Samsung Electronics, the world’s top maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) who has minor presence in the market of hard disk drives (HDDs), has quietly started to ship 1TB storage solutions that use much more advanced media that any other products of the kind on the market.

Samsung’s SpinPoint F1 hard disk drives not only bring Samsung into the club of 1TB HDD suppliers, but also mark the company’s leadership in magnetic media technologies. SpinPoint F1 1TB uses just three 334GB platters, a record in both areal density as well as platter capacity. By contrast, 1TB drives from Hitachi and Seagate use five 200GB and four 250GB platters, respectively.

The SpinPoint F1 1TB hard disk drives are equipped with 7200rpm motors, 16MB or 32MB cache (depending on the model) and are designed for Serial ATA-300 interface with native command queuing. The manufacturer declares 8.9ms average read seek time and 4.17ms average latency. The new drives are equipped with a set of Samsung’s proprietary technologies that lower acoustics levels and improve performance. Besides 1TB hard drives, SpinPoint F1 family also includes 320GB, 500GB and 750GB models.

Samsung claims that thanks to only three platters versus four of five that rivals’ products feature, its SpinPoint F1 will be generally more reliable than those from Hitachi and Seagate. Still, even using perpendicular magnetic technology, creating a platter with 334GB capacity is an uneasy task and it is uncertain whether the company’s 1TB drives are economically as efficient, as those from the competitors. In longer term, however, making less platters with higher capacity is more preferrable than manufacturing more platters with lower capacities.

Samsung SpinPoint F1 drives are now shipping to the company’s customers. Suggested retail price is unclear.