ST10000VE001 (firmware EV01) (1TB/surface, 10 heads, 7200RPM, fixed-shaft FDB, L/U, SATA 600MB/s NCQ, 256MiB cache)
With my one remaining WD3003FZEX down to its last safe year of runtime, I'm
finally giving Seagate the chance to redeem themselves; by my count, this (and the closely‑related FireCuda, although that comes only in 8TB & 4TB for some reason
) would be a Barracuda 7200.19 under Seagate's old (honest) naming.
It's a bit sad how “tarnish-resistant components” now have to be an explicit feature, when you just got them as a right in the older premium 7200s (the classic Barracudas more than anything!), but still nice to know; the 65°C operating maximum (even if technically not as impressive as the older models' 69°C limit on the HDA itself, and 60°C maximum “ambient”*) remains above-par too. Its bottom fixings include both the conventional and revised (enterprise) positions.
Even so, the SMOOTH chip and flip-chip MCU (which is probably necessary at this density and data rate, but still…) – both in BGA – aren't likely to outlast the QFP Agere MCUs and Texas Instruments SH6950D motor drivers on my ST380817AS & ST3160827AS; so my ST3160827AS is staying for S‑tier backups, the ordered ST3750640AS (hopefully) for A‑tier, and I've retired the WD3003FZEX to B‑tier. I can confirm that Seagate's lead-free soldering skill peaked in 2006 or 2007 (when my ST3320620A was made), too
(and was already close by late 2004, on both of those 7200.7s); plus the PCB has been cut back to plain copper pads (versus HASL on the Barracuda ATA I–V, and even the immersion-silver on SCSI and 7200.7/8/9/10 showed
some effort), but at least it's still proper FR‑4.
It performs as well as expected and seeking, while quite audible, is no worse than modern Blacks (indicating that Seagate is indeed using an iteration of the Just‑In‑Time algorithm they pioneered in their high‑RPM drives, before Western Digital stole credit by implementing their own version as IntelliSeek
)
*64°C maximum on the HDA and 5–55°C ambient for the Barracuda 7200.7 Plus (ST3200822AS, ST3200822A, ST3200021A & ST3100011A).
Maybe separating the read/write channel from the MCU again (like it was on the Barracuda ATA IV) would be wise – so the channel could be flip‑chip (for signal integrity) and the hotter MCU in a QFP (or at least ordinary wirebonded, fully‑overmolded BGA) for thermal cycling endurance? Constellation ES.4 and earlier are implied to still use SnPb bumps (observing the China RoHS section in their manuals) for this and likewise the flip‑chip preamplifier/commutator in the HDA, but even this is no longer mentioned in the latest manuals…ST2000NX0253 (firmware SN04) (200GB/surface, 10 heads, 7200RPM, fixed-shaft FDB, L/U, SATA 600MB/s NCQ, 128MiB cache, 2.5″/15mm enterprise)
Even after the utterly-regrettable Maxtor merger, Seagate (unlike Maxtor itself
) had a good side – introducing the adorable Constellation 2.5″ nearline HDDs, channeling IBM's “Star” naming theme after having already done a stellar job (pre-merger anyway) of taking over the Deskstar's spirit once they fell
The first Constellation was 500GB (3×167GB, also available in 160GB with just 2 heads), the second 1TB (4×250GB, also available in 500GB and 250GB obviously with 4 and 2 heads respectively) and this is the 2TB third generation (5×400GB, also available in 1TB with 5 heads); still produced today despite its stalled development (renamed to
Exos 7E2000 including this one from 2018‑12‑12, but retaining the same model numbers).
And I'll be darned if these aren't
perfectly miniaturized Barracudas; delivering (or even surpassing) the same 8.5ms seek, but doing so almost silently (unlike the SATA Barracuda 7200.7s
) Obviously Maxtor's (mis)managers already obliterated the Barracuda name's own reputation, but you get the idea.
Seagate also took their niche status as an opportunity to build them to a higher standard than their bigger brothers – at least inasfar as they chose a nice robust gold‑plated head connector, rather than the tin-plated pressure pins on the ST10000VE001 (even though both drives have gold-plated
spindle connectors).
(See likewise, the equally-adorable
Kambrook KRC300 rice cooker.)
While my sample isn't holding up
as well as the old Barracudas, the higher density may make that a tall order anyhow; but it's still holding on after >4 years 24×7 (in its original server), which is respectable enough. Squeezing in 5 platters did reduce their operating shock resistance to 25G, but at least being enterprise‑oriented they're
honest about it (meanwhile vindicating my long-standing instinctual distrust of modern ultra-thin laptop drives)…
(It's a pity Seagate never made a
Savvio SATA while it mattered, though; sure WD made the VelociRaptor, but that had
major firmware bugs.)
Anyhow I expect to reuse it in an SFF desktop later, probably alongside an Exascend PE3 or similar enterprise-grade SSD
). (And yes, the PCBs swap perfectly between my ST3160827AS and ST380817AS.)
.
(obviously given the SeaShield, you usually have to buy these “blind”) but the soldering still would satisfy NASA, and I can still use it as a test platform for my upcoming “Snowball” buck-converter modification PCB…