Diamond Max 10: what do you guys think of these 16mg sata hdd

[nealh]

I need t oreplace a MAxtor HDD that died...I am going to go SATA

considering an OEM Maxtor Diamond Max 10..250 gb HDD with 16mg cache...3yr warranty

or Seagate's new 7200.8 200mg with 5yr warranty

both have NCQ and are native SATA...no bridge chips....

 

[CheesePoofs]

Get the seagate because of the 5 year warranty over the 3 year warranty of the maxtor. 16m of cache won't give you a big performance boost, so its not worth dropping two years of your warranty for it IMO.

 

[aatf510]

The Maxtor drive is considered the fastest 7,200rpm drive for now.

 

[FlirtyToad]

Check-out [=Storage Review]http://www.storagereview.com[/L] which has an excellent review of the Maxtor drive. You might also want to consider factors such as noise and heat.

 

[maluckey]

I run the DiamondMax9+ and 10 in my gaming rig. They are fast and so-so quiet. I have never had an issue with them.

If you don't use AMset for performance, they are much quieter. Maxtor stopped including the AMset software with the newer drives, but you can still find a copy on the net if a little extra access speed is your thing.

 

[Kanchi]

So which one is noisier? I'm also looking for a new HD (+pc 🙂 ). I currently have 2 Seagate Barracudas IV's in raid 0 and they seem very quiet, so I'm inclined to think Seagate might be quieter.
Also, I couldn't actualy find a review of the Maxtor Diamondmax 10 on storagereview but apparently the 16mb buffer versions are the same as the Maxline III HD's which are on the leaderboard as best desktop HD's. Then again, the 7200.8 isn't reviewed yet.

Edit: It's tested here against some other HD's including the Diamondmax 10 (it's in dutch but it has charts and even soundsamples) I guess the diamondmax is king for the moment.

 

[FlirtyToad]

We are all waiting for Storage Review site to publish review of the Seagate 7200.8 drive.

In the meantime the forums on Storage Review contain a number of threads on this topic. You might be able to draw a conclusion from these threads (not always easy mind you!).

One consensus I did see was that the Maxtor drive is faster than the Seagate, but then this was not based on any benchmarks.

 

[Kanchi]

Some more random thoughts(I probably should stop having those since they only seem to complicate matters or I end up spending way more 😛 ) :
-For less than 30? more you can get 50 GB extra with the 300 GB version of the DM.
-Add 20? to that and you can have 2 200 GB DM's = 400 GB in raid 0 (more space, probably faster but also more noise)
-Or if you have even more cash (add another 65) a WD Raptor740 (74GB) as main HD for speed (OS, games, programs) and a 200GB DM for space. According to the link the raptor is actually less noisy in idle than the DM but makes far more noise when seeking. According to the reviewer a lot of that noise comes from vibrations resonating in the case so it should be a bit more silent when using something to isolate it a bit from the case like a hd silencer. I wonder how much of a difference the rubber grommets in the antec sonata case would make. sonata specs

 

[nealh]

My main concern is relaibiltiy as I just lost a retail maxtor 160gb that was 1.5yrs old..if I buy oem the maxtor comes with a 3yr warranty...

I suspect based on prior reviews the Seagate drives will be a little slower than the Maxtor drives but quieter and less heat...

I not sure how my current maxtor 160gb 8mg cache will compare to the newer seagates ...probably similar speeds

I do not want loud but would again assume the my current maxtor 160gb will be simialr noise level to the newer maxtor 250gb....

btw thanks for the help guys

CRAP..the newer 7200.8 Seagates have alot idle noise as if the disc is constantly being accessed....and no way to disable this....ugh...I wanted these drives now I am not sure what to get

 

[crisscross]

I am not sure 5 years warranty over 3 years really matters that much.. 1 year vs 3 years is a completely different thing. I really doubt if you would even be using the drive beyond 3 years.. so just get whichever is faster.

 

[nealh]

well I still have 2 drives..an 80gb WD with 3yr warranty that I use as a boot disc, a 5400rpm maxtor with a 3yr warranty used in an external enclosure..still valid....

I thin kthe funny excess access issues I was having with my intel setup where a dyding drive I think...but the noise was that of constant access and that will drive me nuts if the Seagates do that....

 

[Kanchi]

Seagates are known for reliability and silence, however since they don't seem to be so silent anymore...
5 years warranty is nice though (even if it won't get your data back), Raptors have 5 years too I believe.

Anybody have any opinion on the rubber grommets + raptor thing I mentioned in my last post?
Also how noticible would the speed difference be compared to a DM10 for loading game levels, big photoshop/3dmax files, levelediting and the likes? (maybe i should start a new post for this?)

 

[nealh]

the idle issue is supposedly..the disk check for errors/disc health...but apparently can be very annoying