While the Barracuda 7200.11 and ES.2 are almost identical drives, there are some important differences to highlight between them. For instance, the 7200.11 has a mean time between failure (MTBF) rating of 750,000 hours while the ES.2 boasts a superior and more server-oriented MTBF of 1.2 million hours. Essentially, this means the ES.2 should be a more reliable drive that is less likely to fail. Additionally, the ES.2 is designed with a much higher rotational vibration tolerance than the 7200.11, which is necessary for the ES.2 to maintain optimal performance when it is next to a bunch of other drives in large storage arrays in server racks.Seagate is very proud of the Barracuda ES.2 line, so we thought we'd share the company's own thoughts about the drives:

The Barracuda ES.2 drive is the perfect solution for high-capacity enterprise storage applications such as the migration of mission-critical transactional data, from tier 1 to tier 2 (nearline) storage, where dollars/GB and GB/watt are a primary concern. With energy-saving PowerTrim features, superior rotational vibration tolerance and a choice of SATA or SAS interfaces, the Barracuda ES.2 drive provides world-leading technology and value.To see just how well the 1TB Barracuda ES.2 drive performs, we will be comparing it to several other 7,200 RPM large capacity drives and one 10,000 RPM drive. Before we get to that though, let's take a look at the 1TB Barracuda ES.2's specifications and features.