|
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200 GB Hard Drive
Introduction
We all know that when it comes to hard drives, size matters. With all this advancing technology, software, and media, you need some beefy storage to contain it. Maxtor's latest hard drive is the Diamond Plus 9, a 200 gigabyte 7200 RPM hard drive. If that isn't enough for you, I don't know what is. Not only does this drive have an extreme storage capacity, but it also has speed to back it up. Boasting a high cache buffer of 8 megabytes, a 9.4 ms average seek time and the new Fluid Dynamics Bearing Motor, this is one of the best ATA drives on the market. The Fluid Dynamics Bearing Motor is a fairly new technology that Maxtor has adopted. This allows the drive to run at extremely low sound levels and increases the reliability of the drive. There are two versions of the DiamondMax Plus 9, the Parallel ATA and the Serial ATA. SATA allows speeds of 150 Mb/s, but the performance difference is questionable. The DiamondMax Plus 9 comes in 60, 80, 120, 160, and 200 GB. It is also available in 2 MB and 8 MB cache.     The box claims that older versions of Windows (95/98/ME) do not support drives over 137 GB, so Maxtor has included their Ultra ATA 133 PCI card free of charge. You supposedly need Windows XP sp1 or Windows 2000 sp3 to utilize all 200 GB, but with this card, older Windows versions can use the entire 200 GB. Now, I have gotten some feedback about the full drive size being supported under different OSes. Some people have been able to use the full 200 GB without the PCI ATA card on Windows 98 SE, and I have been able to use all 200 GB with Windows XP (not sp1). I am not sure how Maxtor came to the conclusion that you needed Windows XP sp1 or Windows 2000 sp3 to use all 200 GB, but apparently they are wrong. By just using the formatting utility found on the included CD, Some people (including me), have been able to use the entire drive space under a single partition in many different OSes that "do not support it." We are talking with Maxtor, and hopefully will have an answer soon. UPDATE Maxtor gave me this information: "The only way they users can use the entire 200 GB of a hard disk that is connected to the motherboard's ATA bus in Windows 98 and ME is if they have one of the specified Intel chipsets and are running the Intel application accelerator. Article ID # 960 in the Maxtor Knowledge base describes the specifics. This article also includes a PDF link with more information." The article can be found at HERE And the referenced PDF can be found at HERE /UPDATE          Performance Test system: AMD Athlon 1700+ DFI Lan Party KT400a 512 MB Corsair PC3500 DDR Nvidia Geforce 3 Ti200 Sound Blaster Live PCI ATA 133 ULTRA X bios ver 2.0.0050.42 To test the performance of this drive, we will be using HD Tach, PCMark 2002 and SiSoft Sandra. We will first use SiSoft Sandra to get a general idea of how the drive performs. Sandra is a synthetic benchmark to test the performance of the drive, and the results may not be applicable in real world use.   Sandra reported the drives performance at 34741 Kb/s with the ATA card and 36580 Kb/s with the onboard ATA controller. There is a significant performance drop using the PCI ATA Controller. To get a better idea of how the drive performs, we will now test it with FutureMark's PCMark 2002.
Finally, we will test the drive using HD Tach with and without the included PCI ATA 133 Ultra card. HD Tach is different from many other benchmarks out there as it bypasses the OS and directly accesses the hard drive for read and write testing. To do this, the drive must not be formatted or partitioned.
Maxtor has had a reputation for producing some very hot running drives, and I am pleased to say that this drive isn't overly hot. After the computer was on all day, being subjected to gaming, mass file transfers, and constant use, it was warm to the touch. HMonitor reported the temperature at 39*C, while my 40 GB 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda IV was at 40*C. The case temperature is at 32*C and the ambient temperature is at 30*C. Throughout all testing, the drive was extremely quiet. Now, you may ask why I didn't compare this drive to my Seagate Barracuda IV. Well, the Barracuda has been through quite a bit, and isn't at all up to its original performance. You'll just have to trust me on this one. Conclusion The DiamondMax Plus 9 has it all: Speed, size, and it is extremely quiet. With 200 GB of storage, you couldn't ask for more, and with high access speeds and 8 MB cache, you can be sure that your overall system performance will jump. The only fault I can see with this drive is if you decide to use the PCI ATA 133 Ultra card that Maxtor included with the drive, then you may lose performance from a card you might not even need. Pros Extreme storage Great speeds Included PCI ATA card Quiet Cons ATA card hampers write performance 
Related Reviews Internal Hard Drives December 4, 2008
Internal Hard Drives March 27, 2008
Add Comment
19 User Comments 1 - Posted by
Falco-r
on June 15, 2003 - 3:51 pm brian quote : " Since older versions of Windows (95/98/ME) do not support drives over 137 GB, Maxtor has included their Ultra ATA 133 PCI card free of charge. This card allows older Windows versions to utilize the entire 200 GB. " i have to comment on this.. and disagree.. i have this drive, 8 meg chache version, and i am running it on win98se with no problems using the onboard ide connecter on my Asus A7N8X deluxe, so maybe that is why it works. so you may want to adjust this abit :-) 2 - Posted by
DnD
on June 15, 2003 - 5:19 pm also watch for the motherboards that are lower then the HDs ATA...happened to my dad..he had to buy a PCI card or something like that to make it work..
