The SDRAM Buffer

The 750GB Barracuda 7200.10 comes with 16MB of buffer memory. But where's the SDRAM chip?

The empty solder points for the SDRAM chip were conspicuous on the PCB. No sign of the SDRAM chip on this side of the PCB.

It should be hidden from view on the underside of the PCB.

Breather Hole

Like all other hard drives, the 750GB Barracuda 7200.10 comes with a breather hole. In this case, it's located on the lower left end of the drive's underside.

The breather hole allows condensation inside the hard drive to escape as well as equalizes the hard drive's internal pressure with the ambient pressure.

So, please make sure you do not occlude the hole when you install the hard drive!

Jumpers And Connectors

At the end of the PCB are the jumper block, SATA interface and SATA power connector (from left to right).

Unlike Parallel ATA drives, where the jumper block is used to set the drive as a Master drive or a Slave drive, or to use Cable Select instead; the jumper block in this Serial ATA hard drive is only meant to set the SATA transfer mode.

By default, the drive is set to run at only SATA 1.5Gb/s. To have it run at SATA 3Gb/s, you need to remove the jumper.