Benchmarks: Data Transfer Performance

For the last tests I used HD Tach 2.61 from TCD Labs, because this program gives you both read and write performance in one single graph. The alternative is ZD's Disc Inspection Test (WinBench 99), which I used for the 6 hard drive review three months ago. Unfortunately the performance graph is only a one pixel wide line, making it difficult to resize the chart to a lower resolution without losing information.

It seems as if HD Tach is not able to handle the 80 GB of the Maxtor drive, as the program hangs after klicking the start button. I hope I'll be able to add this chart shortly.

Even though the new Maxtor drive only runs at 5.400 rpm, it is still faster than all drives I have tested three months ago. Under these circumstances I think the drive did not miss its target by staying slightly below 30 MB/s.

This high data transfer speed could be achieved thanks to the high density data recording. As mentioned above, Maxtor is the second company to offer drives at 20 GB per platter.