Introduction
Irrespective of Serial ATA, another big issue involves putting established rivals into place. High capacities continue to be in great demand and are particularly good for boosting image. With up to 200 GB, Maxtor draws up to the same level as Western Digital and leaves IBM's DeskStar 180 GXP trailing behind.
The next item on the checklist is the performance of the drive, in which the data transfer rate and the access time each play a key role, both of which depend directly or indirectly on the speed of rotation. A speed of 7,200 rpm has been regarded as pretty mundane for a few years now, and has often resulted in clearly audible operating noise. However, all the manufacturers have succeeded in lessening this nuisance considerably by using fluid dynamic bearings (FDB), such that high-performance drives are now just slightly louder than the models with a speed of only 5,400 rpm.
The hard drive cache has also assumed large dimensions. All the manufacturers now outfit their top models optionally or exclusively with 8 MB cache. Two versions of the DiamondMax Plus 9 are available, however, one with 2 MB and the other with 8 MB (for details, refer to the "Technical Data" section).
As such, the technical requirements for a new top seller have been defined. In one aspect, however, the Maxtor drive fails to score any points, namely because the warranty period is a mere 12 months.
