DiamondMax Plus 45GB Hard Drive
Introduction
Last month we reviewed Maxtor’s DiamondMax 80GB hard drive. If you read the review you would have noticed that it really isn’t a drive for the performance conscious user, rather it’s best mainly as a large medium of storage.
Maxtor’s newest offering the DiamondMax Plus 45 hard drive caters to the more performance-seeking consumer. This Line-up of drives feature a 7200R.P.M spindle speed and is Ultra ATA/100 compatible. The DM Plus line of drives come in 15GB to 45 GB capacities to meet varying consumer needs.
Before we go into more detail of the drive let me give you an insight of the term Ultra ATA/100 interface. For those who are already familiar with this skip ahead and check out the specs.
Today we know that audio and video are becoming more and more predominant in our daily computer usage. Take a modern day game for example, just look at the number of video and audio files that go into making each of those. As more of these factors are implemented on a very common basis the hardware requirements become more complex as well. To ensure no break-ups occur when playing an audio/video or any other files for that matter the data transfer rates within the system has to be extremely fast. If your hard drive’s internal data rate exceeds the system’s transfer rate then obviously there’s a problem. This requires the drive to have a large buffer so that it could store data and thereafter send it to the system. However the only problem is that this results in an increase in the overall cost of the drive, and also reduces the system’s performance.
This is where the Ultra ATA/100 interface comes in. As you all know ATA/33 was the first to come followed by ATA/66 and now ATA/100. Today ATA/66 is more or less the most common interface we all use and some are now stepping into ATA/100 as well. ATA/100 is an updated version of the current ATA/66 data bus. In theory the ATA/100 interface improves on existing ATA interface specifications providing higher speed at no extra cost. Higher speed effectively means that the physical layer of the drive operates at 100MB/sec. This opens a whole new world to multimedia audio/video activities as well as file accessing capabilities. What’s so great about this interface is that it’s backward compatible with ATA/33 and ATA/66. Therefore the ATA/100 interface works even in older motherboards having former ATA protocols. It’ll detect the supporting interface of the system and step down accordingly. I.E. ATA/33 or ATA/66. However if you want to take advantage of the ATA/100 interface through these boards you’ll have to purchase an ATA/100 adapter card, which will solve the problem. You could always upgrade your system board to one that is ATA/100 compatible provided you feel the investment is worthwhile.
Well lets take a look at the specs of the drive now…
Specifications
| Seek Time (Track to track) | 1.0 ms |
| Seek Time (Average) | 8.7 ms |
| Seek Time (Maximum) | <20.0 ms |
| Average Latency | 4.17 ms |
| Rotational Speed | 7,200 RPM |
| Controller Overhead | <0.3 ms |
| Start Time (Stop to Drive Ready) | 8.5 sec |
| Data Transfer Rate: To/From Interface (UDMA/66) | Up to 100 MB/Sec |
| Data Transfer Rate: To/From Media | Up to 49.5 MB/Sec |
| Integrated Controller/Interface | Ultra ATA/100 |
| Buffer Size | 2 MB SDRAM |
| Operating Temperature | 5 C to 55 C |
| Operating Mechanical Shock | 30 Gs, 2 ms |
| Non-Operating Mechanical Shock | 250 Gs, 2 ms |
| Acoustics: Idle Mode | 3.3 bel |
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Power Requirements
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| Seek | 12.9 Watts |
| Read/Write | < 9 Watts |
| Idle | <6.6 Watts |
| Standby | <1.75 Watts |
Installation
The Installation procedure went smoothly with no hitches at all. However some of you might have trouble detecting the drive through your motherboard. So you’ll have to get an update for the BIOS from your manufactures site. The drive comes with an ATA 66/100 IDE cable, Installation Diskette. However you can go for an OEM version to save some green.
