Seagate Savvio 15K.1

Seagate Savvio 15K.1 Available Capacities Model Number Capacity ST936751SS 36 GB ST973451SS 73 GB Lowest Real-Time Price (73 GB): Introduction While Seagate's Cheetah 15K.5 continues the firm's 3.5" 15K RPM legacy by extending the line to a capacious 300 gigabytes, it is no secret that the firm would like to see the enterprise storage market transition to a 2.5" form factor. Pioneered by the Savvio 10K.1, the 2.5" market finally seems to be coalescing as the Serial Attached SCSI interface takes off and as major players continue to raise the bar in the related 2.5" SATA drive sector. The industry's pioneer further strengthened the 2.5" market's case via its introduction of the Savvio 15K.1. While the recently shipped Savvio 10K.2 upped the family's maximum capacity to 146 gigabytes, the 15K.1 is the first 2.5" drive to feature a 15,000 RPM spindle speed. A higher speed does come at some design cost, however. The necessarily smaller physical media and lower density result in two platters that yield a flagship capacity of just 73 gigabytes, one-fourth the capacity of the traditionally-3.5" Cheetah 15K.5.

Proponents of a 2.5" form factor point out, however, that one could house three Savvio 15K.1s in the space required to mount just one Cheetah 15K.5, yielding a hugely superior spindle/volume ratio ; an array featuring three times the spindles in any given rack delivers vastly increased performance in the Savvio's target market: database- and transaction-server scenarios requiring the utmost in speed as requests pile up and create a high level of concurrency. A 16-megabyte buffer rounds out the drive's vitals.

In addition to higher performance, Seagate cites numerous other benefits related to the the 2.5" form factor. A physically smaller design translates into smaller, lighter parts and less power draw, in turn leading to lower operating temperatures. The smaller footprint also permits more efficient air flow, ultimately leading to lower overall operating costs that offset the significantly higher cost-per-gigabyte premium commanded by the family.

The following performance tests contrast the Savvio 15K.1 with the following contemporary 15K RPM Ultra320 units: