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.

The last few Barracudas we've reviewed haven't been particularly quiet, but with only two platters, the 7200.12 is nearly silent. Both at idle and while seeking, the 'cuda is among the quietest 3.5" drives we've ever tested. From a few feet away, I can't even hear the drive seeking—and that's with it running outside a case on an open test bench.

Although one might be tempted to laud Seagate's decision to optimize seeks for lower noise levels rather than quicker access times, notice that Western Digital's Caviar SE16 seeks just as quietly as the 'cuda without carrying a hefty random access time penalty.

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. We were able to calculate the power draw from each voltage rail and add them together for the total power draw of the drive.

Although it's not quite as energy-efficient as Western Digital's GreenPower drives, the Barracuda 7200.12's power consumption is very low. In fact, the latest 'cuda consumes less power than any other 7,200-RPM terabyte.