Earlier this year, we tested 20 hard drives, including the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB. Since then, Seagate has launched the 7200.12 series - in Australia these are available in 1TB and 1.5TB sizes at present.

Rather than the three platters found in the 1TB 7200.11, advancements in perpendicular recording have allowed Seagate to squeeze the same capacity into just two platters on the 7200.12. Each platter holds 500GB apiece, or just over 41GB per square inch.

We're used to Samsung drives excelling for quietness, but the Seagate compares favourably and is noticeably quieter than its predecessor. It does run a little warmer, but given that it's a two platter drive, the power draw is significantly lower than the 7200.11.
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Seagate touts the green credentials of the drive and also claims that 70% of the materials used to build it are typically recycled.

Not only is it efficient, but it performs ademirably too - at an average 105MB/sec read speed and 94.2MB/sec write speed, you can worry less about your HDD being the bottleneck in a your system.

|While its 13.2ms average seek time has nothing on any solid state drive, it's a sizable improvement from the 7200.11, and the best performing platter-based drive we've seen.

The only downside seems to be a drop in warranty, from a very comfortable 5 years to a more standard three. That said, we can only speculate whether this is a result of the current economic climate or a statement of Seagate's confidence in their hardware.

Taking everything into account, It's more than good enough for an OS drive, but those interested in this will be more likely to use it as a bottomless media storage drive - something it's well suited for. At just 13.1c/GB, it's also incredible value.