Application Performance: File Writing

Welcome The Barracudas: 250, 320, 400, 500, 750 GB

We already talked about manufacturers cropping storage capacity for the sake of providing products for common "sweet spot" capacity points. Now let's check what the difference is between the slowest and the fastest Barracuda 7200.10 drives. As we'll see, the rule of thumb of the top model being the fastest clearly isn't valid here.

The versions with 250 and 320 GB utilize two platters, the 400 and 500 GB capacity points are based on three platters, and the 750 GB top model uses four platters. Only the 750 GB top model actually utilizes the maximum per-platter capacity of 190+ GB. The following table lists what the waste capacity is for each model.