3 - Posted by
ChefJoe
on June 15, 2003 - 5:28 pm Well, ATA66 and above, there's no issues with direct connectivity, just the size recognition/LBA issue. ATA33 connectors will have a pin where the ATA66 and above ones will not. Also, remember that Maxtor patented ATA133 and it's just a theoretical boost over ATA100 (which every company is able to use) - in fact, I would say Maxtor uses the ATA133 spec specifically to appear better (a la the Quad pump bus and PR rating stuff). Guys, the review fails to mention if you actually used the included card when doing the test - which could be a performance bottleneck. Also, please share with us all the settings used to run your performance tests... the picture cuts them out. One might also suggest that the CPU usage is more a function of your drivers and controller than the HD itself. How about the idle noise and heat ? Maxtor has long had a bad rap for the high operating temp and the idle noise. 4 - Posted by
DnD
on June 15, 2003 - 9:24 pm My family has been using maxtor's for awhile now and i have no problem with the idle noise don't make much of a sound nice and quiet...the heat i dunno.
5 - Posted by
Brian
on June 15, 2003 - 11:59 pm It is stated in many places (maxtor's site and the instructions on the box) that over 137 gigs will require a PCI ATA card under any OS except WinXP sp1 and Win 2000 sp3. Maybe they didn't test this on 98se, but I couldn't use all 200 gigs on plain ol' 98. Maybe some other people will comment here if they have their drives working on other OSes. It could be your motherboard, but I have no idea because I dont have your mobo or Win 98 se. Thanks for the info though, and I will look into it.
6 - Posted by
DnD
on June 16, 2003 - 12:08 am Windows 98 SE?
7 - Posted by
ELiTE KiLLaH
on June 16, 2003 - 12:48 am second edition i had to use maxtors utilitiy to format a 160gb i got myself to make sure it used the entire capacity of the drive otherwise it would just be recognized as like 127gb and could only format that amount winxp no updates btw 8 - Posted by
Falco-r
on June 16, 2003 - 6:29 pm brian... most of the time and in most places.. when people list 95/98/me they include 98se with the 98 part of that list as all 98se really is compared to 98 is a bug fix, and a few extras ( aka the built in NAT ) before i bought my hdd, i asked around of i would have any problems with windows dealing with a 200 gig drive, and eveyone i taked to said that as long as the bios can deal with it, i should have no problems, wether that is because i'm running 98se or not i have no idea, if u find anything out on this.. let me know :-) ELiTE KiLLaH i used fdisk to partition and the format command to setup my 200 gig with no problems, u prob just have the older version of fdisk/format that doesn't know how to deal with a hdd that is over 137 gigs :-) 9 - Posted by
Brian
on June 18, 2003 - 12:17 am Sorry I haven't replied or edited the review, I have been extremely busy lately. Please give me some time and patience and please post any feedback and I will work on it. Just to quickly answer some questions, the drive isn't hot hot, it is warm to the touch, and no hotter than most drives I have ever used. As for noise, I cannot hear it at all unless all my computer fans are off, and my ear is right on the drive. As for compatibility with OSes, I will contact Maxtor and see what they say and how they came to their decisions. I can't remember if this has been stated yet (too busy to check), but the drive was tested WITH the PCI card. I will test without the card and post results. Just give me some time, and I will update the review. As I said before, thanks for the feedback, positive or negative, and please keep it coming. Another thing, this was brought up at Anandtech: Some people took our con of "goofy guy on box" way too seriously. We found nothing bad with the drive, and the con was a joke. If you read our reviews, you will notice that we like to have fun and entertain you instead of always boring you with bland mumbo jumbo. We take no points off for the joke cons we do, and if you can't figure these things out, you definitely lack a sense of humor, and maybe you should take the stick out of your ass. I'm sorry, but we try very hard to do a good job and have fun too. If you do not appreciate how hard we try to make you happy, then please, please don't visit this site. 10 - Posted by
Kurtis
on June 18, 2003 - 12:23 am Yes... if you don't like the site then either leave feedback on how we can improve it, or just don't go to it. We work extremely hard to keep the reviews coming every couple of days, and to make the reviews actually enjoyable to read as well as informative. Anyways... What I am trying to say is... if you can't tell we aren't corporate assholes and actually have a sense of humor from our logo that says "We Review Stuff" then... bah whatever.
