Introduction

Just last week we showed the Seagate Constellation.2 1TB SATA drive. The new Constellation.2 proved to be a worthy successor to the popular Constellation Series and it outperforms the first generation drive by a significant margin. Seagate also managed to double the capacity of the series while keeping the price of the new drives in line with the old offerings.

With the SATA version already under our belt, it is time to focus on the Constellation.2 SAS model. Since most of these drives are configured in RAID arrays, we were given the opportunity to test the new Constellation.2 1TB SAS (Model Number ST91000640SS) in a couple of three drive RAID configurations.

Most users will be building three to five drive RAID 5 arrays in their servers with these drives, so we will do the same. For the performance crowd we will also toss in a three drive RAID 0 array to see just how much performance we can pull from this set of drives.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's take a look at the specifications for the new Constellation.2 SAS drive.

Specifications, Pricing and Availability

The Constellation.2 is available in three capacity sizes; 250GB, 500GB and 1TB. This is an improvement over last year's models that topped out at 500GB. After you determine the size for your needs, you can then choose between SATA or SAS connectivity. Seagate also offers an encryption option for users requiring additional data security.

The Constellation.2 has a higher platter density than the previous generation and this is what gives the new series higher performance and capacity. The specifications for the new SATA and SAS models look nearly identical. Both use 7,200 RPM spindle speeds, 64MB cache and are the same 15mm height.

The price of SAS connectivity has dropped in recent years and that is very apparent in the new Constellation.2. The 1TB SATA version we reviewed just a few days ago sold for 206.83 at PROVANTAGE. The Constellation.2 1TB SAS model we are looking at today is available from PROVANTAGE for just 243.31. The SAS price premium has dropped considerably and because of this Seagate is expecting the SAS model to outsell the SATA version.