I've recently found myself needing a bit more storage in my desktop and was about to purchase an external drive and just shuck it. My biggest concern was the possibility of getting a low power 5400 rpm drive.
After doing a bit more research, it appears that even bare drives in the 4TB barracuda line are also 5400rpm. Is this a recent change? I remember when Seagate aligned all their Barracuda offerings to 7200 rpm.
Am I mistaken with the impression that I can't get 7200 rpm 4TB drives under Barracuda? During my research, I've been made aware of the WD Black line but the price premium on those things seem a bit much.
You are not mistaken. 3TB or smaller were 7200rpm. Larger than that are 5400rpm and/or SMR. It's not until the Seagate drives 10TB or larger are once again 7200rpm.
I went with Toshiba 5TB and 6TB which are 7200rpm but have found them unreliable (they have bad sectors).