Seagate introduces Barracuda Green line, promising better performance than other eco-friendly hard drives

"Green" hard drives generally deliver slower performance, thanks to 5,400rpm spin speeds that sip less power, but Seagate is hoping to buck that trend with its new Barracuda Green line. The company is touting the family as offering "the highest performance eco-friendly 3.5-inch desktop drive[s]."

The improved performance comes in part from the 5,900rpm spin speeds and Seagate's SmartAlign technology, which optimizes the drives' use of the 4K sector standard. Their green creds stem from the fact that 70 percent of the drives' materials are recyclable, and the company also claims low power consumption. However, The Inquirer points out that the Barracuda Green's 4.5W idle power draw is actually 18 percent higher than the Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green drive's 3.7W power draw.

The Barracuda Green lineup is available in three capacities: 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB. The 1TB unit has 32MB of cache and makes use of the SATA 3Gbps interface, whereas the other capacities possess 64MB of cache and use the SATA 6Gbps interface. The 2TB ST2000DL003 is available for pre-order via online retailers for around $115, while the 1.5TB ST1500DL003 will run roughly $95 and the 1TB ST31000520AS is as low as $59.99 at TigerDirect.com.