Noise levels
Noise levels were measured with an Extech 407727 Digital Sound Level meter 1" from the side of the drives at idle and under an HD Tach seek load. Drives were run with the PCB facing up.

Those eyeing the one-point-five for home theater PC applications will be pleased to know that the drive is every bit as unobtrusive as the original 7200.11. This isn't the quietest drive on the market, but it's only a decibel louder than the best at idle.

Power consumption
For our power consumption tests, we measured the voltage drop across a 0.1-ohm resistor placed in line with the 5V and 12V lines connected to each drive. Through the magic of Ohm's Law, we were able to calculate the power draw from each voltage rail and add them together for the total power draw of the drive.

The 1.5TB Barracuda lives up to its 8W idle power consumption rating, which isn't bad, especially when you take into account the drive's total capacity. If you consider these results in terms of gigabytes per watt, the one-point-five actually fares quite well.