1004 final is not the same as 1004 beta. I have confirmed 1004 final also includes version 4.81 of the NVRAID bios, which I think what is needed to resolve Maxtor issues. (hopefully it fixes my DiamondMax 9s)
I installed it and no problems so far with my Maxtors. I'm gonna try to get my machine to lock up now. I'll report back...