11 - Posted by
DnD
on June 18, 2003 - 4:01 am you could serve frys...
12 - Posted by
Kurtis
on June 18, 2003 - 10:32 am serve fries???? huh? :?
13 - Posted by
Brian
on June 18, 2003 - 3:51 pm Just a quick update: I have spent most of today testing the hard drive further and revising the review. I tested the drive with Sandra, PCMark 2002 and HDTach with and without the PCI ATA card. I also inluded more information about the sound and heat. I have to be at work shortly, but I will post the revised review tonight around midnight central time. 14 - Posted by
Brian
on June 19, 2003 - 2:45 am We have posted the revised review. Same link. Hopefully this is better :-) 15 - Posted by
ChefJoe
on June 19, 2003 - 8:19 am Just to clarify, the tests were done with the drive isolated on its channel (one drive attached to the cable) ? Also, what version of the ATA controller card bios and driver was used - they sometimes update drivers and get better performance. Lastly, any idea why PCMark is showing the drive being able to write uncached files faster than cached files ? That seems somewhat backwards. Thanks for looking into these questions. 16 - Posted by
Brian
on June 19, 2003 - 12:39 pm Yes xbios ver 2.0.0050.42 That could be backwards... 17 - Posted by
Brian
on June 19, 2003 - 12:47 pm That's why you don't do graphs at 2 in the morning after working your ass off for 6 hours straight... Thanks for noticing my mistake! 18 - Posted by
RodentOfUnusualSize
on June 22, 2003 - 11:48 am These drives are all very good within Windows, but what about any flavour of DOS? Specifically from the A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 mobo... My own story... It's definitive for my A7N8X2.0 Deluxe, Barton2500+(11x166), 512MB OCZ PC3200(2,3,3,7) Dual DDR; with SATA, 1394, nVidiaLAN, COM2, GamePort, USB disabled. I get xfers of 1100MB-1320MB/min from within WINDOWS XPPro or W98se with PQDI6 or Ghost7. I get xfers of 180-205MB/min from any combination of the following with PQDI6 or Ghost7: - BIOS 1003, 1004, 1005, 1005r2 - WME/W98se MSDOS 8.1/8.0 FD, Caldera DR DOS (7.03? w/PQDI) - WME/W98se MSDOS window (usually locked up), restart to command prompt, or selected command prompt at startup - rebooting from PQDI6 within Windows (any) to Caldera DR DOS (7.03?) - with/out pqdi /ide=on - to/from any combination of two Maxtor 120GB DiamondMax Plus 9 (6Y120L0) or a Maxtor 80GB DiamondMax Plus 9 (6Y080L0) to any or simply to themselves - the HDDs jumpered master/slave, jumpered cable select or combinations - on a single channel or across both channels - tinkering in the BIOS, disabling L2, slowing the Barton2500 to 1100, disabling the other IDE controller (SATA has always been disabled), etc, and so forth. Nothing seems to change anything positively. I have yet to determine if this is a READ problem or a WRITE problem. I need to dig up a smaller or ATA100 drive to test this. Luckily I pre-installed a dual boot for just such situations. I backup the W98se C partition to partition across the drives from within WXPPro, then reboot to W98se and copy the rest of the partitions from one drive to the other. This method takes a grand total of 25 minutes, including reboot to copy 35GB of data. A wee bit better than the 6+ hours from DOS! PowerQuest has helped all they can with DriveImage. Maxtor has apparently elevated my problem to an Engineer. I haven't yet heard anything from Asus. Annnnd... can anyone get Maxtor's powermax406.exe to work? The resulting FD boots, loads powermax (I can load it from W98se, or WME DOS too) but after two F8, it drops back to the A:> prompt. Anyone? Is there a hacked BIOS for the A7N8X-DX2.0 available anywhere? There MUST be a PCI IDE Busmaster setting for DOS hiding in there. 19 - Posted by
Guest
on May 9, 2004 - 7:43 am looks like maxtor fixed the ATA card problem with a driver update, http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/...
Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
Recent Articles Editorials August 27, 2009
Editorials August 18, 2009
Editorials March 3, 2009
Editorials February 12, 2009
Recent News VICE Nov. 20, 2009 - 7:17 pm
Wired Nov. 20, 2009 - 7:07 pm
Engadget Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:58 pm
Telegraph.co.uk Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:48 pm
BBC Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:38 pm
Destructoid Nov. 18, 2009 - 11:55 pm
Wired Nov. 16, 2009 - 11:56 pm
Ultimate Typing Championship Nov. 16, 2009 - 11:42 pm
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
