Seagate has started shipping the world’s first 4TB drives with 1TB platters. The company claims the four-platter approach helps reduce costs, while at the same time improving performance.

It is simple math really, higher density results in higher transfer speeds, and using fewer platters helps keep things simple and cheap. Seagate claims the drive can deliver data rates of up to 146MB/s, while consuming 35 per cent less power than the competition.

The new drive spins at 7200rpm and it features 64MB of cache. According to Maximum PC, the new drive has already been listed for as little as $190.