgg, I got it cheap here in Delhi.


7200.12 500GB (F: ) TO 7200.11 640GB (E: )



I would recommend this to anyone looking for VFM storage.

[MadduckUK]

very useful, ill bear this in mind when i get a new os drive for prim pc

[watercooled]

Nice drive. Is this available in the UK yet?

Edit: I found them for sale on CCL: http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...39&tid=gsearch

Don't think scan has them yet...

[Metasoda]

Presumably these don't have the firmware problems that hit the 7200.11 range?

[mr47]

^^no these drives have no firmware issues as of now.
and 7200.11 issue has been resolved, seagate has issued new firmwares.
http://support.seagate.com/firmware/firmnav_en.html

[mikerr]

I see "single platter" term bandied about quite a lot here.

A single platter disk isn't any better than a 2 or 3 platter disk with the same size platters is it?

I.e. its the 500gb platter(s) that make the speed, not the fewer number of platters.

[Singh400]

What are the temps like? All my Seagates run consistently hotter than my Samsungs.

[watercooled]

I see "single platter" term bandied about quite a lot here.

A single platter disk isn't any better than a 2 or 3 platter disk with the same size platters is it?

I.e. its the 500gb platter(s) that make the speed, not the fewer number of platters.

I think they are referring to the drive having one 500GB platter makes it faster than a 500GB drive with 2 250GB platters, for example.

[mr47]

I see "single platter" term bandied about quite a lot here.

A single platter disk isn't any better than a 2 or 3 platter disk with the same size platters is it?

I.e. its the 500gb platter(s) that make the speed, not the fewer number of platters.

Higher speed are achieved as a result of higher Areal density.
7200.12 500GB Single Platter - Areal density (avg) : 329 Gbits/inch2
7200.11 500GB Dual Platter - Areal density (avg) : 164 Gbits/inch2

Since more data can be packed per sq inch, 7200.12 is faster.

Lower no. of platters means less power consumption, less heat, less noise, less wear and tear.

@Sardarji - Temps are 31-32*C Idle

[kakkou]

Sound good, can't wait till it availble as I'm planning to build a new rig soon.

[l33t-krew]

lovely. I cant wait for these

[Platinum]

Got one on order myself as a new boot drive, nice low power and heat

[looney]

i have a single platter 7200.11 320gb drive and that got some fast speeds when i tested them around 190+ burst rate, so looks like these new 7200.12 have improved even more, good stuff hope these dont show firmware problebmes few months down the line.