40GB Roundup Vol 1 - Page 6

Conclusion

The 40GB disk category was very interesting since most of our tests showed a very good performance. The real question here is who is the definantly winner. We cannot answer directly to that question but both the IBM 60GXP and Maxtor's 740DX seems the most balanced drives in this roundup. Both drives have the lowest access time, the lowest working temperature, the lowest working time at the IPEAK test results and a very good behaviour in the linear recording/writing tests. The IBM 60GXP drive did produced outliers at the end of the test (1166), while Maxtor's 740DX didn't. Also note that Maxtor's 740DX is the only model at this roundup that supports the new ATA133 interface!

The Western Digital WD400BB had the higher working temperature, very good IPEAK test results, good access time (12.73ms) and fair reading/writing performance at the linear tests. The drive did produced outliers (64) at the end of the test.

The FujiTsu MPG3409AH-E is an interesting proposal with very high writing linear performance but not very good IPEAK test results. The access time is the third best (13.3ms) and didn't produce any outlier at the IPEAK writing service time test.

Last the Seagate Barracuda ATAIII shows its age and despite the fact that came first at the linear reading tests, has the worst access time, second higher working temperature and the worst IPEAK test results. Especially at the IPEAK writing service time test, it produced 2617 outlier which may trouble user if plans to use it for A/V use.