At the rotation speed of 5.400 rpm, the Maxtor drive should stay cool in most situations. Temperature is probably the main reason why the DiamondMax series is not running at the 7.200 rpm that Maxtor planned to use for its largest drive. With its four platters, 7.200 rpm would have made the drive significantly hotter.

The 98196H8 is also one of the quietest hard drives around. Lying on the table, the drive noticably whistled. After installing it into a computer case, the noise disappeared almost entirely. Vibrations are also no issue with this product; the drive runs very smoothly.