Seagate Barracuda LP 1.5 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive ST31500541AS-Bare Drive

by Seagate

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 4 x 1 inches ; 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0028Y4CXW
• Item model number: ST31500541AS
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (151 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 1, 2009

Product Description

Capacity: 1.5 TB

From the Manufacturer

Barracuda® LP hard drives from Seagate® allow you to do more with less - delivering the absolute best combination of power savings and performance in the industry. While other drives have labels that include words like "green" or "eco", Barracuda LP actually delivers on the low power promise. With power consumption levels up to 40% lower than standard desktop alternatives and best in class green performance, Barracuda LP really is the low power drive that won't slow you down.

Seagate® Barracuda® LP 3.5-Inch Internal Drive

What the experts are saying...

The low power green drive that won�t slow you down Seagate is thinking green, and one result is the innovative Seagate® Barracuda® LP. This 3.5-inch internal drive is perfect for applications where low power consumption matters, and performance is a must, including: Personal Attached Storage with USB, FireWire and eSATA connectivity Small office and home data storage Low-power PCs Why Choose the Seagate Barracuda LP drive? Delivers category-leading performance at 5900 RPM, compared to 5400 RPM or slower for competitive green drives Combines super-low power consumption�up to 50% over standard desktop drives�with reduced heat generation, cutting power and component costs while increasing reliability Ensures whisper-quiet operation without sacrificing performance Helps you contribute to a greener world� built with at least 70% recyclable materials, and designed to meet both RoHS and the highest international environmental standards Lets you to choose the right amount of storage for your specific needs�from 500GB up to 2TB

“Of the two "green" low-power drives, the Seagate Barracuda LP at 5900 RPM is the most impressive. Of all the green drives we've ever tested, it provides the best compromise between low power and speed.” -Barefeats.com, October 2009 “Among the fastest reads and writes of any high-capacity drive; low power consumption” -Maximum PC, October 2009 “The performance is good, the price is good, and anything that costs less to operate has to be good. With all passing marks, I would say that the Barracuda LP hard drive is a good choice for your next low power system build or external storage device. Club Overclocker Recommended!” -Club Overclocker, July 2009 “Keeping in mind that the Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB was designed for low power consumption and exceeded our expectations for a green drive it deserves an: 8 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Seal Of Approval” -Bjorn3D, July 2009 “Summed up, the Barracuda LP 2TB offers a ton of capacity, better than expected performance, and a decent value, and the low power consumption means you can sleep soundly knowing you're not offending mother nature.” -Hardware Logic, July 2009

	Seagate is thinking green. "Seagate had already begun demanding 'full materials disclosure' of its suppliers, requiring them to report all the chemicals present in their products, when Apple came knocking with its new orders in 2007." � Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek

Seagate® Barracuda® Family Hard Drives: Desktop storage for every need

Barracuda LP Specifications

Specifications	2 TB1	1.5 TB1	1 TB1
Model Number	ST32000542AS	ST31500541AS	ST31000520AS
Interface Options	SATA	SATA	SATA
Performance
Transfer Rate, Max Ext (MB/s)	300	300	300
Sustained Data Rate OD (MB/s)	95	95	95
Cache (MB)	32	32	32
Average Latency (ms)	5.5	5.5	5.5
Spindle Speed (RPM)	5900	5900	5900
Configuration/Organization
Bytes per Sector	512	512	512
Reliability/Data Integrity
Contact Start-Stops	50,000	50,000	50,000
Nonrecoverable Read Errors per Bits Read	1 per 10E14	1 per 10E14	1 per 10E14
Annualized Failure Rate (AFR)	0.32%	0.32%	0.32%
Power Management
Startup Current +12 V Peak (A±10%)	2.0	2.0	2.0
Operating, Average (W)	6.8	6.8	5.7
Idle, Average (W)	5.5	5.5	3.0
Environmental
Temperature
Operating (�C)	0 to 60	0 to 60	0 to 60
Nonoperating (�C)	�40 to 70	�40 to 70	�40 to 70
Shock
Operating, 2 ms (G)	70	70	70
Nonoperating, 1 ms (G)	300	300	350
Acoustic (bels-sound power)
Idle	2.5	2.5	1.9
Seek	2.6	2.6	2.0
Physical
Height (in/mm)	1.028/26.1	1.028/26.1	1.028/26.1
Width (in/mm)	4.010/101.85	4.010/101.85	4.010/101.85
Depth (in/mm)	5.787/146.99	5.787/146.99	5.787/146.99
Weight (lb/kg)	1.44/0.66	1.44/0.66	1.4/0.64

1 One gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one trillion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity.

How much will it store?
Capacity	Digital Music (Hours)	Digital Photos (Files)	Digital Videos (Hours)	DVD Quality (Movies)	HD Video (Hours)
1.0 TB	16,600	320,000	1,000	250	250
1.5 TB	24,990	480,000	1,500	375	375
2.0 TB	33,320	640,000	2,000	500	500
		Average file size using cameras highest resolution JPEG mode		Based on standard 2 hour movie	Based on H.264 compression at a 6.75Mbs bitrate

 

		Users can expect a performance boost when using Seagate hard drives with Windows 7 Windows 7 has shown to use fewer hard drive resources for system boot and general OS operations, speeding up overall performance and leaving more storage resources for applications. Cache efficiency has improved. Customers who choose Seagate drives with bigger cache options will see added benefit. Seagate testing confirms improved performance from Windows Vista to Windows 7 on like hard drives with only cache size differences.

