I don't know about the situation for the rest of you, but here in Sweden the Barracuda V seems to be readily availiable.

I haven't checked for about a week or so, given that, I have no idea when they 'surfaced' here, all I know is that they have.

A 80GB drive can be found at around $157 in a local shop about 20 minutes by public transportation from where I live.

Are ju sure? Barracuda V are equipped with either one or two 60Gb disks; either 60Gb or max 120Gb. Barracuda IV on the other hand comes with either one or two 40Gb discs; either 40Gb or max 80Gb. Your 80Gb version sounds like the old IV-version to me. Anyway, in which store did you found it? Im from Stockholm too you know.

------------------ edit:
I was wrong. I just found both 80Gb and 120Gb versions of Barracuda V. Great!

Yes, they have 60 GB per platter, like you said yourself, but in some models they use less 'space' per platter to make different models, otherwise there'd only be 60 and 120, not good from a sales perspective.

I suppose you found it in the same store as I did, but I'll include a link to mycom anyhow.

I got my 80GB 'Cuda V some days ago. i was really lucky with this one. I wanted to order a 'Cuda IV to replace my WD80XX (<-don't remember - just the 80GB, 2MB 7200 Version) anyways.
And since this replacement would have been done to reduce noise only I was really happy to see that the even quieter 'Cuda V was readily available for just some € more. So far i can only say *thumbs up* for this harddisk, now if I only could get rid of my old 30gig IBM harddisk... D'oh!

anyone know how well it performs against the western digital special edition 80gb hd?

hey gaminggod. i'll have that up soon if you can wait.

i'm ordering 120gb seagate 8mb version as soon as it hits the usa site. i have wd1200jb (120gb special edition) so it should be a good comparison.

i hope i can give you an enthusiastic YES! because i'm spending 200 just for that. but we'lll see

Don't forget IBM also recently released their 180GXP harddrives featuring 60gb/platter, infact IBM beat Seagate to it in terms of being readily available. the 180gb version of the IBM also has an 8mb cache. It seems to still not be as quiet as the Seagate, but it now uses FDB bearings, which should help noise as well as reliability! Looks promising!

-Ken