About to buy Maxtor's rival to the RAPTOR!

[Terminat.]

For Christmas, I'm replacing my old IBM 120GXP 120GB IDE 2MB Cache with this SATA drive:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=3624058182&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=78243

The Maxtor Diamondmax 10 with Native SATA. According to this review, it's performance is near-on-par with a Raptor 74GB:

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=diamondmax10&page=1

And it's a third of the price, with twice the storage space! Way to go Maxtor :)

[fabulouscoops]

Check that site again. The link you posted is for the 8 MB cache 7200 rpm (nothing special) Maxtor drive for 53 pounds. The drive in the review, that they compare to the raptor is a 16 MB cache which that company does not sell or is not available yet. I would guess it will be more money than its little brother. The 10,000 rpm 74GB Raptor is 99 pounds on the same site so it is less than twice as much not three times.

Here is a direct quote from the conclusion of the second link you posted.
"Our benchmarks have shown that raw performance levels of the DiamondMax 10 are not up to par with Western Digital’s Raptor, not surprising..."
While the review states that the Maxtor Diamond 10 16MB cache drive is the best 7200 rpm drive avaialble, they also say that Seagate and Western Digital will be follwing with 16MB cache drives within 2 months.

[JonasQ]

Let me preface this by saying, you won't be disappointed with the Maxtor Diamondmax 10. While the diamondmax is a great hdd, and despite the fact that it's cheaper and has higher capacity per platter, the Raptor will outperform it in nearly ever facet due to the raw increase of spindle speed. Sometimes the raptor may not outperform by amazing margins, but it is a higher performing drive. Will all this make up for the ungodly price tag, that's a personal decision. While they are both great drives, I wouldn't say that they are direct competitors.

EDIT: 16mb version of diamondmax 10 not that 8 mb shown in the ad
edit2: 300gb diamondmax is around $206 usd (newegg)...approx $.69 a gig
74gb raptor is around $177 usd (newegg)...approx $2.39 a gig

[Terminat.]

Yes I am not going for a 16MB cache one because they are hideously expensive, but there is likely little difference between 8MB and 16MB cache - like AGP4X and AGP8X: only a slight improvement.

The main things that put the Diamondmax 10 in Raptor-territory are its denser platters, native SATA interface and other new technologies.

[comfortablynumb]

Yes I am not going for a 16MB cache one because they are hideously expensive, but there is likely little difference between 8MB and 16MB cache - like AGP4X and AGP8X: only a slight improvement.

The main things that put the Diamondmax 10 in Raptor-territory are its denser platters, native SATA interface and other new technologies.

I'm not so sure that a 7200rpm 8mb cache drive is quite in "Raptor Territory",
no matter how dense the platter.......

I could be wrong of course, that happens sometimes too....

CN

[zip22]

no, i agree with you comfortablynumb. the raptor has no competition right now

[capmuffin]

no, i agree with you comfortablynumb. the raptor has no competition right now

Thats why the price is so high

[@crilicM@n]

So many months and we don´t have a competitor for him...A good sata 10k with a beter price/gigabyte and fast...

[Freezermug]

The more competition the better. Maybe if people rethink getting a rapter and buying a diamondmax instead the price of the rapter will come down even more so :burn:

[comfortablynumb]

The more competition the better. Maybe if people rethink getting a rapter and buying a diamondmax instead the price of the rapter will come down even more so :burn:


I have two raptors, as much as I would like to see healthy competition
the maxtor is not a good replacement.

We don't need a cheaper drive, we need one that performs the same or better
than a raptor, If we had that the prices would automaticallly decrease.

CN

[man_utd]

scsi 15k> raptor
Hands down

[comfortablynumb]

scsi 15k> raptor
Hands down

Of course, but once again not in the same consumer segment as the raptor.

CN

[man_utd]

Your right, but then again no SATA will probably ever be 15k. You will have to buy SAS to have serial 15k

[Xenocide]

i got one of these, the 250 version, and its way faster than 2 36gig raptors in raid.

thats atleast my opinion...

i am running it in SATA 150 mode with NCQ, which only 9xx intel chipsets support right now, unless you get a pci card i believe

[dark_15]

You need the NCQ to make the hard drive faster than the raptor...

I can only imagine what a raptor would be like with NCQ...

[DanIdentity]

Yes I am not going for a 16MB cache one because they are hideously expensive, but there is likely little difference between 8MB and 16MB cache - like AGP4X and AGP8X: only a slight improvement.

The main things that put the Diamondmax 10 in Raptor-territory are its denser platters, native SATA interface and other new technologies.

There is *definitely* a difference between an 8MB and 16MB drive. AGP 4X and AGP 8X is not the same situation AT ALL.

The 16MB cache is what lets the drive compete with the Raptor in some areas. The native SATA interface doesn't improve performance by a measurable amount, if at all. And as far as NCQ, you need a controller that supports it.

[tom10167]

the raptor has no competition right now