Product Description

Seagate Barracuda LP 1.5 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive ST31500541AS-Bare Drive

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good EXCEPT for the noise, October 20, 2009

By 

Bud - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Seagate Barracuda LP 1 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive ST31000520AS-Bare Drive (Personal Computers)

Basic specs: This is a 5900 RPM drive, rated at 95MB/s max transfer rate and <16ms access (per the product manual). The power consumption is 3.0W idle and an an amazing 19dBA/20dBA noise--per the specs.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much after having disappointing (atrocious?) performance from WDC's "green" drives. As far as performance, however, I was pleasantly surprised. This drive tops out at 120MB/s--way above spec. The AVERAGE is 95 MB/s. Also, I was expecting access times (including rotational latency) to be well above 20ms. However, here again, I was pleasantly surprised with 14.7ms--way above spec.

OK, here's where I drop the bomb. I have no idea what kind of drugs Seagate was on when they came up with the acoustics. It is on their website, their datasheet, and the product manual. I have been impressed with past Seagate drives over their quietness, so I was really hoping this would be a very quiet drive at its rated 19dB which is even low for laptop drives. In fact, the low noise is the main reason I bought this. I didn't buy it for performance. I have SSDs and VelociRaptors for that. This is a media drive. And, the noise is obnoxious. This two-platter drive is louder than my 7200 RPM 4-platter Seagates. It is also louder than my VelociRaptors. The noise is also far worse than rated because it is a very high-pitched whine. About the closest I can think of is the old WDC Raptor 10K RPM drives.

As a final note, my Watt-Meter measured about a 4W difference between plugged in and not. This is at the wall, so considering power supply efficiencies, 3W or so is believable which is very low power.

In sum, this is a great drive for a file server that is far away in a closet somewhere. Its performance is good, and it is low power. Unfortunately, for a desktop or media center PC, the noise will give you a headache. There are better drives for those applications, like the older, quieter, 7200 RPM Seagates for starters. For any application where the drives sleep when not used, any power savings with this drive is just not worth the noise.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good drive so far, April 23, 2010

By 

ultrabike "ultrabike" (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seagate Barracuda LP 2 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive ST32000542AS-Bare Drive (Personal Computers)

I have 6 2TB Seagate LP 5900 rpm drives in my readyNAS Pro, and so far so good.

Four of them I bought about a year ago (Frys). Two of them I bought on a sale from Microcenter recently.

Heat: I had a Hitachi 2TB 7200 rpm drive that was always 45 degrees when in operation. The Seagates were 39 degrees on the average.

Noise: I could hear my Hitachi clicking and trashing all the way from my living room to my dining room. Not so with my Seagates. When the plates started to spin I could hear the Hitachi do all kinds of noises as well. This was true when the Hitachi was in the NAS and when it was in it's own usb enclosure. When I removed the Hitachi from the RAID (after it failed) and added more Seagates, the noise issue was gone.

Reliability: My single Hitachi died, my 4 almost same age Seagates are cruising, now what are the chances of that happening...

In my experience, the Seagates are cool and so my NAS doesn't have to spin the fans too much, making the whole system silent. They are also relatively inexpensive, and somewhat power efficient. I do not need the hard drive speed in my NAS. However, if you are a gamer and plan to install a hard drive in your custom gaming PC, I can understand if 5900 rpm 3Gbs 32M cache is not going to cut it, and may be better off looking for something else that properly exploits the features of your motherboard.

I was worried about buying these drives back when I purchased them @ Frys given the problems that their previous 1.5TB line had. But so far these hard drives have not failed me.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reliable, cool, but a bit noisy, April 5, 2010

By 

westlamichael "westlamichael" (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seagate Barracuda LP 2 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive ST32000542AS-Bare Drive (Personal Computers)

I have had two of these drives operating continuously in a ReadyNAS storage device for the past three months and have just added a third. I have not experienced any of the failures or other problems that anybody here has described. All three disks, both the initial two and the third one that arrived more recently were well packaged in appropriate shock-insulating supports as well as in the manufacturer's anti-static foil bags. As expected, no instructions or other hardware were included which was not a problem given the intended use.

These drives are not quite as quick as faster enterprise-level drives I've used, but quite adequate for my needs especially when used in an environment where network performance is probably the bottleneck rather than drive performance. Noise was a bit greater than I might have expected and temperatures were quite good. Compared to smaller Pipeline HD drives they replaced, these are faster, cooler but significantly noisier and I would not recommend them for a DVR or any other application where quiet operation is important. On a lark, I did try using one in a Netgear media player but got inconsistent results, apparently due to the fact that the startup time was too long.

On the whole, I think the Barracuda LPs are an adequate lower-power alternative to enterprise drives in settings where maximum performance and minimum noise are not important criteria. Most likely will add a fourth to this array in the near future.

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